Smart Growth
Streetsblog Basics
Why NYC Residents Should Care About the Upstate Sprawl Bomb
Peter Fleischer is the executive director of Empire State Future, a coalition of 39 business, civic, and environmental organizations advocating for smart growth across New York state.
June 4, 2010
How Portland Sold Its Banks on Walkable Development
Gresham, Oregon used to look like your typical suburb. Lots of lawns and lots of parking. When Portland's MAX light-rail line expanded to Gresham, developers saw an opportunity to bring something different: walkable development. But a downturn in the local real estate market interceded. One developer trying to build a four-story condo project decided that he'd be better off with a video store surrounded by surface parking.
May 25, 2010
Campaigns for Smart Growth and Complete Streets Heat Up in Albany
The campaign to rein in sprawl and build more livable communities across New York state intensified yesterday, as advocates redoubled their efforts to pass two critical pieces of legislation in Albany. Groups working to advance complete streets legislation, including AARP and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, and those pushing for statewide smart growth policies, such as Empire State Future, announced they will be teaming up to pass both bills.
May 11, 2010
Signs of Street Life in Sprawlanta?
I lived in Athens, Georgia, for seven years, and though Atlanta is only about an hour away (by car, of course), with a little effort I could probably count the number of times I made the trip. This video, the first in the American Makeover web series, goes a long way toward explaining why "Sprawlanta" -- all 8,378 square miles of it -- is no place for anyone interested in a walkable environment.
May 10, 2010
The Next New York: How NYC Can Grow as a Walkable City
In the last eight years, Amanda Burden's Department of City Planning has rezoned 20 percent of New York along relatively transit-oriented lines, while simultaneously promoting quasi-suburban projects at prominent sites and maintaining parking minimums that erode the pedestrian environment. In other words, the planning department is promoting growth in the right places, but enabling the wrong kind of development.
So in the next four years, will New York's planners adopt more sustainable practices or continue the status quo?
February 22, 2010
The Next New York: How the Planning Department Sabotages Sustainability
This is the second installment in a three-part series on the
reshaping of New York City and its consequences for sustainability and
livable streets. Read the first part here.
February 19, 2010
Shaping the Next New York: The Promise of Bloomberg’s Rezonings
This is the first installment in a three-part series on the reshaping of New York City and its consequences for sustainability and livable streets.
February 18, 2010
Smart Growth Leader Tells Planning Commission: NYC Can Do Better
New York may be the most transit-rich city in the nation, but that doesn't mean big changes to the city's planning policies aren't necessary. That's the message Jeff Speck, a leader of the New Urbanist movement and co-author of the newly released Smart Growth Manual, delivered yesterday to the City Planning Commission.
January 5, 2010
A Message from Copenhagen: Climate Plan Must Include Walkable Urbanism
At a panel discussion yesterday at the Copenhagen climate summit, American policymakers and transit experts delivered a clear message: Walkable urban development must be part of any effective plan to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Thanks to the magic of live webcasts, I can relay a few highlights for Streetsblog readers.
December 9, 2009
TOD Stalls as Lenders Continue to Bank on Parking
Elana linked to this story out of Salt Lake City in the Capitol Hill headline stack this morning, and it's worth everyone's full attention. Derek Jensen reports on what may be the biggest impediment to urbanism of them all: The widespread bias of banks against walkable development.
October 16, 2009