Cities: June 2008 Archives
Tom Monaghan Ave Maria Development - Portfolio.com
Tom Monaghan's dream of a Catholic town in southwest Florida is endangered by the collapse of the housing market. (Via Crunchy Con.)
Measuring Urban Development Intensity
How might a New Urbanist Smart Code be applied to Tulsa? Heloisa Ceccato Mendes's project for her Master's Degree in Architectural Urban Studies at OU-Tulsa, in which she analyzes Tulsa's density, zoning, and land use using the New Urbanist concept of the transect -- the graduated range of land use from urban to rural. Lots of maps and illustrations.
Business | West Texas: `Geographical Center Of Nowhere' | Seattle Times Newspaper
Rule, Old Glory, Knox City, Swenson, Jayton: "It lies north of Interstate 20 within a triangle connecting Wichita Falls, Abilene and Lubbock. Fewer than 25,000 people live in this phantom state within a state, many on small farms and larger ranches where the earth yields few crops and a relative trickle of Texas crude oil. There are no tourist attractions, no daily newspapers, no TV stations. Jobs are scarce, health care is erratic, the population is aging and declining."
Bacteria that eat waste and poop petroleum « the good city
"The best byproduct of high fuel prices has been the opportunity to discuss issues like New Urbanism, sprawl and our nation's exclusively automotive transportation network. But what if oil supplies suddenly blossom? If peak oil is a myth, or if it can be averted, will our hopes for renewed cities be in vain? I hope not. Although it seems some New Urbanists are almost happy that oil prices have gone through the roof, we should not place all of our bets on that happening. Our arguments in favor of true, good cities should be able to exist even with dollar-a-gallon gas."
Is America's suburban dream collapsing into a nightmare? - CNN.com
"[Arthur C. Nelson, director of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute,] estimates that in 2025 there will be a surplus of 22 million large-lot homes that will not be left vacant in a suburban wasteland but instead occupied by lower classes who have been driven out of their once affordable inner-city apartments and houses. The so-called McMansion, he said, will become the new multi-family home for the poor."
City Comforts, the blog: What am I missing about New Urbanism's Transect?
I find it puzzling, too, but some comments to this entry are helpful. (And one commenter, Sandy Sortien, proposes two additions to David Sucher's Three Rules for generating urban streets: Minimal breaks in a block face and at least two stories.)
Pruned: Hyperlocalizing Hydrology in the Post-Industrial Urban Landscape
Cool idea: Using curb extensions and landscaped patches to absorb and filter stormwater runoff before it gets to the sewers. Lots of diagrams and photos. (Via City Comforts.)
Field of Schemes: StL stadium chief: Replace dome, or lose Rams
Pro sports extortion never ends: "[S]o-called 'state-of-the-art' clauses in stadium deals are a nightmare for cities, and a boon to team owners. The only thing the people of St. Louis are getting in exchange for their $36 million a year (plus $30 million in renovations currently underway) is the presence of a football team for 30 years - thanks to that well-placed clause, though, they're now facing another round of stadium blackmail when the paint is barely dry from the first one." The Cincinnati Bengals lease requires installation of "any new technologies in use by 14 other NFL teams, up to and including 'holographic replay systems.'"
Crunchy Con - "Real England" and reactionary radicals
The elitism of crunchy conservatism isn't all bad: "For example, elitist tastes in coffee and beer in the US taught the masses that there is a such thing as better coffee and better beer -- and now it's easier to find both." Perhaps the same will be true for better urban design.
