I’m visiting an old college room mate this week. I’ve been close to him and his family for many years. While I’m in the area I decided to poke around to see how various towns have fared over the years. I stopped by his late grandmother’s house in Pennsauken yesterday. Back in 1952 the white … Continue reading Pennsauken’s Crescent Boulevard
The town of Voorhees, New Jersey had a problem. The residential subdivisions and office parks of this middle class post World War II suburb managed to do pretty well. But the Voorhees Mall limped along and entered a death spiral. As neighboring municipalities engaged in an arms race for sales tax revenue Voorhees found itself … Continue reading Sprawl Repair: Voorhees Town Center
Buses exist in every nook and cranny of the country, but whether any particular bus is embraced or rejected by the local culture has a lot to do with who’s riding that bus – and who isn’t. School buses are the most ubiquitous and least controversial. The only people who ever ride a school bus … Continue reading Good Bus, Bad Bus, Slow Bus, No Bus
I was in Atlanta earlier this month to attend a conference for small scale developers. The focus was on the “missing middle” which has long been neglected by production builders, bankers, and regulators. I should start with some basic definitions. We’re all familiar with suburban subdivisions. A well established home builder will buy a large … Continue reading Atlanta: Small Scale Developers Boot Camp
I’m in Massachusetts for a couple of weeks visiting some old haunts from my misspent youth. I lived on Cape Cod back in the 1980’s and I haven’t been back for years. The place hasn’t changed much. It’s as beautiful as always. I thought it would be instructive to dissect a traditional town by examining … Continue reading “Modern Codes and Zoning Could Save This Town”
This is Jessie. She’s a well educated thirty year old professional with a good income. She could live anywhere she wants. She was offered excellent positions with good companies in San Francisco. While she was excited by the opportunity to live in a top tier coastal city she was smart enough to actually run the … Continue reading Jessie: Over-The-Rhine, Cincinnati
The vast majority of everything ever built in North America has been constructed since World War II. And almost all of it is auto-oriented suburban development. Market demand is shifting as a larger percentage of the population wants a more urban living environment. To be clear, most people – even people who want a walkable … Continue reading The Other Kind of New Urbanism
This is 85% of what’s on offer across North America. For many people – perhaps for most people – this works just fine. A comfortable four bedroom home in a safe clean subdivision in a good school district is the America Dream. But what if this isn’t what you want? What if you want something different? What … Continue reading An Archipelago of West Berlins
Granola Shotgun 