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  • Eric Fredericks 10:06 pm on August 31, 2005 Permalink | Reply  

    Algiers Point: A Walkable Community of New Orleans 

    I realize that New Orleans may never be the same again, but that will not stop me from writing about what was there and what could be again. New Orleans is such a unique city in America. It blends a touch of “old Europe” with the modernization you will find in most American cities. The charm and character of its people is unmatched. If you visit, you will have an unforgettable experience. I certainly hope they can rebuild and maintain the Nawlins identity.

    I have visited New Orleans three different times, and no, not just to party on Bourbon Street (although I admit that I have enjoyed myself there too). One of my favorite memories of New Orleans was walking through a community on the West Bank called Algiers Point (across from downtown). Sure, its neighborhoods are not the most classy I have been to, but they have great character and define the term “walkability.” The homes there are beautiful and historic: Algiers Point was established in 1719. Front porches dominate the streetscape and local markets are present in nearly every neighborhood. There are beautiful street trees, and each parcel is has its own distinctive style that makes your walk entertaining and refreshing. Here are a few photos:

    I remember the day I spent in Algiers Point very well. I was going through a difficult time in my life, but I recall that at the end of that day I felt so relaxed and at ease. The same could be said about my friends who walked with me. We all wanted to move there because it was REAL. It also helps that it is located on the Mississippi River, just across from the downtown skyline. People that live in Algiers Point can walk from their homes, board a ferry, and be right in the heart of downtown in ten minutes. That is my kind of commute! I would not go as far to say that Algiers Point is my favorite walkable community, but it certainly ranks in my top ten.

    I invite you to visit the Algiers Point Association website to learn more. Also, check out our New Orleans photo gallery to see more photos of this community and many more neighborhoods.

    Popularity: 2% [?]

     

  • Eric Fredericks 10:04 pm on August 29, 2005 Permalink | Reply  

    Hope for the South Following Hurricane Katrina 

    Our hearts go out to the people of the South who have been suffering through such horrific events the last few years, and particularly Hurricane Katrina. We can only hope that the loss of life is minimal and that the South can recover from this terrible disaster.

    Instead of focusing on the tragedies of what has happened, Walkable Neighborhoods would like to profile one of the most unique, beautiful, and walkable cities in the US and perhaps the world – New Orleans, Louisiana. I certainly do not want to minimize the importance of other cities and places that have been affected by this hurricane, however, I have not visited many other places in that region. But I have visited New Orleans three times. I want to share some of my experiences and photos of the city. While I do currently have some photos online of the most walkable places of New Orleans, there are a several more photos that I would like to add to the photo gallery this week. I would invite you to visit the gallery and check back for an article about the great city.

    Also, if you have any experiences or photos that you would like to share about some of the places affected by Hurricane Katrina, please contact us. We would also encourage you to donate any resources you have available to the American Red Cross.

    We can only hope that the South will recover and prosper following this event. And we certainly hope that some of the most historic and walkable places in the US can be rebuilt once again.

    Popularity: 1% [?]

     

  • Eric Fredericks 1:14 pm on August 27, 2005 Permalink | Reply  

    The Anti-Sit Gallery 

    This is a cool collection of images from around the world of places designed to prohibit sitting in common pedestrian areas. I especially like the photo of the spike box. I can certainly understand why some of these places are designed this way. Some are just ridiculous.

    The rest of the website looks pretty interesting, and I would invite you to check it out.

    Transfer: The Anti-Sit Archives

    Popularity: 1% [?]

     

  • Eric Fredericks 9:40 pm on August 25, 2005 Permalink | Reply  

    Obesity Numbers Out – Maine’s Are Not Good 

    Maine’s updated obesity numbers are out, and everyone in Maine probably wishes they had better numbers to print. The same can be said for just about every state in the US. The Portland Press Herald reports that Maine has the highest obesity rates in New England. The State’s top health official, Dr. Dora Anne Mills, says those figures are no surprise because of Maine’s higher poverty rate. “It’s harder for people with lower income to access healthy foods and (live in) walkable communities,” said Mills according to the recent article.

    Creating walkable communities often results in a higher cost of living. That’s a great selling point for places looking for an economic boost, but it doesn’t help to integrate lower-income households. It is possible to make walkable communities that are affordable to all incomes, but it is not easily done.

    In my estimation, walkable communities are a relatively small factor in the higher obesity rates for low-income populations. I see several bigger factors, including marketing by fast food companies, substandard nutritional value of foods (especially lower-priced foods), new technological advances that distract us from exercising, and a nationwide lack of places to be physically active without first driving. While walkable neighborhoods cannot solve all of these problems, they do certainly encourage daily incidental exercise, which is exercise that you get accidentally just by living in places where walking, bicycling, and mass transit are the logical modes of transportation. Take a walk around a very walkable community, and you are almost guaranteed to see healthier people. Walkability is certainly a contributing factor to that.

    One good thing that I can say about fast food places is that many of them are including bike racks in their developments. The McDonalds pictured above has a bike rack, and many of them I have seen recently have had racks as well (even though in many places they are not required). One McDonalds in Xenia, Ohio has a connection to a regional bike trail, including picnic benches.

    Popularity: 2% [?]

     

    • Coachtoad 10:45 am on August 26, 2005 Permalink

      The basketball program at Maine-Orono is doing really swell, though.

  • Eric Fredericks 6:42 am on August 24, 2005 Permalink | Reply  

    Reviving Downtown Reno, Nevada 

    I have visited Reno, Nevada before and I must say that it is not one of my favorite places. The area surrounding Reno is very beautiful, perhaps one of the most beautiful locations in the United States. It is located among the Sierra Nevada mountains and is very close to Lake Tahoe. But the beauty does not extend to downtown Reno, unless you like outdated casino architecture.

    Who knew that the architecture and gaudy signs and lights of the 1950s and 60s casinos would look tacky at the turn of the millennium? Certainly this has been a detriment to downtown Reno, and has resulted in the closing of many casinos. Also, it does not help that Reno has a heavy rail line running through the middle of downtown. Or that some of its downtown streets are not the most hospitable to pedestrians, and feel uncomfortable at night. But, hopefully help is on the way.

    Developers from the San Francisco Bay area are proposing to demolish the blighted former Kings Inn Casino and turn the property into a mixed-use condominium development with 99 units, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal. This is just one of the casino-to-condo conversions underway in Reno. The former Comstock Casino is another conversion that has sold all but 15 of its 125 units.

    Also, the Las Vegas Sun reports that Reno has been allocated federal transportation money to cover parts of its downtown train trench and convert it to several pedestrian plazas and an open space area. They hope this project will improve the connectivity of downtown and create a more walkable environment.

    These projects should really help Reno’s downtown turn the corner. Honestly, it is not far away from being a formidable competitor to Las Vegas, simply because it already is at a more walkable scale than the Strip on Las Vegas Boulevard. It has a connected grid street pattern downtown and block sizes that are a pedestrian scale. Pedestrian scale is unheard of in Vegas (outdoors on the Strip anyway), with its mammoth casinos dominating the scene.

    Popularity: 2% [?]

     

  • Eric Fredericks 11:26 pm on August 22, 2005 Permalink | Reply  

    Workshops and Services 

    neighborhoods.org assists communities, neighborhood and activist groups, regional and state governments, and many other groups and organizations in making their cities and towns pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly. neighborhoods.org also makes presentations at conferences, K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and other promotional events.

    Walkability Workshops

    One of the most effective ways we can assist your community is through the Walkability Workshops program. Generally, a workshop consists of a four-hour morning or afternoon session where participants will get to see the chosen neighborhood with a fresh, new perspective.

    The local group or agency hosting the workshop has an important task—getting the right people to the workshop. This may include local citizens, engineers, planners, elected officials, health officials, school officials and organizations, public safety agencies, citizens with disabilities, and many other stakeholders. neighborhoods.org will provide guidance on who to invite, based on the host’s goals for the workshop.

    The neighborhoods.org staff will empower the workshop participants with the necessary knowledge to make their neighborhoods more pedestrian-friendly. From our comprehensive graphic database, we will present images of walkable and not-so-walkable communities around the globe, including some positive examples from your region. The presentation will stress the importance of walkability and provide tools to increase your community’s economic viability and distinctive character, as well as improve residents’ health and safety and regional air quality.

    The “walkabout,” when participants actually walk (or bike, or even ride in a wheelchair) within a designated study area, is what distinguishes the neighborhoods.org workshops. Participants get an on-the-ground opportunity to recognize satisfactory and unsatisfactory conditions for cyclists and pedestrians, especially those with special needs, including children, the elderly, and persons with physical disabilities. This can be quite an eye-opening experience, as many participants will never have walked through the chosen neighborhood before and experienced the barriers that pedestrians face on a daily basis.

    After the walkabout, we encourage participants to formulate creative approaches to improving walkability in the chosen neighborhood. As a team, participants create a list of city-wide policies and programs that enhance pedestrian and bicycling safety. Participants are then asked what steps they will take to make their neighborhood or community a more livable place. This can often be the most powerful and rewarding segment of the workshop.

    neighborhoods.org will provide all of the materials and advice you will need to prepare for the workshops. Our team members draw on their extensive experience with walkable communities issues to create workshops that uniquely fit your community. We will also assist your organization’s staff after the workshops, providing additional resources and training when necessary.

    neighborhoods.org is happy to customize the length or focus of the workshop (popular topics include safe routes to school, economic development, trail development and utilization, among others). We offer rates that are highly competitive within the marketplace, but because of our busy schedule and the amount of preparation necessary, booking several months in advance is encouraged. Please (916-669-0676) if you are interested in hosting a workshop.

    Presentations

    What makes a neighborhoods.org presentation unique? First of all, our presentations are entertaining—our slide presentations focus on images, not text. Also, we challenge the audience to make a difference in their communities, starting today.

    Nearly everyone can agree that there needs to be real solutions to many of the crises our world faces: obesity, rising oil costs, air pollution, missing sense of community, safety, mobility for all persons, and many more. neighborhoods.org focuses on easily implemented approaches to achieving a higher quality of life for generations to come.

    neighborhoods.org is available to speak to nearly any group size or at any event. Rates are competitive and vary depending on travel distance and type of event. Please (916-669-0676) if you would like us to present at your function.

    Popularity: 1% [?]

     

  • Eric Fredericks 10:37 pm on August 22, 2005 Permalink | Reply  

    Planners are the Sprawl Creators 

    Not all planners are fully to blame for creating sprawl, after all, some of them are only doing their jobs – following the guidelines set by their archaic zoning code, general plan, and design guidelines (if there are any). Many planners realize what they are creating is sprawl, but because of political will, are unable to change the mindset of elected officials or citizens to get away from the “quickest, cheapest” developments. And some planners do stand up for sustainable development, and in the end, move on to more walkable places.

    Ultimately, no one person or group of people is responsible for creating something people are unhappy with in the beginning – in most cases they would lose their positions. Rather, it is generally the lack of education on the consequences of their decisions. Even people who are educated on walkablility and smart growth issues create sprawl. You might ask how do you define sprawl? Well, I define sprawl as an un-walkable place. I think this can effectively sum up what everyone in the world thinks of when they try to visualize sprawl. And keep it mind, just adding sidewalks does not make a place walkable (for more info on what defines a walkable place, visit here.) So how are these decision makers creating sprawl when they think they are actually combating sprawl? There are numerous examples. A couple of not-so-obvious examples include adding a lane of capacity on ANY roadway, and having large lots to preserve open space. I will go a little more in depth on these topics in future articles.

    But, wait. Is it not the developers who are the greatest contributors to sprawl? Planning Livable Communities writes that home builders in New Jersey say that they try to build sustainable and walkable neighborhoods, but that zoning regulations prevent it from happening, at least in a timely and cost-effective manner.

    I have somewhat mixed feelings about this. I do tend to agree with developers who argue that they are handcuffed to building a certain way. However, I think that if developers were really interested in creating quality development, that they would work with planners and other community staff members to come up with a plan that satisfies as many interests as possible. Many times developers just build their products to maximize profits, and end up creating environments with no pedestrian or bicycling connectivity. And that is the central point of smart growth when it comes down to it.

    So who is to blame for the mess we have created? Well, take a look in the mirror. We are all guilty of assisting sprawl in some way, not just urban planners.

    Popularity: 1% [?]

     

    • Mike LaMere 1:29 pm on August 26, 2005 Permalink

      Great article – I think it is time for planners to take some responsibility for the mess they enable, if not create themselves. However it could all be straightened out with my City Zoning Amulet !

  • Eric Fredericks 10:35 pm on August 22, 2005 Permalink | Reply  

    Mecca in the Cornfields? Champaign, IL Transforming into a Walkable City 

    Maybe the title is a bit drastic. Nonetheless, Champaign has undergone some significant transformations in the last few years. Champaign is a city of about 70,000 located in flat, desolate Central Illinois. The city is bordered by Urbana, home to around 40,000 people. Champaign-Urbana is also home to the University of Illinois, a Big Ten school with a student population of around 36,000. The U of I is also my alma mater.

    The truth is that Champaign-Urbana is a much different place than when I attended school there. Champaign was known as the sprawling big brother of Urbana, and had a mostly dead downtown, busy arterials, and rapid big-box construction that Urbana felt was a threat to their economic vitality. Urbana had the quaint walkable neighborhoods and downtown that gave it the “we are so much better than you” feel. And for the most part, I agreed. The stuggling university Campustown area, located in Champaign, was the location of a project that started to turn things around for the city.

    I remember when the City proposed the project that I thought it would never work. Coming from a civil engineering background, I thought that reducing the street width from four lanes to two lanes with a center-only lane would create huge traffic problems and would further kill the Campustown businesses. I did feel that the proposed streetscaping would be a welcome change, as the main street in Campustown, Green Street, was nothing but your typical run-down and somewhat dingy bar-hopping area. It certainly had its charm for college students, but businesses could not survive the student off-seasons and there was significant turnover. Certainly, a road diet, which is what this type of “street shrinking” is commonly known as, could not hurt the businesses any more than they were already hurting.

    I graduated and left the University and the area. Not long after I moved, some of my friends that stayed in Champaign-Urbana told me that I should to come back for a visit, saying that I really needed to see what they did to Campustown. So, I visited. And I barely recognized the place. Green Street was now pristine with pedestrian environment enhancing features such as countdown crosswalks (with audible crossing signals), and decorative lighting, benches, trash bins, and sidewalks. A new development had opened up as well, with many of the existing businesses remaining in the complex, but with new facades. The most striking feature of the new Campustown was the tower of new housing units placed right above the bars and restaurants. This gave a whole new scale to the street and instantly turned the street into a more urban and hip environment. In the last few years, several similar mixed-use towers have opened up on the street. One of the locations used to have a single, run-down house that was known as a hot party spot while I was in school. Now there are dozens of residential units in the tower. And the traffic? Well, certainly traffic moved more slowly through the area, but there are not major traffic backups like I thought there might be. The businesses are thriving, and from what I can tell, there has been very little turnover. Who knew that it was actually people that shop at businesses and not cars? The Campustown area does have very limited parking. It would have been nice to see some more on street parking. But this is a major problem for almost every city with a major university.

    The City of Champaign has since copied the road diet technique in its downtown, and it has become the new place to go. Several new bars, cafés, and restaurants have opened. Also, a new mixed-use tower with condos has opened up in the downtown. Now Champaign’s downtown is a more desirable hang-out place than Urbana’s downtown. It seems to me that the two cities have undergone a role reversal since I have lived there. Urbana has several new sprawl neighborhoods on the fringes of the community. And a big box store will soon open in the vicinity as well. Meanwhile, Champaign is proposing to do just the opposite. The northwest growth area plan calls for “a grid street pattern, walkable neighborhoods and a traditional town center” and many other desirable features (Thanks, Centerlines ).

    There are two interesting things about this project. One is that this project is located on the fringes of Champaign right between Interstate 57 and Interstate 74 and is highly visable from these highways. It will be interesting to see if Champaign can hold off the development pressure that typically occurs at these types of locations – gas stations, big-box retail, chain restaurants, and other uses that have large signs and even larger parking lots in front of the developments. The second interesting thing is that I actually worked on this project as a “mock” project while at the University. My class was led by Bruce Knight, Planning Director for the City of Champaign. His leadership has been a major reason why the City has undergone such a significant transformation for the better. I think the project they are proposing sounds better than the one my group proposed in his class. Of course, this is before I really knew anything about the true importance of walkable communities. Although I do recall sidewalks, trails, and open space being major themes of the development.

    The picture above is the entrance to Campustown. The picture was actually shot from Urbana.

    Popularity: 2% [?]

     

  • Eric Fredericks 10:34 pm on August 22, 2005 Permalink | Reply  

    The Five-Bedroom, Six-Figure Rootless Life 


    This is a fantastic article from the New York Times on community choices made by upper middle class executive gypsies, refered to as relos. This gives some insight to those that have never lived in “super suburbia” (like myself) on the trials and tribulations faced by those that do. The article focuses on a typical relo family in Alpharetta, Georgia, an elitist suburb of Atlanta. While this article goes beyond the realm of typical walkability issues usually discussed here, the underlying hint seems to be that the quality of life is better in walkable neighborhoods. And the story has a positive ending! Here is an exerpt:

    Kathy Link is 41 with blond-streaked pigtails and, at 5-foot-9, straight as a spear. She is still in the red sun visor and tennis whites she wore leading her fitness class at the Forum Gym and winning at doubles afterward. Tucked by her seat is her color-coded itinerary.

    Kaleigh, 8, is red. With school over this afternoon in late August, she has already been dropped off at her soccer practice blocks from home. Kristina, 11, is dark green, and Kelsey, 13, is yellow. Kristina must get to her soccer practice four miles to the north, and Kelsey to her practice 14 miles to the south.

    Ms. Link (blue for work, light green for family and volunteering) surveys the clotted intersection at the mouth of her 636-house Medlock Bridge subdivision. After moving here four years ago and choking on traffic, she made a rule: “Wherever I’m going has to be within one mile of the house,” she said. But she breaks the rule two or three times a day, driving 10 and 15 times the one-mile distance.

    Click here for the full article (subscription required – visit BugMeNot for assistance).

    Popularity: 1% [?]

     

  • Eric Fredericks 10:34 pm on August 22, 2005 Permalink | Reply  

    Is Less Better? Removing the Signs, Lines, Stoplights from Streets 

    Revolutionary traffic engineering out of Europe (where else!) as reported by The Christian Science Monitor :

    The idea of “shared space” is to denude a street of most of its conventional markings and features and create a different urban landscape in which motorists and pedestrians are put on an equal footing, so to speak. Drivers start to behave in a very different way amid the new uncertainty, moving slowly, making eye contact with pedestrians, and becoming aware of much more than whether the lights have gone red. Or so the theory goes.

    I think something like this could potentially work in the US, as long as the street and surrounding environment looks like a pedestrian/slow speed zone. In fact, I believe they have used this concept at the City Circle in downtown Indianapolis. If you happen to be passing through there, you should check it out.

    Popularity: 1% [?]

     

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