December 2011
8 posts
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Urbanizing the Suburban Street →
From the always-good The Atlantic Cities, a story about Montgomery County, MD turning suburban arterial streets into “complete” streets that cater to pedestrians and bicycles as well.
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Buffalo, Then and Now →
A great look at how a series of misguided decisions and policies can totally destroy an urban fabric. I’m not surprised that the vibrant areas today most closely resemble their 1902 counterparts. And the most desolate areas are the ones with the modern office blocks and seas of parking.
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Pervious Pavement and Street Width in Portland
I was visiting some friends in Portland when I happened upon some unique paving. Instead of the street consisting of one solid slab of asphalt, the asphalt was limited to the narrow travel lane. The parking lanes were paved with brick-colored pavers. After I returned home, I did some research and found that this was a City of Portland, OR pilot project to test a couple of pervious paving...
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“For a concert hall, Los Angeles requires, at a minimum, 50 times more parking...”
– Donald Shoup, The High Cost of Free Parking
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The Texture of Streets
In a recent post over at New World Economics, Nathan Lewis posted a series of photos of great urban streets (see one below) and asked: “Does the place you live/work/shop look as good as this? Why not?” He’s making the obvious point that most people don’t interact with spaces like this on a daily basis, at least not in the United States. There are many reasons for this; Lewis looks at the economics...
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For luxury cars, a parking space with a view →
The New York Times did this piece on the world’s most expensive parking spaces, located up a car elevator adjacent to the owner’s condo. These units, on 11th Ave. in New York, go for $7 million, and the real estate dedicated to the car is valued at $800,000. The real estate agent notes that the parking spaces aren’t the primary selling point, but they do help differentiate the...