http://joe-urban.com 612-251-4662 3913 29th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406 Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1235 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 14:39:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1232 this 2011 article in Urban Land, so I was pleased with this in-depth look at grocers at CNU 20. Despite an urban setting, parking is typically still critical. Sometimes the parking is underground, like at Ralphs in downtown Los Angeles. Sometimes it is at grade but the store is elevated to the second story, and sometimes parking is even on the roof. Rarely is parking less than five spaces per thousand square feet except in very dense urban areas. However, David Taulbee, Architectural Manager of Publix, notes that parking at many of their urban stores is full only at peak times, so that sacred parking ratio of five per thousand is called to question, particularly if the store has other parking options nearby like shared, on-street or bicycle parking. Uses can mix, but Neal Payton, Principal at Torti Gallas, cautions against a wide range of issues. For one, grocers are very special retailers with unique needs. Not only is sufficient parking important, but so is truck access, with several deliveries each day. As well, each major grocer has its own store layout that affects column spacing. Because column spacing does not always match the spacing of residential space above, creativity is required. In the CityVista project in Washington, DC, for example, this problem is avoided by placing the residential tower above liner retail instead of the ground floor Safeway store. One key issue addressed is just how many households are required to support a store and within what proximity? David Taulbee was coy about how many households Publix requires to build a new store, but noted that it varied by many factors, including density, access and existing competition. The bottom line for CNU members is the additional value a full-service grocer can provide an urban neighborhood. John Given, Principal of CIM Group, notes that when Ralphs opened in 2007 as part of a mixed-use project in South Park in downtown Los Angeles, it was nothing short of transformative. He noted there were thousands of new housing units in the area but no reason to walk anywhere. With an urban grocer, there now is. #cnu20 ]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 16:35:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1226 CNU20 in West Palm Beach. The rise of the Chinese middle class today is very different than the rise of the American middle class in the 1950s, and the impact on land use is immense. For one, it is sixteen stories instead of two! That is one of the many observations by Peter Calthorpe when presenting his work in China. If CNU doesn’t pay attention to China and offer part of the solution to land use decisions as the country rapidly urbanizes, “we are asleep at the wheel,” according to Calthorpe. In truth, there are similarities and differences. America has suburbanized in a one-mile square pattern of separated land uses divided by arterials. China’s most recent version of urbanization also divides areas of their cities in to single-use superblocks divided by large roadways. The similarities largely end there, but the result is a rapidly increasing rate of automobile use, a glaring problem given the scale of urbanization and pollution there. A number of cities are using regional planning principles by Calthorpe Associates to guide land use decisions. These plans are familiar to many new urbanists, using 150-meter blocks, paired couplet roadways not exceeding four lanes, and density focused around subway stations. Plans show a granular mixing of uses, which will encourage walking. This is critical so the tens and hundreds of millions of new city dwellers do not need to drive. In fact, China is considering a national policy of capping the modal split of automobile trips at 20% (it is now at 12%). Certainly opportunities abound in China. Growth is occurring, and planning for that growth is critical to not only building better cities but minimizing their carbon footprint for the sake of the planet. My big question is what the public process is like for Calthorpe and others. I sense that charrettes, the bread and butter of new urbanists, are not necessarily part of the process. Follow CNU 20 on Twitter at #cnu20.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 22:34:35 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1224 CNU 20 (#cnu20), Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk looked back on 20 years of CNU history and ahead to the next 20. She commented on the importance of being an elite organization. That got me thinking. CNU prides itself, in my opinion, for lack of better term, on "going rogue," of germinating ideas about urbanism that are against the grain and unpopular. This is an important role. Because of CNU, Plater-Zyberk pointed out, terms like "complete streets," "live-work," "granny flat," and the very idea that design matters and community building is important are part of our everyday. So elite ideas have their place, but perhaps more critical to the movement is the grassroots, bottom up approach. The future of the movement may depend on it. I recently attended a seminar about how the tea party rose to national awareness. Far from comparing or contrasting new urbanism and the tea party, what the latter shows us is success came from a grassroots, door-to-door effort and a handle on rhetoric to get their point across. They obviously tapped in to something not being provided to Americans, and the movement grew. CNU is trying to provide something many or most Americans want - better cities and towns. It strikes me that CNU is getting some of the rhetoric right, but not the grassroots effort. Maybe "tactical urbanism" is really tapping in to that grassroots demand for something better in our cities. I see it all the time in my community, but my neighbors cannot always express it or know what to do. If CNU can better grab and focus that desire through rhetoric and a grassroots effort, some very interesting things will happen. The next few days here at CNU may provide some clues.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:20:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1197 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:34:15 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1206 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:58:24 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1199 The Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation Affordability Index that living in a location-efficent place can save households thousands of dollars per year. So what would you choose? If you are "an average American," you could buy an energy-efficient car and save ,000 over the life of that vehicle, say 10 years. That is an average of 0 per year. Or you can choose to live in an efficient location where you can literally drive less. This will save you thousands of dollars per year. Americans aren't stupid. Why neither party is actually talking about this is ridiculous. To the Obama administration's credit, a lot of behind-the-scenes cooperation is occurring between agencies to better unite transportation and housing policy. This is wonderful, but deserves more attention. But why this isn't a conservative issue I don't know - after all, it is about conserving money, right? Location efficiency works in small towns (read "Real America") just as well as urban places. Resistance to appropriate densities in order to support location efficiency is a bipartisan problem - NIMBY's don't discriminate by political party. Housing and transportation affordability need not be a divisive issue. It isn't about herding people in to cities, it is about saving American households money. I know it isn't that easy in the real world. But I can tell you I'd rather save thousands of dollars per year versus just 0, and not be as beholden to gas price increases. An increasing number of Americans are figuring this out, too, and our energy, housing and transportation policy is struggling to keep pace.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:03:23 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1189 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (as fine a midsize city newspaper you'll find anywhere) predicted a jobs/housing imbalance in the greater Milwaukee metro area. Welcome to the club! There isn't a metro area in the country that doesn't have an imbalance of jobs and housing across its various municipalities. I'm talking of course of the imbalance between affordable or workforce housing and jobs that pay affordable or workforce wages - in other words, people who are working in any number of industries, including teaching and stocking the shelves at WalMart, but cannot afford a really nice home. The reality is, this includes a large percentage of Americans - up to 30% or more. There is great demand for housing in these income levels but insufficient supply, and there are nearly always imbalances across cities. Take the Milwaukee example. According to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, suburban Milwaukee cities like Brookfield, Cedarburg, Delafield, Mequon, New Berlin and Oconomowoc have more low-and moderate-wage jobs than affordable housing. Milwaukee is not alone - this geographic disparity exists in all metro areas to some degree. It is a simple relationship between just a couple factors - as each individual city grows, it generally adds single-family homes and jobs at a faster rate than they set aside land for their "fair share" of high-density housing sites in which more affordable housing can be built. Add to that an overall lack of resources and financing for affordable housing and you get this disparity. Nowhere else have I found a more concise but thorough analysis of affordable housing need than Determining Affordable Housing Need in the Twin Cities 2011-2020, released by the Metropolitan Council. The report is short, but well researched. It looks at four basic criteria - each city's planned total additional housing for the decade, that city's existing proximity to lower-wage jobs, existing affordable housing stock, and access to transit service. In practice this means a variety of outcomes. For example, a central city or inner-ring suburb with a vast supply of older apartments doesn't need to add as many affordable units as a newer suburb with very little existing affordable product. A city with good transit service must add more housing because of the lower-income households depend on transit service to a greater degree. Finally, a "bedroom community" doesn't need to add as many housing units versus a city with a greater supply of low-wage jobs. The map on page 12 of the Met Council study shows an interesting result. Just like in Milwaukee (and no doubt many metro areas), a pattern emerges that shows newer, wealthier suburbs in general need to provide a disproportionate share of new affordable housing units. What is interesting is the fact that the two core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul must add the most. This is not because of an existing imbalance of housing per se, but rather because the two core cities have the best proximity and transit service to a greater number of low-wage jobs. Released in 2006, the Met Council's plan influenced the resulting 2008 comprehensive plans for every city in the metro area. These plans are not strictly enforceable - no city will be held accountable for the development of their "fair share" of affordable housing. But it helps the industry argue for approvals and financing for affordable housing. For two recent affordable housing market studies I completed in the suburban communities of Woodbury and Savage, I found substantial demand and very little competition. My study was bolstered by the Met Council report indicating both communities needed to create more than 2,000 affordable housing units this decade. Conversely, my studies in Minneapolis show the sheer proximity to jobs and transit results in low vacancy for affordable housing, despite substantial competition. In other words, the numbers don't lie; there is a need and some communities have a more acute need than others. Every metro area should be so lucky as to have a study like the Met Council's Affordable Housing Need analysis. What is needed, moreover, is the political will to live up to the needs analysis and the financing tools with which to do so.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:39:45 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1187 New York Times article about a pedestrian plaza in Little India in Queens will undoubtedly provoke a mixed response among urbanists and retailers across the country. Last September the city of New York blocked off a one-block stretch of 37th Road in Jackson Heights in order to create a "park" and decongest a nearby roadway. According to business along 37th, the plan has worked too well. Business is reported to be way down for those located along the affected street. Gee, I wonder why? You have one guess - that's right, because it is harder to get to these businesses, so customers are apparently shopping elsewhere. Retail 101. The model referenced for this move by the city is the success of closing Times Square to traffic. The problem is, Times Square is truly one-of-a-kind. It is such an immense draw, known around the world as a major destination, that closing the street actually helped it. The same can be said of closing the street between Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery in London - again, a one-of-a-kind place. The key is, tens of thousands of people still show up to these destinations because of their surrounding density and access via transit and sidewalk. The same realities don't apply to most downtowns, and apparently not to Little India, either. Decades ago, dozens of downtowns closed off a major retail street to traffic. Most results were disastrous, as shoppers (who, as Bob Gibbs points out "don't need to shop") either stayed home or took their business elsewhere to places that were easier to access. Few downtown pedestrian streets survive, like Pearl Street in Boulder, and it is due to a large stable nearby pedestrian population (the University of Colorado) and a concerted effort on behalf of both the public and private sector to draw customers and help them find a place to park. What bothers me most about the situation in Queens is there was no apparent plan to attract and retain customers - the city just shut off the street. That said, there apparently was an 18-month study on traffic, but still no report that an actual plan existed between the city and local businesses. Still, I have to scratch my head at how local business owners can be unaware of an 18-month study that affects their livelihood so directly. Perhaps there was communication the city and businesses, although the Times reports there wasn't much if any. Perhaps only the building owners received notification, and if I know some building owners, communication with tenants isn't always very good. Still, this wouldn't be the first time a city has made life more difficult for small business owners, although I must say, if a city action hurts your businesses, you should be able to prove it by showing your books. Furthermore, the Times doesn't report that any business has actually closed...yet. I can also see it from the residents' perspective. They want traffic calming and some more open space. But they also value their small businesses, which are often put on a pedestal without a full understanding of how blocking access can submarine already razor-thin margins. It is one thing to be a NIMBY and worry that a nearby housing development may affect your quality of life in some way, but entirely another when the street in front of your store is blocked off and the impact on your revenue is immediate and dire. Area residents don't always understand the economics of operating a small business. Good placemaking must be rooted in economic and market realities. We can only speculate that maybe the best process would have been to openly engage all stakeholders and come up with a plan that provided advertising for affected businesses, created alternative parking nearby, charged for on-street parking, created a woonerf (shared street), only shut the street down on Sundays, coupling it with an event of some kind, or found financing for more attractive bollards and street furniture. Of course, it is possible that an open, transparent process would have led to a stalemate on the issue. Then again, perhaps in this case a stalemate would have been the best action.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com 612-251-4662 3913 29th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406 Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://joe-urban.com 612-251-4662 3913 29th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406 Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1235 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 14:39:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1232 this 2011 article in Urban Land, so I was pleased with this in-depth look at grocers at CNU 20. Despite an urban setting, parking is typically still critical. Sometimes the parking is underground, like at Ralphs in downtown Los Angeles. Sometimes it is at grade but the store is elevated to the second story, and sometimes parking is even on the roof. Rarely is parking less than five spaces per thousand square feet except in very dense urban areas. However, David Taulbee, Architectural Manager of Publix, notes that parking at many of their urban stores is full only at peak times, so that sacred parking ratio of five per thousand is called to question, particularly if the store has other parking options nearby like shared, on-street or bicycle parking. Uses can mix, but Neal Payton, Principal at Torti Gallas, cautions against a wide range of issues. For one, grocers are very special retailers with unique needs. Not only is sufficient parking important, but so is truck access, with several deliveries each day. As well, each major grocer has its own store layout that affects column spacing. Because column spacing does not always match the spacing of residential space above, creativity is required. In the CityVista project in Washington, DC, for example, this problem is avoided by placing the residential tower above liner retail instead of the ground floor Safeway store. One key issue addressed is just how many households are required to support a store and within what proximity? David Taulbee was coy about how many households Publix requires to build a new store, but noted that it varied by many factors, including density, access and existing competition. The bottom line for CNU members is the additional value a full-service grocer can provide an urban neighborhood. John Given, Principal of CIM Group, notes that when Ralphs opened in 2007 as part of a mixed-use project in South Park in downtown Los Angeles, it was nothing short of transformative. He noted there were thousands of new housing units in the area but no reason to walk anywhere. With an urban grocer, there now is. #cnu20 ]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 16:35:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1226 CNU20 in West Palm Beach. The rise of the Chinese middle class today is very different than the rise of the American middle class in the 1950s, and the impact on land use is immense. For one, it is sixteen stories instead of two! That is one of the many observations by Peter Calthorpe when presenting his work in China. If CNU doesn’t pay attention to China and offer part of the solution to land use decisions as the country rapidly urbanizes, “we are asleep at the wheel,” according to Calthorpe. In truth, there are similarities and differences. America has suburbanized in a one-mile square pattern of separated land uses divided by arterials. China’s most recent version of urbanization also divides areas of their cities in to single-use superblocks divided by large roadways. The similarities largely end there, but the result is a rapidly increasing rate of automobile use, a glaring problem given the scale of urbanization and pollution there. A number of cities are using regional planning principles by Calthorpe Associates to guide land use decisions. These plans are familiar to many new urbanists, using 150-meter blocks, paired couplet roadways not exceeding four lanes, and density focused around subway stations. Plans show a granular mixing of uses, which will encourage walking. This is critical so the tens and hundreds of millions of new city dwellers do not need to drive. In fact, China is considering a national policy of capping the modal split of automobile trips at 20% (it is now at 12%). Certainly opportunities abound in China. Growth is occurring, and planning for that growth is critical to not only building better cities but minimizing their carbon footprint for the sake of the planet. My big question is what the public process is like for Calthorpe and others. I sense that charrettes, the bread and butter of new urbanists, are not necessarily part of the process. Follow CNU 20 on Twitter at #cnu20.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 22:34:35 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1224 CNU 20 (#cnu20), Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk looked back on 20 years of CNU history and ahead to the next 20. She commented on the importance of being an elite organization. That got me thinking. CNU prides itself, in my opinion, for lack of better term, on "going rogue," of germinating ideas about urbanism that are against the grain and unpopular. This is an important role. Because of CNU, Plater-Zyberk pointed out, terms like "complete streets," "live-work," "granny flat," and the very idea that design matters and community building is important are part of our everyday. So elite ideas have their place, but perhaps more critical to the movement is the grassroots, bottom up approach. The future of the movement may depend on it. I recently attended a seminar about how the tea party rose to national awareness. Far from comparing or contrasting new urbanism and the tea party, what the latter shows us is success came from a grassroots, door-to-door effort and a handle on rhetoric to get their point across. They obviously tapped in to something not being provided to Americans, and the movement grew. CNU is trying to provide something many or most Americans want - better cities and towns. It strikes me that CNU is getting some of the rhetoric right, but not the grassroots effort. Maybe "tactical urbanism" is really tapping in to that grassroots demand for something better in our cities. I see it all the time in my community, but my neighbors cannot always express it or know what to do. If CNU can better grab and focus that desire through rhetoric and a grassroots effort, some very interesting things will happen. The next few days here at CNU may provide some clues.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:20:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1197 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:34:15 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1206 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:58:24 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1199 The Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation Affordability Index that living in a location-efficent place can save households thousands of dollars per year. So what would you choose? If you are "an average American," you could buy an energy-efficient car and save ,000 over the life of that vehicle, say 10 years. That is an average of 0 per year. Or you can choose to live in an efficient location where you can literally drive less. This will save you thousands of dollars per year. Americans aren't stupid. Why neither party is actually talking about this is ridiculous. To the Obama administration's credit, a lot of behind-the-scenes cooperation is occurring between agencies to better unite transportation and housing policy. This is wonderful, but deserves more attention. But why this isn't a conservative issue I don't know - after all, it is about conserving money, right? Location efficiency works in small towns (read "Real America") just as well as urban places. Resistance to appropriate densities in order to support location efficiency is a bipartisan problem - NIMBY's don't discriminate by political party. Housing and transportation affordability need not be a divisive issue. It isn't about herding people in to cities, it is about saving American households money. I know it isn't that easy in the real world. But I can tell you I'd rather save thousands of dollars per year versus just 0, and not be as beholden to gas price increases. An increasing number of Americans are figuring this out, too, and our energy, housing and transportation policy is struggling to keep pace.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:03:23 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1189 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (as fine a midsize city newspaper you'll find anywhere) predicted a jobs/housing imbalance in the greater Milwaukee metro area. Welcome to the club! There isn't a metro area in the country that doesn't have an imbalance of jobs and housing across its various municipalities. I'm talking of course of the imbalance between affordable or workforce housing and jobs that pay affordable or workforce wages - in other words, people who are working in any number of industries, including teaching and stocking the shelves at WalMart, but cannot afford a really nice home. The reality is, this includes a large percentage of Americans - up to 30% or more. There is great demand for housing in these income levels but insufficient supply, and there are nearly always imbalances across cities. Take the Milwaukee example. According to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, suburban Milwaukee cities like Brookfield, Cedarburg, Delafield, Mequon, New Berlin and Oconomowoc have more low-and moderate-wage jobs than affordable housing. Milwaukee is not alone - this geographic disparity exists in all metro areas to some degree. It is a simple relationship between just a couple factors - as each individual city grows, it generally adds single-family homes and jobs at a faster rate than they set aside land for their "fair share" of high-density housing sites in which more affordable housing can be built. Add to that an overall lack of resources and financing for affordable housing and you get this disparity. Nowhere else have I found a more concise but thorough analysis of affordable housing need than Determining Affordable Housing Need in the Twin Cities 2011-2020, released by the Metropolitan Council. The report is short, but well researched. It looks at four basic criteria - each city's planned total additional housing for the decade, that city's existing proximity to lower-wage jobs, existing affordable housing stock, and access to transit service. In practice this means a variety of outcomes. For example, a central city or inner-ring suburb with a vast supply of older apartments doesn't need to add as many affordable units as a newer suburb with very little existing affordable product. A city with good transit service must add more housing because of the lower-income households depend on transit service to a greater degree. Finally, a "bedroom community" doesn't need to add as many housing units versus a city with a greater supply of low-wage jobs. The map on page 12 of the Met Council study shows an interesting result. Just like in Milwaukee (and no doubt many metro areas), a pattern emerges that shows newer, wealthier suburbs in general need to provide a disproportionate share of new affordable housing units. What is interesting is the fact that the two core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul must add the most. This is not because of an existing imbalance of housing per se, but rather because the two core cities have the best proximity and transit service to a greater number of low-wage jobs. Released in 2006, the Met Council's plan influenced the resulting 2008 comprehensive plans for every city in the metro area. These plans are not strictly enforceable - no city will be held accountable for the development of their "fair share" of affordable housing. But it helps the industry argue for approvals and financing for affordable housing. For two recent affordable housing market studies I completed in the suburban communities of Woodbury and Savage, I found substantial demand and very little competition. My study was bolstered by the Met Council report indicating both communities needed to create more than 2,000 affordable housing units this decade. Conversely, my studies in Minneapolis show the sheer proximity to jobs and transit results in low vacancy for affordable housing, despite substantial competition. In other words, the numbers don't lie; there is a need and some communities have a more acute need than others. Every metro area should be so lucky as to have a study like the Met Council's Affordable Housing Need analysis. What is needed, moreover, is the political will to live up to the needs analysis and the financing tools with which to do so.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:39:45 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1187 New York Times article about a pedestrian plaza in Little India in Queens will undoubtedly provoke a mixed response among urbanists and retailers across the country. Last September the city of New York blocked off a one-block stretch of 37th Road in Jackson Heights in order to create a "park" and decongest a nearby roadway. According to business along 37th, the plan has worked too well. Business is reported to be way down for those located along the affected street. Gee, I wonder why? You have one guess - that's right, because it is harder to get to these businesses, so customers are apparently shopping elsewhere. Retail 101. The model referenced for this move by the city is the success of closing Times Square to traffic. The problem is, Times Square is truly one-of-a-kind. It is such an immense draw, known around the world as a major destination, that closing the street actually helped it. The same can be said of closing the street between Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery in London - again, a one-of-a-kind place. The key is, tens of thousands of people still show up to these destinations because of their surrounding density and access via transit and sidewalk. The same realities don't apply to most downtowns, and apparently not to Little India, either. Decades ago, dozens of downtowns closed off a major retail street to traffic. Most results were disastrous, as shoppers (who, as Bob Gibbs points out "don't need to shop") either stayed home or took their business elsewhere to places that were easier to access. Few downtown pedestrian streets survive, like Pearl Street in Boulder, and it is due to a large stable nearby pedestrian population (the University of Colorado) and a concerted effort on behalf of both the public and private sector to draw customers and help them find a place to park. What bothers me most about the situation in Queens is there was no apparent plan to attract and retain customers - the city just shut off the street. That said, there apparently was an 18-month study on traffic, but still no report that an actual plan existed between the city and local businesses. Still, I have to scratch my head at how local business owners can be unaware of an 18-month study that affects their livelihood so directly. Perhaps there was communication the city and businesses, although the Times reports there wasn't much if any. Perhaps only the building owners received notification, and if I know some building owners, communication with tenants isn't always very good. Still, this wouldn't be the first time a city has made life more difficult for small business owners, although I must say, if a city action hurts your businesses, you should be able to prove it by showing your books. Furthermore, the Times doesn't report that any business has actually closed...yet. I can also see it from the residents' perspective. They want traffic calming and some more open space. But they also value their small businesses, which are often put on a pedestal without a full understanding of how blocking access can submarine already razor-thin margins. It is one thing to be a NIMBY and worry that a nearby housing development may affect your quality of life in some way, but entirely another when the street in front of your store is blocked off and the impact on your revenue is immediate and dire. Area residents don't always understand the economics of operating a small business. Good placemaking must be rooted in economic and market realities. We can only speculate that maybe the best process would have been to openly engage all stakeholders and come up with a plan that provided advertising for affected businesses, created alternative parking nearby, charged for on-street parking, created a woonerf (shared street), only shut the street down on Sundays, coupling it with an event of some kind, or found financing for more attractive bollards and street furniture. Of course, it is possible that an open, transparent process would have led to a stalemate on the issue. Then again, perhaps in this case a stalemate would have been the best action.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1235 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com 612-251-4662 3913 29th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406 Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1235 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 14:39:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1232 this 2011 article in Urban Land, so I was pleased with this in-depth look at grocers at CNU 20. Despite an urban setting, parking is typically still critical. Sometimes the parking is underground, like at Ralphs in downtown Los Angeles. Sometimes it is at grade but the store is elevated to the second story, and sometimes parking is even on the roof. Rarely is parking less than five spaces per thousand square feet except in very dense urban areas. However, David Taulbee, Architectural Manager of Publix, notes that parking at many of their urban stores is full only at peak times, so that sacred parking ratio of five per thousand is called to question, particularly if the store has other parking options nearby like shared, on-street or bicycle parking. Uses can mix, but Neal Payton, Principal at Torti Gallas, cautions against a wide range of issues. For one, grocers are very special retailers with unique needs. Not only is sufficient parking important, but so is truck access, with several deliveries each day. As well, each major grocer has its own store layout that affects column spacing. Because column spacing does not always match the spacing of residential space above, creativity is required. In the CityVista project in Washington, DC, for example, this problem is avoided by placing the residential tower above liner retail instead of the ground floor Safeway store. One key issue addressed is just how many households are required to support a store and within what proximity? David Taulbee was coy about how many households Publix requires to build a new store, but noted that it varied by many factors, including density, access and existing competition. The bottom line for CNU members is the additional value a full-service grocer can provide an urban neighborhood. John Given, Principal of CIM Group, notes that when Ralphs opened in 2007 as part of a mixed-use project in South Park in downtown Los Angeles, it was nothing short of transformative. He noted there were thousands of new housing units in the area but no reason to walk anywhere. With an urban grocer, there now is. #cnu20 ]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 16:35:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1226 CNU20 in West Palm Beach. The rise of the Chinese middle class today is very different than the rise of the American middle class in the 1950s, and the impact on land use is immense. For one, it is sixteen stories instead of two! That is one of the many observations by Peter Calthorpe when presenting his work in China. If CNU doesn’t pay attention to China and offer part of the solution to land use decisions as the country rapidly urbanizes, “we are asleep at the wheel,” according to Calthorpe. In truth, there are similarities and differences. America has suburbanized in a one-mile square pattern of separated land uses divided by arterials. China’s most recent version of urbanization also divides areas of their cities in to single-use superblocks divided by large roadways. The similarities largely end there, but the result is a rapidly increasing rate of automobile use, a glaring problem given the scale of urbanization and pollution there. A number of cities are using regional planning principles by Calthorpe Associates to guide land use decisions. These plans are familiar to many new urbanists, using 150-meter blocks, paired couplet roadways not exceeding four lanes, and density focused around subway stations. Plans show a granular mixing of uses, which will encourage walking. This is critical so the tens and hundreds of millions of new city dwellers do not need to drive. In fact, China is considering a national policy of capping the modal split of automobile trips at 20% (it is now at 12%). Certainly opportunities abound in China. Growth is occurring, and planning for that growth is critical to not only building better cities but minimizing their carbon footprint for the sake of the planet. My big question is what the public process is like for Calthorpe and others. I sense that charrettes, the bread and butter of new urbanists, are not necessarily part of the process. Follow CNU 20 on Twitter at #cnu20.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 22:34:35 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1224 CNU 20 (#cnu20), Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk looked back on 20 years of CNU history and ahead to the next 20. She commented on the importance of being an elite organization. That got me thinking. CNU prides itself, in my opinion, for lack of better term, on "going rogue," of germinating ideas about urbanism that are against the grain and unpopular. This is an important role. Because of CNU, Plater-Zyberk pointed out, terms like "complete streets," "live-work," "granny flat," and the very idea that design matters and community building is important are part of our everyday. So elite ideas have their place, but perhaps more critical to the movement is the grassroots, bottom up approach. The future of the movement may depend on it. I recently attended a seminar about how the tea party rose to national awareness. Far from comparing or contrasting new urbanism and the tea party, what the latter shows us is success came from a grassroots, door-to-door effort and a handle on rhetoric to get their point across. They obviously tapped in to something not being provided to Americans, and the movement grew. CNU is trying to provide something many or most Americans want - better cities and towns. It strikes me that CNU is getting some of the rhetoric right, but not the grassroots effort. Maybe "tactical urbanism" is really tapping in to that grassroots demand for something better in our cities. I see it all the time in my community, but my neighbors cannot always express it or know what to do. If CNU can better grab and focus that desire through rhetoric and a grassroots effort, some very interesting things will happen. The next few days here at CNU may provide some clues.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:20:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1197 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:34:15 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1206 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:58:24 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1199 The Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation Affordability Index that living in a location-efficent place can save households thousands of dollars per year. So what would you choose? If you are "an average American," you could buy an energy-efficient car and save ,000 over the life of that vehicle, say 10 years. That is an average of 0 per year. Or you can choose to live in an efficient location where you can literally drive less. This will save you thousands of dollars per year. Americans aren't stupid. Why neither party is actually talking about this is ridiculous. To the Obama administration's credit, a lot of behind-the-scenes cooperation is occurring between agencies to better unite transportation and housing policy. This is wonderful, but deserves more attention. But why this isn't a conservative issue I don't know - after all, it is about conserving money, right? Location efficiency works in small towns (read "Real America") just as well as urban places. Resistance to appropriate densities in order to support location efficiency is a bipartisan problem - NIMBY's don't discriminate by political party. Housing and transportation affordability need not be a divisive issue. It isn't about herding people in to cities, it is about saving American households money. I know it isn't that easy in the real world. But I can tell you I'd rather save thousands of dollars per year versus just 0, and not be as beholden to gas price increases. An increasing number of Americans are figuring this out, too, and our energy, housing and transportation policy is struggling to keep pace.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:03:23 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1189 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (as fine a midsize city newspaper you'll find anywhere) predicted a jobs/housing imbalance in the greater Milwaukee metro area. Welcome to the club! There isn't a metro area in the country that doesn't have an imbalance of jobs and housing across its various municipalities. I'm talking of course of the imbalance between affordable or workforce housing and jobs that pay affordable or workforce wages - in other words, people who are working in any number of industries, including teaching and stocking the shelves at WalMart, but cannot afford a really nice home. The reality is, this includes a large percentage of Americans - up to 30% or more. There is great demand for housing in these income levels but insufficient supply, and there are nearly always imbalances across cities. Take the Milwaukee example. According to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, suburban Milwaukee cities like Brookfield, Cedarburg, Delafield, Mequon, New Berlin and Oconomowoc have more low-and moderate-wage jobs than affordable housing. Milwaukee is not alone - this geographic disparity exists in all metro areas to some degree. It is a simple relationship between just a couple factors - as each individual city grows, it generally adds single-family homes and jobs at a faster rate than they set aside land for their "fair share" of high-density housing sites in which more affordable housing can be built. Add to that an overall lack of resources and financing for affordable housing and you get this disparity. Nowhere else have I found a more concise but thorough analysis of affordable housing need than Determining Affordable Housing Need in the Twin Cities 2011-2020, released by the Metropolitan Council. The report is short, but well researched. It looks at four basic criteria - each city's planned total additional housing for the decade, that city's existing proximity to lower-wage jobs, existing affordable housing stock, and access to transit service. In practice this means a variety of outcomes. For example, a central city or inner-ring suburb with a vast supply of older apartments doesn't need to add as many affordable units as a newer suburb with very little existing affordable product. A city with good transit service must add more housing because of the lower-income households depend on transit service to a greater degree. Finally, a "bedroom community" doesn't need to add as many housing units versus a city with a greater supply of low-wage jobs. The map on page 12 of the Met Council study shows an interesting result. Just like in Milwaukee (and no doubt many metro areas), a pattern emerges that shows newer, wealthier suburbs in general need to provide a disproportionate share of new affordable housing units. What is interesting is the fact that the two core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul must add the most. This is not because of an existing imbalance of housing per se, but rather because the two core cities have the best proximity and transit service to a greater number of low-wage jobs. Released in 2006, the Met Council's plan influenced the resulting 2008 comprehensive plans for every city in the metro area. These plans are not strictly enforceable - no city will be held accountable for the development of their "fair share" of affordable housing. But it helps the industry argue for approvals and financing for affordable housing. For two recent affordable housing market studies I completed in the suburban communities of Woodbury and Savage, I found substantial demand and very little competition. My study was bolstered by the Met Council report indicating both communities needed to create more than 2,000 affordable housing units this decade. Conversely, my studies in Minneapolis show the sheer proximity to jobs and transit results in low vacancy for affordable housing, despite substantial competition. In other words, the numbers don't lie; there is a need and some communities have a more acute need than others. Every metro area should be so lucky as to have a study like the Met Council's Affordable Housing Need analysis. What is needed, moreover, is the political will to live up to the needs analysis and the financing tools with which to do so.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:39:45 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1187 New York Times article about a pedestrian plaza in Little India in Queens will undoubtedly provoke a mixed response among urbanists and retailers across the country. Last September the city of New York blocked off a one-block stretch of 37th Road in Jackson Heights in order to create a "park" and decongest a nearby roadway. According to business along 37th, the plan has worked too well. Business is reported to be way down for those located along the affected street. Gee, I wonder why? You have one guess - that's right, because it is harder to get to these businesses, so customers are apparently shopping elsewhere. Retail 101. The model referenced for this move by the city is the success of closing Times Square to traffic. The problem is, Times Square is truly one-of-a-kind. It is such an immense draw, known around the world as a major destination, that closing the street actually helped it. The same can be said of closing the street between Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery in London - again, a one-of-a-kind place. The key is, tens of thousands of people still show up to these destinations because of their surrounding density and access via transit and sidewalk. The same realities don't apply to most downtowns, and apparently not to Little India, either. Decades ago, dozens of downtowns closed off a major retail street to traffic. Most results were disastrous, as shoppers (who, as Bob Gibbs points out "don't need to shop") either stayed home or took their business elsewhere to places that were easier to access. Few downtown pedestrian streets survive, like Pearl Street in Boulder, and it is due to a large stable nearby pedestrian population (the University of Colorado) and a concerted effort on behalf of both the public and private sector to draw customers and help them find a place to park. What bothers me most about the situation in Queens is there was no apparent plan to attract and retain customers - the city just shut off the street. That said, there apparently was an 18-month study on traffic, but still no report that an actual plan existed between the city and local businesses. Still, I have to scratch my head at how local business owners can be unaware of an 18-month study that affects their livelihood so directly. Perhaps there was communication the city and businesses, although the Times reports there wasn't much if any. Perhaps only the building owners received notification, and if I know some building owners, communication with tenants isn't always very good. Still, this wouldn't be the first time a city has made life more difficult for small business owners, although I must say, if a city action hurts your businesses, you should be able to prove it by showing your books. Furthermore, the Times doesn't report that any business has actually closed...yet. I can also see it from the residents' perspective. They want traffic calming and some more open space. But they also value their small businesses, which are often put on a pedestal without a full understanding of how blocking access can submarine already razor-thin margins. It is one thing to be a NIMBY and worry that a nearby housing development may affect your quality of life in some way, but entirely another when the street in front of your store is blocked off and the impact on your revenue is immediate and dire. Area residents don't always understand the economics of operating a small business. Good placemaking must be rooted in economic and market realities. We can only speculate that maybe the best process would have been to openly engage all stakeholders and come up with a plan that provided advertising for affected businesses, created alternative parking nearby, charged for on-street parking, created a woonerf (shared street), only shut the street down on Sundays, coupling it with an event of some kind, or found financing for more attractive bollards and street furniture. Of course, it is possible that an open, transparent process would have led to a stalemate on the issue. Then again, perhaps in this case a stalemate would have been the best action.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 14:39:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1232 this 2011 article in Urban Land, so I was pleased with this in-depth look at grocers at CNU 20. Despite an urban setting, parking is typically still critical. Sometimes the parking is underground, like at Ralphs in downtown Los Angeles. Sometimes it is at grade but the store is elevated to the second story, and sometimes parking is even on the roof. Rarely is parking less than five spaces per thousand square feet except in very dense urban areas. However, David Taulbee, Architectural Manager of Publix, notes that parking at many of their urban stores is full only at peak times, so that sacred parking ratio of five per thousand is called to question, particularly if the store has other parking options nearby like shared, on-street or bicycle parking. Uses can mix, but Neal Payton, Principal at Torti Gallas, cautions against a wide range of issues. For one, grocers are very special retailers with unique needs. Not only is sufficient parking important, but so is truck access, with several deliveries each day. As well, each major grocer has its own store layout that affects column spacing. Because column spacing does not always match the spacing of residential space above, creativity is required. In the CityVista project in Washington, DC, for example, this problem is avoided by placing the residential tower above liner retail instead of the ground floor Safeway store. One key issue addressed is just how many households are required to support a store and within what proximity? David Taulbee was coy about how many households Publix requires to build a new store, but noted that it varied by many factors, including density, access and existing competition. The bottom line for CNU members is the additional value a full-service grocer can provide an urban neighborhood. John Given, Principal of CIM Group, notes that when Ralphs opened in 2007 as part of a mixed-use project in South Park in downtown Los Angeles, it was nothing short of transformative. He noted there were thousands of new housing units in the area but no reason to walk anywhere. With an urban grocer, there now is. #cnu20 ]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com 612-251-4662 3913 29th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406 Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1235 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 14:39:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1232 this 2011 article in Urban Land, so I was pleased with this in-depth look at grocers at CNU 20. Despite an urban setting, parking is typically still critical. Sometimes the parking is underground, like at Ralphs in downtown Los Angeles. Sometimes it is at grade but the store is elevated to the second story, and sometimes parking is even on the roof. Rarely is parking less than five spaces per thousand square feet except in very dense urban areas. However, David Taulbee, Architectural Manager of Publix, notes that parking at many of their urban stores is full only at peak times, so that sacred parking ratio of five per thousand is called to question, particularly if the store has other parking options nearby like shared, on-street or bicycle parking. Uses can mix, but Neal Payton, Principal at Torti Gallas, cautions against a wide range of issues. For one, grocers are very special retailers with unique needs. Not only is sufficient parking important, but so is truck access, with several deliveries each day. As well, each major grocer has its own store layout that affects column spacing. Because column spacing does not always match the spacing of residential space above, creativity is required. In the CityVista project in Washington, DC, for example, this problem is avoided by placing the residential tower above liner retail instead of the ground floor Safeway store. One key issue addressed is just how many households are required to support a store and within what proximity? David Taulbee was coy about how many households Publix requires to build a new store, but noted that it varied by many factors, including density, access and existing competition. The bottom line for CNU members is the additional value a full-service grocer can provide an urban neighborhood. John Given, Principal of CIM Group, notes that when Ralphs opened in 2007 as part of a mixed-use project in South Park in downtown Los Angeles, it was nothing short of transformative. He noted there were thousands of new housing units in the area but no reason to walk anywhere. With an urban grocer, there now is. #cnu20 ]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 16:35:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1226 CNU20 in West Palm Beach. The rise of the Chinese middle class today is very different than the rise of the American middle class in the 1950s, and the impact on land use is immense. For one, it is sixteen stories instead of two! That is one of the many observations by Peter Calthorpe when presenting his work in China. If CNU doesn’t pay attention to China and offer part of the solution to land use decisions as the country rapidly urbanizes, “we are asleep at the wheel,” according to Calthorpe. In truth, there are similarities and differences. America has suburbanized in a one-mile square pattern of separated land uses divided by arterials. China’s most recent version of urbanization also divides areas of their cities in to single-use superblocks divided by large roadways. The similarities largely end there, but the result is a rapidly increasing rate of automobile use, a glaring problem given the scale of urbanization and pollution there. A number of cities are using regional planning principles by Calthorpe Associates to guide land use decisions. These plans are familiar to many new urbanists, using 150-meter blocks, paired couplet roadways not exceeding four lanes, and density focused around subway stations. Plans show a granular mixing of uses, which will encourage walking. This is critical so the tens and hundreds of millions of new city dwellers do not need to drive. In fact, China is considering a national policy of capping the modal split of automobile trips at 20% (it is now at 12%). Certainly opportunities abound in China. Growth is occurring, and planning for that growth is critical to not only building better cities but minimizing their carbon footprint for the sake of the planet. My big question is what the public process is like for Calthorpe and others. I sense that charrettes, the bread and butter of new urbanists, are not necessarily part of the process. Follow CNU 20 on Twitter at #cnu20.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 22:34:35 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1224 CNU 20 (#cnu20), Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk looked back on 20 years of CNU history and ahead to the next 20. She commented on the importance of being an elite organization. That got me thinking. CNU prides itself, in my opinion, for lack of better term, on "going rogue," of germinating ideas about urbanism that are against the grain and unpopular. This is an important role. Because of CNU, Plater-Zyberk pointed out, terms like "complete streets," "live-work," "granny flat," and the very idea that design matters and community building is important are part of our everyday. So elite ideas have their place, but perhaps more critical to the movement is the grassroots, bottom up approach. The future of the movement may depend on it. I recently attended a seminar about how the tea party rose to national awareness. Far from comparing or contrasting new urbanism and the tea party, what the latter shows us is success came from a grassroots, door-to-door effort and a handle on rhetoric to get their point across. They obviously tapped in to something not being provided to Americans, and the movement grew. CNU is trying to provide something many or most Americans want - better cities and towns. It strikes me that CNU is getting some of the rhetoric right, but not the grassroots effort. Maybe "tactical urbanism" is really tapping in to that grassroots demand for something better in our cities. I see it all the time in my community, but my neighbors cannot always express it or know what to do. If CNU can better grab and focus that desire through rhetoric and a grassroots effort, some very interesting things will happen. The next few days here at CNU may provide some clues.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:20:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1197 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:34:15 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1206 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:58:24 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1199 The Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation Affordability Index that living in a location-efficent place can save households thousands of dollars per year. So what would you choose? If you are "an average American," you could buy an energy-efficient car and save ,000 over the life of that vehicle, say 10 years. That is an average of 0 per year. Or you can choose to live in an efficient location where you can literally drive less. This will save you thousands of dollars per year. Americans aren't stupid. Why neither party is actually talking about this is ridiculous. To the Obama administration's credit, a lot of behind-the-scenes cooperation is occurring between agencies to better unite transportation and housing policy. This is wonderful, but deserves more attention. But why this isn't a conservative issue I don't know - after all, it is about conserving money, right? Location efficiency works in small towns (read "Real America") just as well as urban places. Resistance to appropriate densities in order to support location efficiency is a bipartisan problem - NIMBY's don't discriminate by political party. Housing and transportation affordability need not be a divisive issue. It isn't about herding people in to cities, it is about saving American households money. I know it isn't that easy in the real world. But I can tell you I'd rather save thousands of dollars per year versus just 0, and not be as beholden to gas price increases. An increasing number of Americans are figuring this out, too, and our energy, housing and transportation policy is struggling to keep pace.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:03:23 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1189 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (as fine a midsize city newspaper you'll find anywhere) predicted a jobs/housing imbalance in the greater Milwaukee metro area. Welcome to the club! There isn't a metro area in the country that doesn't have an imbalance of jobs and housing across its various municipalities. I'm talking of course of the imbalance between affordable or workforce housing and jobs that pay affordable or workforce wages - in other words, people who are working in any number of industries, including teaching and stocking the shelves at WalMart, but cannot afford a really nice home. The reality is, this includes a large percentage of Americans - up to 30% or more. There is great demand for housing in these income levels but insufficient supply, and there are nearly always imbalances across cities. Take the Milwaukee example. According to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, suburban Milwaukee cities like Brookfield, Cedarburg, Delafield, Mequon, New Berlin and Oconomowoc have more low-and moderate-wage jobs than affordable housing. Milwaukee is not alone - this geographic disparity exists in all metro areas to some degree. It is a simple relationship between just a couple factors - as each individual city grows, it generally adds single-family homes and jobs at a faster rate than they set aside land for their "fair share" of high-density housing sites in which more affordable housing can be built. Add to that an overall lack of resources and financing for affordable housing and you get this disparity. Nowhere else have I found a more concise but thorough analysis of affordable housing need than Determining Affordable Housing Need in the Twin Cities 2011-2020, released by the Metropolitan Council. The report is short, but well researched. It looks at four basic criteria - each city's planned total additional housing for the decade, that city's existing proximity to lower-wage jobs, existing affordable housing stock, and access to transit service. In practice this means a variety of outcomes. For example, a central city or inner-ring suburb with a vast supply of older apartments doesn't need to add as many affordable units as a newer suburb with very little existing affordable product. A city with good transit service must add more housing because of the lower-income households depend on transit service to a greater degree. Finally, a "bedroom community" doesn't need to add as many housing units versus a city with a greater supply of low-wage jobs. The map on page 12 of the Met Council study shows an interesting result. Just like in Milwaukee (and no doubt many metro areas), a pattern emerges that shows newer, wealthier suburbs in general need to provide a disproportionate share of new affordable housing units. What is interesting is the fact that the two core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul must add the most. This is not because of an existing imbalance of housing per se, but rather because the two core cities have the best proximity and transit service to a greater number of low-wage jobs. Released in 2006, the Met Council's plan influenced the resulting 2008 comprehensive plans for every city in the metro area. These plans are not strictly enforceable - no city will be held accountable for the development of their "fair share" of affordable housing. But it helps the industry argue for approvals and financing for affordable housing. For two recent affordable housing market studies I completed in the suburban communities of Woodbury and Savage, I found substantial demand and very little competition. My study was bolstered by the Met Council report indicating both communities needed to create more than 2,000 affordable housing units this decade. Conversely, my studies in Minneapolis show the sheer proximity to jobs and transit results in low vacancy for affordable housing, despite substantial competition. In other words, the numbers don't lie; there is a need and some communities have a more acute need than others. Every metro area should be so lucky as to have a study like the Met Council's Affordable Housing Need analysis. What is needed, moreover, is the political will to live up to the needs analysis and the financing tools with which to do so.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:39:45 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1187 New York Times article about a pedestrian plaza in Little India in Queens will undoubtedly provoke a mixed response among urbanists and retailers across the country. Last September the city of New York blocked off a one-block stretch of 37th Road in Jackson Heights in order to create a "park" and decongest a nearby roadway. According to business along 37th, the plan has worked too well. Business is reported to be way down for those located along the affected street. Gee, I wonder why? You have one guess - that's right, because it is harder to get to these businesses, so customers are apparently shopping elsewhere. Retail 101. The model referenced for this move by the city is the success of closing Times Square to traffic. The problem is, Times Square is truly one-of-a-kind. It is such an immense draw, known around the world as a major destination, that closing the street actually helped it. The same can be said of closing the street between Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery in London - again, a one-of-a-kind place. The key is, tens of thousands of people still show up to these destinations because of their surrounding density and access via transit and sidewalk. The same realities don't apply to most downtowns, and apparently not to Little India, either. Decades ago, dozens of downtowns closed off a major retail street to traffic. Most results were disastrous, as shoppers (who, as Bob Gibbs points out "don't need to shop") either stayed home or took their business elsewhere to places that were easier to access. Few downtown pedestrian streets survive, like Pearl Street in Boulder, and it is due to a large stable nearby pedestrian population (the University of Colorado) and a concerted effort on behalf of both the public and private sector to draw customers and help them find a place to park. What bothers me most about the situation in Queens is there was no apparent plan to attract and retain customers - the city just shut off the street. That said, there apparently was an 18-month study on traffic, but still no report that an actual plan existed between the city and local businesses. Still, I have to scratch my head at how local business owners can be unaware of an 18-month study that affects their livelihood so directly. Perhaps there was communication the city and businesses, although the Times reports there wasn't much if any. Perhaps only the building owners received notification, and if I know some building owners, communication with tenants isn't always very good. Still, this wouldn't be the first time a city has made life more difficult for small business owners, although I must say, if a city action hurts your businesses, you should be able to prove it by showing your books. Furthermore, the Times doesn't report that any business has actually closed...yet. I can also see it from the residents' perspective. They want traffic calming and some more open space. But they also value their small businesses, which are often put on a pedestal without a full understanding of how blocking access can submarine already razor-thin margins. It is one thing to be a NIMBY and worry that a nearby housing development may affect your quality of life in some way, but entirely another when the street in front of your store is blocked off and the impact on your revenue is immediate and dire. Area residents don't always understand the economics of operating a small business. Good placemaking must be rooted in economic and market realities. We can only speculate that maybe the best process would have been to openly engage all stakeholders and come up with a plan that provided advertising for affected businesses, created alternative parking nearby, charged for on-street parking, created a woonerf (shared street), only shut the street down on Sundays, coupling it with an event of some kind, or found financing for more attractive bollards and street furniture. Of course, it is possible that an open, transparent process would have led to a stalemate on the issue. Then again, perhaps in this case a stalemate would have been the best action.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 16:35:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1226 CNU20 in West Palm Beach. The rise of the Chinese middle class today is very different than the rise of the American middle class in the 1950s, and the impact on land use is immense. For one, it is sixteen stories instead of two! That is one of the many observations by Peter Calthorpe when presenting his work in China. If CNU doesn’t pay attention to China and offer part of the solution to land use decisions as the country rapidly urbanizes, “we are asleep at the wheel,” according to Calthorpe. In truth, there are similarities and differences. America has suburbanized in a one-mile square pattern of separated land uses divided by arterials. China’s most recent version of urbanization also divides areas of their cities in to single-use superblocks divided by large roadways. The similarities largely end there, but the result is a rapidly increasing rate of automobile use, a glaring problem given the scale of urbanization and pollution there. A number of cities are using regional planning principles by Calthorpe Associates to guide land use decisions. These plans are familiar to many new urbanists, using 150-meter blocks, paired couplet roadways not exceeding four lanes, and density focused around subway stations. Plans show a granular mixing of uses, which will encourage walking. This is critical so the tens and hundreds of millions of new city dwellers do not need to drive. In fact, China is considering a national policy of capping the modal split of automobile trips at 20% (it is now at 12%). Certainly opportunities abound in China. Growth is occurring, and planning for that growth is critical to not only building better cities but minimizing their carbon footprint for the sake of the planet. My big question is what the public process is like for Calthorpe and others. I sense that charrettes, the bread and butter of new urbanists, are not necessarily part of the process. Follow CNU 20 on Twitter at #cnu20.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com 612-251-4662 3913 29th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406 Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1235 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 14:39:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1232 this 2011 article in Urban Land, so I was pleased with this in-depth look at grocers at CNU 20. Despite an urban setting, parking is typically still critical. Sometimes the parking is underground, like at Ralphs in downtown Los Angeles. Sometimes it is at grade but the store is elevated to the second story, and sometimes parking is even on the roof. Rarely is parking less than five spaces per thousand square feet except in very dense urban areas. However, David Taulbee, Architectural Manager of Publix, notes that parking at many of their urban stores is full only at peak times, so that sacred parking ratio of five per thousand is called to question, particularly if the store has other parking options nearby like shared, on-street or bicycle parking. Uses can mix, but Neal Payton, Principal at Torti Gallas, cautions against a wide range of issues. For one, grocers are very special retailers with unique needs. Not only is sufficient parking important, but so is truck access, with several deliveries each day. As well, each major grocer has its own store layout that affects column spacing. Because column spacing does not always match the spacing of residential space above, creativity is required. In the CityVista project in Washington, DC, for example, this problem is avoided by placing the residential tower above liner retail instead of the ground floor Safeway store. One key issue addressed is just how many households are required to support a store and within what proximity? David Taulbee was coy about how many households Publix requires to build a new store, but noted that it varied by many factors, including density, access and existing competition. The bottom line for CNU members is the additional value a full-service grocer can provide an urban neighborhood. John Given, Principal of CIM Group, notes that when Ralphs opened in 2007 as part of a mixed-use project in South Park in downtown Los Angeles, it was nothing short of transformative. He noted there were thousands of new housing units in the area but no reason to walk anywhere. With an urban grocer, there now is. #cnu20 ]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 16:35:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1226 CNU20 in West Palm Beach. The rise of the Chinese middle class today is very different than the rise of the American middle class in the 1950s, and the impact on land use is immense. For one, it is sixteen stories instead of two! That is one of the many observations by Peter Calthorpe when presenting his work in China. If CNU doesn’t pay attention to China and offer part of the solution to land use decisions as the country rapidly urbanizes, “we are asleep at the wheel,” according to Calthorpe. In truth, there are similarities and differences. America has suburbanized in a one-mile square pattern of separated land uses divided by arterials. China’s most recent version of urbanization also divides areas of their cities in to single-use superblocks divided by large roadways. The similarities largely end there, but the result is a rapidly increasing rate of automobile use, a glaring problem given the scale of urbanization and pollution there. A number of cities are using regional planning principles by Calthorpe Associates to guide land use decisions. These plans are familiar to many new urbanists, using 150-meter blocks, paired couplet roadways not exceeding four lanes, and density focused around subway stations. Plans show a granular mixing of uses, which will encourage walking. This is critical so the tens and hundreds of millions of new city dwellers do not need to drive. In fact, China is considering a national policy of capping the modal split of automobile trips at 20% (it is now at 12%). Certainly opportunities abound in China. Growth is occurring, and planning for that growth is critical to not only building better cities but minimizing their carbon footprint for the sake of the planet. My big question is what the public process is like for Calthorpe and others. I sense that charrettes, the bread and butter of new urbanists, are not necessarily part of the process. Follow CNU 20 on Twitter at #cnu20.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 22:34:35 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1224 CNU 20 (#cnu20), Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk looked back on 20 years of CNU history and ahead to the next 20. She commented on the importance of being an elite organization. That got me thinking. CNU prides itself, in my opinion, for lack of better term, on "going rogue," of germinating ideas about urbanism that are against the grain and unpopular. This is an important role. Because of CNU, Plater-Zyberk pointed out, terms like "complete streets," "live-work," "granny flat," and the very idea that design matters and community building is important are part of our everyday. So elite ideas have their place, but perhaps more critical to the movement is the grassroots, bottom up approach. The future of the movement may depend on it. I recently attended a seminar about how the tea party rose to national awareness. Far from comparing or contrasting new urbanism and the tea party, what the latter shows us is success came from a grassroots, door-to-door effort and a handle on rhetoric to get their point across. They obviously tapped in to something not being provided to Americans, and the movement grew. CNU is trying to provide something many or most Americans want - better cities and towns. It strikes me that CNU is getting some of the rhetoric right, but not the grassroots effort. Maybe "tactical urbanism" is really tapping in to that grassroots demand for something better in our cities. I see it all the time in my community, but my neighbors cannot always express it or know what to do. If CNU can better grab and focus that desire through rhetoric and a grassroots effort, some very interesting things will happen. The next few days here at CNU may provide some clues.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:20:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1197 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:34:15 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1206 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:58:24 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1199 The Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation Affordability Index that living in a location-efficent place can save households thousands of dollars per year. So what would you choose? If you are "an average American," you could buy an energy-efficient car and save ,000 over the life of that vehicle, say 10 years. That is an average of 0 per year. Or you can choose to live in an efficient location where you can literally drive less. This will save you thousands of dollars per year. Americans aren't stupid. Why neither party is actually talking about this is ridiculous. To the Obama administration's credit, a lot of behind-the-scenes cooperation is occurring between agencies to better unite transportation and housing policy. This is wonderful, but deserves more attention. But why this isn't a conservative issue I don't know - after all, it is about conserving money, right? Location efficiency works in small towns (read "Real America") just as well as urban places. Resistance to appropriate densities in order to support location efficiency is a bipartisan problem - NIMBY's don't discriminate by political party. Housing and transportation affordability need not be a divisive issue. It isn't about herding people in to cities, it is about saving American households money. I know it isn't that easy in the real world. But I can tell you I'd rather save thousands of dollars per year versus just 0, and not be as beholden to gas price increases. An increasing number of Americans are figuring this out, too, and our energy, housing and transportation policy is struggling to keep pace.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:03:23 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1189 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (as fine a midsize city newspaper you'll find anywhere) predicted a jobs/housing imbalance in the greater Milwaukee metro area. Welcome to the club! There isn't a metro area in the country that doesn't have an imbalance of jobs and housing across its various municipalities. I'm talking of course of the imbalance between affordable or workforce housing and jobs that pay affordable or workforce wages - in other words, people who are working in any number of industries, including teaching and stocking the shelves at WalMart, but cannot afford a really nice home. The reality is, this includes a large percentage of Americans - up to 30% or more. There is great demand for housing in these income levels but insufficient supply, and there are nearly always imbalances across cities. Take the Milwaukee example. According to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, suburban Milwaukee cities like Brookfield, Cedarburg, Delafield, Mequon, New Berlin and Oconomowoc have more low-and moderate-wage jobs than affordable housing. Milwaukee is not alone - this geographic disparity exists in all metro areas to some degree. It is a simple relationship between just a couple factors - as each individual city grows, it generally adds single-family homes and jobs at a faster rate than they set aside land for their "fair share" of high-density housing sites in which more affordable housing can be built. Add to that an overall lack of resources and financing for affordable housing and you get this disparity. Nowhere else have I found a more concise but thorough analysis of affordable housing need than Determining Affordable Housing Need in the Twin Cities 2011-2020, released by the Metropolitan Council. The report is short, but well researched. It looks at four basic criteria - each city's planned total additional housing for the decade, that city's existing proximity to lower-wage jobs, existing affordable housing stock, and access to transit service. In practice this means a variety of outcomes. For example, a central city or inner-ring suburb with a vast supply of older apartments doesn't need to add as many affordable units as a newer suburb with very little existing affordable product. A city with good transit service must add more housing because of the lower-income households depend on transit service to a greater degree. Finally, a "bedroom community" doesn't need to add as many housing units versus a city with a greater supply of low-wage jobs. The map on page 12 of the Met Council study shows an interesting result. Just like in Milwaukee (and no doubt many metro areas), a pattern emerges that shows newer, wealthier suburbs in general need to provide a disproportionate share of new affordable housing units. What is interesting is the fact that the two core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul must add the most. This is not because of an existing imbalance of housing per se, but rather because the two core cities have the best proximity and transit service to a greater number of low-wage jobs. Released in 2006, the Met Council's plan influenced the resulting 2008 comprehensive plans for every city in the metro area. These plans are not strictly enforceable - no city will be held accountable for the development of their "fair share" of affordable housing. But it helps the industry argue for approvals and financing for affordable housing. For two recent affordable housing market studies I completed in the suburban communities of Woodbury and Savage, I found substantial demand and very little competition. My study was bolstered by the Met Council report indicating both communities needed to create more than 2,000 affordable housing units this decade. Conversely, my studies in Minneapolis show the sheer proximity to jobs and transit results in low vacancy for affordable housing, despite substantial competition. In other words, the numbers don't lie; there is a need and some communities have a more acute need than others. Every metro area should be so lucky as to have a study like the Met Council's Affordable Housing Need analysis. What is needed, moreover, is the political will to live up to the needs analysis and the financing tools with which to do so.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:39:45 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1187 New York Times article about a pedestrian plaza in Little India in Queens will undoubtedly provoke a mixed response among urbanists and retailers across the country. Last September the city of New York blocked off a one-block stretch of 37th Road in Jackson Heights in order to create a "park" and decongest a nearby roadway. According to business along 37th, the plan has worked too well. Business is reported to be way down for those located along the affected street. Gee, I wonder why? You have one guess - that's right, because it is harder to get to these businesses, so customers are apparently shopping elsewhere. Retail 101. The model referenced for this move by the city is the success of closing Times Square to traffic. The problem is, Times Square is truly one-of-a-kind. It is such an immense draw, known around the world as a major destination, that closing the street actually helped it. The same can be said of closing the street between Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery in London - again, a one-of-a-kind place. The key is, tens of thousands of people still show up to these destinations because of their surrounding density and access via transit and sidewalk. The same realities don't apply to most downtowns, and apparently not to Little India, either. Decades ago, dozens of downtowns closed off a major retail street to traffic. Most results were disastrous, as shoppers (who, as Bob Gibbs points out "don't need to shop") either stayed home or took their business elsewhere to places that were easier to access. Few downtown pedestrian streets survive, like Pearl Street in Boulder, and it is due to a large stable nearby pedestrian population (the University of Colorado) and a concerted effort on behalf of both the public and private sector to draw customers and help them find a place to park. What bothers me most about the situation in Queens is there was no apparent plan to attract and retain customers - the city just shut off the street. That said, there apparently was an 18-month study on traffic, but still no report that an actual plan existed between the city and local businesses. Still, I have to scratch my head at how local business owners can be unaware of an 18-month study that affects their livelihood so directly. Perhaps there was communication the city and businesses, although the Times reports there wasn't much if any. Perhaps only the building owners received notification, and if I know some building owners, communication with tenants isn't always very good. Still, this wouldn't be the first time a city has made life more difficult for small business owners, although I must say, if a city action hurts your businesses, you should be able to prove it by showing your books. Furthermore, the Times doesn't report that any business has actually closed...yet. I can also see it from the residents' perspective. They want traffic calming and some more open space. But they also value their small businesses, which are often put on a pedestal without a full understanding of how blocking access can submarine already razor-thin margins. It is one thing to be a NIMBY and worry that a nearby housing development may affect your quality of life in some way, but entirely another when the street in front of your store is blocked off and the impact on your revenue is immediate and dire. Area residents don't always understand the economics of operating a small business. Good placemaking must be rooted in economic and market realities. We can only speculate that maybe the best process would have been to openly engage all stakeholders and come up with a plan that provided advertising for affected businesses, created alternative parking nearby, charged for on-street parking, created a woonerf (shared street), only shut the street down on Sundays, coupling it with an event of some kind, or found financing for more attractive bollards and street furniture. Of course, it is possible that an open, transparent process would have led to a stalemate on the issue. Then again, perhaps in this case a stalemate would have been the best action.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 22:34:35 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1224 CNU 20 (#cnu20), Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk looked back on 20 years of CNU history and ahead to the next 20. She commented on the importance of being an elite organization. That got me thinking. CNU prides itself, in my opinion, for lack of better term, on "going rogue," of germinating ideas about urbanism that are against the grain and unpopular. This is an important role. Because of CNU, Plater-Zyberk pointed out, terms like "complete streets," "live-work," "granny flat," and the very idea that design matters and community building is important are part of our everyday. So elite ideas have their place, but perhaps more critical to the movement is the grassroots, bottom up approach. The future of the movement may depend on it. I recently attended a seminar about how the tea party rose to national awareness. Far from comparing or contrasting new urbanism and the tea party, what the latter shows us is success came from a grassroots, door-to-door effort and a handle on rhetoric to get their point across. They obviously tapped in to something not being provided to Americans, and the movement grew. CNU is trying to provide something many or most Americans want - better cities and towns. It strikes me that CNU is getting some of the rhetoric right, but not the grassroots effort. Maybe "tactical urbanism" is really tapping in to that grassroots demand for something better in our cities. I see it all the time in my community, but my neighbors cannot always express it or know what to do. If CNU can better grab and focus that desire through rhetoric and a grassroots effort, some very interesting things will happen. The next few days here at CNU may provide some clues.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com 612-251-4662 3913 29th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406 Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1235 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 14:39:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1232 this 2011 article in Urban Land, so I was pleased with this in-depth look at grocers at CNU 20. Despite an urban setting, parking is typically still critical. Sometimes the parking is underground, like at Ralphs in downtown Los Angeles. Sometimes it is at grade but the store is elevated to the second story, and sometimes parking is even on the roof. Rarely is parking less than five spaces per thousand square feet except in very dense urban areas. However, David Taulbee, Architectural Manager of Publix, notes that parking at many of their urban stores is full only at peak times, so that sacred parking ratio of five per thousand is called to question, particularly if the store has other parking options nearby like shared, on-street or bicycle parking. Uses can mix, but Neal Payton, Principal at Torti Gallas, cautions against a wide range of issues. For one, grocers are very special retailers with unique needs. Not only is sufficient parking important, but so is truck access, with several deliveries each day. As well, each major grocer has its own store layout that affects column spacing. Because column spacing does not always match the spacing of residential space above, creativity is required. In the CityVista project in Washington, DC, for example, this problem is avoided by placing the residential tower above liner retail instead of the ground floor Safeway store. One key issue addressed is just how many households are required to support a store and within what proximity? David Taulbee was coy about how many households Publix requires to build a new store, but noted that it varied by many factors, including density, access and existing competition. The bottom line for CNU members is the additional value a full-service grocer can provide an urban neighborhood. John Given, Principal of CIM Group, notes that when Ralphs opened in 2007 as part of a mixed-use project in South Park in downtown Los Angeles, it was nothing short of transformative. He noted there were thousands of new housing units in the area but no reason to walk anywhere. With an urban grocer, there now is. #cnu20 ]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 16:35:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1226 CNU20 in West Palm Beach. The rise of the Chinese middle class today is very different than the rise of the American middle class in the 1950s, and the impact on land use is immense. For one, it is sixteen stories instead of two! That is one of the many observations by Peter Calthorpe when presenting his work in China. If CNU doesn’t pay attention to China and offer part of the solution to land use decisions as the country rapidly urbanizes, “we are asleep at the wheel,” according to Calthorpe. In truth, there are similarities and differences. America has suburbanized in a one-mile square pattern of separated land uses divided by arterials. China’s most recent version of urbanization also divides areas of their cities in to single-use superblocks divided by large roadways. The similarities largely end there, but the result is a rapidly increasing rate of automobile use, a glaring problem given the scale of urbanization and pollution there. A number of cities are using regional planning principles by Calthorpe Associates to guide land use decisions. These plans are familiar to many new urbanists, using 150-meter blocks, paired couplet roadways not exceeding four lanes, and density focused around subway stations. Plans show a granular mixing of uses, which will encourage walking. This is critical so the tens and hundreds of millions of new city dwellers do not need to drive. In fact, China is considering a national policy of capping the modal split of automobile trips at 20% (it is now at 12%). Certainly opportunities abound in China. Growth is occurring, and planning for that growth is critical to not only building better cities but minimizing their carbon footprint for the sake of the planet. My big question is what the public process is like for Calthorpe and others. I sense that charrettes, the bread and butter of new urbanists, are not necessarily part of the process. Follow CNU 20 on Twitter at #cnu20.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 22:34:35 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1224 CNU 20 (#cnu20), Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk looked back on 20 years of CNU history and ahead to the next 20. She commented on the importance of being an elite organization. That got me thinking. CNU prides itself, in my opinion, for lack of better term, on "going rogue," of germinating ideas about urbanism that are against the grain and unpopular. This is an important role. Because of CNU, Plater-Zyberk pointed out, terms like "complete streets," "live-work," "granny flat," and the very idea that design matters and community building is important are part of our everyday. So elite ideas have their place, but perhaps more critical to the movement is the grassroots, bottom up approach. The future of the movement may depend on it. I recently attended a seminar about how the tea party rose to national awareness. Far from comparing or contrasting new urbanism and the tea party, what the latter shows us is success came from a grassroots, door-to-door effort and a handle on rhetoric to get their point across. They obviously tapped in to something not being provided to Americans, and the movement grew. CNU is trying to provide something many or most Americans want - better cities and towns. It strikes me that CNU is getting some of the rhetoric right, but not the grassroots effort. Maybe "tactical urbanism" is really tapping in to that grassroots demand for something better in our cities. I see it all the time in my community, but my neighbors cannot always express it or know what to do. If CNU can better grab and focus that desire through rhetoric and a grassroots effort, some very interesting things will happen. The next few days here at CNU may provide some clues.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:20:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1197 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:34:15 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1206 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:58:24 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1199 The Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation Affordability Index that living in a location-efficent place can save households thousands of dollars per year. So what would you choose? If you are "an average American," you could buy an energy-efficient car and save ,000 over the life of that vehicle, say 10 years. That is an average of 0 per year. Or you can choose to live in an efficient location where you can literally drive less. This will save you thousands of dollars per year. Americans aren't stupid. Why neither party is actually talking about this is ridiculous. To the Obama administration's credit, a lot of behind-the-scenes cooperation is occurring between agencies to better unite transportation and housing policy. This is wonderful, but deserves more attention. But why this isn't a conservative issue I don't know - after all, it is about conserving money, right? Location efficiency works in small towns (read "Real America") just as well as urban places. Resistance to appropriate densities in order to support location efficiency is a bipartisan problem - NIMBY's don't discriminate by political party. Housing and transportation affordability need not be a divisive issue. It isn't about herding people in to cities, it is about saving American households money. I know it isn't that easy in the real world. But I can tell you I'd rather save thousands of dollars per year versus just 0, and not be as beholden to gas price increases. An increasing number of Americans are figuring this out, too, and our energy, housing and transportation policy is struggling to keep pace.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:03:23 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1189 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (as fine a midsize city newspaper you'll find anywhere) predicted a jobs/housing imbalance in the greater Milwaukee metro area. Welcome to the club! There isn't a metro area in the country that doesn't have an imbalance of jobs and housing across its various municipalities. I'm talking of course of the imbalance between affordable or workforce housing and jobs that pay affordable or workforce wages - in other words, people who are working in any number of industries, including teaching and stocking the shelves at WalMart, but cannot afford a really nice home. The reality is, this includes a large percentage of Americans - up to 30% or more. There is great demand for housing in these income levels but insufficient supply, and there are nearly always imbalances across cities. Take the Milwaukee example. According to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, suburban Milwaukee cities like Brookfield, Cedarburg, Delafield, Mequon, New Berlin and Oconomowoc have more low-and moderate-wage jobs than affordable housing. Milwaukee is not alone - this geographic disparity exists in all metro areas to some degree. It is a simple relationship between just a couple factors - as each individual city grows, it generally adds single-family homes and jobs at a faster rate than they set aside land for their "fair share" of high-density housing sites in which more affordable housing can be built. Add to that an overall lack of resources and financing for affordable housing and you get this disparity. Nowhere else have I found a more concise but thorough analysis of affordable housing need than Determining Affordable Housing Need in the Twin Cities 2011-2020, released by the Metropolitan Council. The report is short, but well researched. It looks at four basic criteria - each city's planned total additional housing for the decade, that city's existing proximity to lower-wage jobs, existing affordable housing stock, and access to transit service. In practice this means a variety of outcomes. For example, a central city or inner-ring suburb with a vast supply of older apartments doesn't need to add as many affordable units as a newer suburb with very little existing affordable product. A city with good transit service must add more housing because of the lower-income households depend on transit service to a greater degree. Finally, a "bedroom community" doesn't need to add as many housing units versus a city with a greater supply of low-wage jobs. The map on page 12 of the Met Council study shows an interesting result. Just like in Milwaukee (and no doubt many metro areas), a pattern emerges that shows newer, wealthier suburbs in general need to provide a disproportionate share of new affordable housing units. What is interesting is the fact that the two core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul must add the most. This is not because of an existing imbalance of housing per se, but rather because the two core cities have the best proximity and transit service to a greater number of low-wage jobs. Released in 2006, the Met Council's plan influenced the resulting 2008 comprehensive plans for every city in the metro area. These plans are not strictly enforceable - no city will be held accountable for the development of their "fair share" of affordable housing. But it helps the industry argue for approvals and financing for affordable housing. For two recent affordable housing market studies I completed in the suburban communities of Woodbury and Savage, I found substantial demand and very little competition. My study was bolstered by the Met Council report indicating both communities needed to create more than 2,000 affordable housing units this decade. Conversely, my studies in Minneapolis show the sheer proximity to jobs and transit results in low vacancy for affordable housing, despite substantial competition. In other words, the numbers don't lie; there is a need and some communities have a more acute need than others. Every metro area should be so lucky as to have a study like the Met Council's Affordable Housing Need analysis. What is needed, moreover, is the political will to live up to the needs analysis and the financing tools with which to do so.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:39:45 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1187 New York Times article about a pedestrian plaza in Little India in Queens will undoubtedly provoke a mixed response among urbanists and retailers across the country. Last September the city of New York blocked off a one-block stretch of 37th Road in Jackson Heights in order to create a "park" and decongest a nearby roadway. According to business along 37th, the plan has worked too well. Business is reported to be way down for those located along the affected street. Gee, I wonder why? You have one guess - that's right, because it is harder to get to these businesses, so customers are apparently shopping elsewhere. Retail 101. The model referenced for this move by the city is the success of closing Times Square to traffic. The problem is, Times Square is truly one-of-a-kind. It is such an immense draw, known around the world as a major destination, that closing the street actually helped it. The same can be said of closing the street between Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery in London - again, a one-of-a-kind place. The key is, tens of thousands of people still show up to these destinations because of their surrounding density and access via transit and sidewalk. The same realities don't apply to most downtowns, and apparently not to Little India, either. Decades ago, dozens of downtowns closed off a major retail street to traffic. Most results were disastrous, as shoppers (who, as Bob Gibbs points out "don't need to shop") either stayed home or took their business elsewhere to places that were easier to access. Few downtown pedestrian streets survive, like Pearl Street in Boulder, and it is due to a large stable nearby pedestrian population (the University of Colorado) and a concerted effort on behalf of both the public and private sector to draw customers and help them find a place to park. What bothers me most about the situation in Queens is there was no apparent plan to attract and retain customers - the city just shut off the street. That said, there apparently was an 18-month study on traffic, but still no report that an actual plan existed between the city and local businesses. Still, I have to scratch my head at how local business owners can be unaware of an 18-month study that affects their livelihood so directly. Perhaps there was communication the city and businesses, although the Times reports there wasn't much if any. Perhaps only the building owners received notification, and if I know some building owners, communication with tenants isn't always very good. Still, this wouldn't be the first time a city has made life more difficult for small business owners, although I must say, if a city action hurts your businesses, you should be able to prove it by showing your books. Furthermore, the Times doesn't report that any business has actually closed...yet. I can also see it from the residents' perspective. They want traffic calming and some more open space. But they also value their small businesses, which are often put on a pedestal without a full understanding of how blocking access can submarine already razor-thin margins. It is one thing to be a NIMBY and worry that a nearby housing development may affect your quality of life in some way, but entirely another when the street in front of your store is blocked off and the impact on your revenue is immediate and dire. Area residents don't always understand the economics of operating a small business. Good placemaking must be rooted in economic and market realities. We can only speculate that maybe the best process would have been to openly engage all stakeholders and come up with a plan that provided advertising for affected businesses, created alternative parking nearby, charged for on-street parking, created a woonerf (shared street), only shut the street down on Sundays, coupling it with an event of some kind, or found financing for more attractive bollards and street furniture. Of course, it is possible that an open, transparent process would have led to a stalemate on the issue. Then again, perhaps in this case a stalemate would have been the best action.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:20:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1197 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com 612-251-4662 3913 29th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406 Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1235 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 14:39:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1232 this 2011 article in Urban Land, so I was pleased with this in-depth look at grocers at CNU 20. Despite an urban setting, parking is typically still critical. Sometimes the parking is underground, like at Ralphs in downtown Los Angeles. Sometimes it is at grade but the store is elevated to the second story, and sometimes parking is even on the roof. Rarely is parking less than five spaces per thousand square feet except in very dense urban areas. However, David Taulbee, Architectural Manager of Publix, notes that parking at many of their urban stores is full only at peak times, so that sacred parking ratio of five per thousand is called to question, particularly if the store has other parking options nearby like shared, on-street or bicycle parking. Uses can mix, but Neal Payton, Principal at Torti Gallas, cautions against a wide range of issues. For one, grocers are very special retailers with unique needs. Not only is sufficient parking important, but so is truck access, with several deliveries each day. As well, each major grocer has its own store layout that affects column spacing. Because column spacing does not always match the spacing of residential space above, creativity is required. In the CityVista project in Washington, DC, for example, this problem is avoided by placing the residential tower above liner retail instead of the ground floor Safeway store. One key issue addressed is just how many households are required to support a store and within what proximity? David Taulbee was coy about how many households Publix requires to build a new store, but noted that it varied by many factors, including density, access and existing competition. The bottom line for CNU members is the additional value a full-service grocer can provide an urban neighborhood. John Given, Principal of CIM Group, notes that when Ralphs opened in 2007 as part of a mixed-use project in South Park in downtown Los Angeles, it was nothing short of transformative. He noted there were thousands of new housing units in the area but no reason to walk anywhere. With an urban grocer, there now is. #cnu20 ]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 16:35:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1226 CNU20 in West Palm Beach. The rise of the Chinese middle class today is very different than the rise of the American middle class in the 1950s, and the impact on land use is immense. For one, it is sixteen stories instead of two! That is one of the many observations by Peter Calthorpe when presenting his work in China. If CNU doesn’t pay attention to China and offer part of the solution to land use decisions as the country rapidly urbanizes, “we are asleep at the wheel,” according to Calthorpe. In truth, there are similarities and differences. America has suburbanized in a one-mile square pattern of separated land uses divided by arterials. China’s most recent version of urbanization also divides areas of their cities in to single-use superblocks divided by large roadways. The similarities largely end there, but the result is a rapidly increasing rate of automobile use, a glaring problem given the scale of urbanization and pollution there. A number of cities are using regional planning principles by Calthorpe Associates to guide land use decisions. These plans are familiar to many new urbanists, using 150-meter blocks, paired couplet roadways not exceeding four lanes, and density focused around subway stations. Plans show a granular mixing of uses, which will encourage walking. This is critical so the tens and hundreds of millions of new city dwellers do not need to drive. In fact, China is considering a national policy of capping the modal split of automobile trips at 20% (it is now at 12%). Certainly opportunities abound in China. Growth is occurring, and planning for that growth is critical to not only building better cities but minimizing their carbon footprint for the sake of the planet. My big question is what the public process is like for Calthorpe and others. I sense that charrettes, the bread and butter of new urbanists, are not necessarily part of the process. Follow CNU 20 on Twitter at #cnu20.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 22:34:35 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1224 CNU 20 (#cnu20), Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk looked back on 20 years of CNU history and ahead to the next 20. She commented on the importance of being an elite organization. That got me thinking. CNU prides itself, in my opinion, for lack of better term, on "going rogue," of germinating ideas about urbanism that are against the grain and unpopular. This is an important role. Because of CNU, Plater-Zyberk pointed out, terms like "complete streets," "live-work," "granny flat," and the very idea that design matters and community building is important are part of our everyday. So elite ideas have their place, but perhaps more critical to the movement is the grassroots, bottom up approach. The future of the movement may depend on it. I recently attended a seminar about how the tea party rose to national awareness. Far from comparing or contrasting new urbanism and the tea party, what the latter shows us is success came from a grassroots, door-to-door effort and a handle on rhetoric to get their point across. They obviously tapped in to something not being provided to Americans, and the movement grew. CNU is trying to provide something many or most Americans want - better cities and towns. It strikes me that CNU is getting some of the rhetoric right, but not the grassroots effort. Maybe "tactical urbanism" is really tapping in to that grassroots demand for something better in our cities. I see it all the time in my community, but my neighbors cannot always express it or know what to do. If CNU can better grab and focus that desire through rhetoric and a grassroots effort, some very interesting things will happen. The next few days here at CNU may provide some clues.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:20:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1197 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:34:15 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1206 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:58:24 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1199 The Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation Affordability Index that living in a location-efficent place can save households thousands of dollars per year. So what would you choose? If you are "an average American," you could buy an energy-efficient car and save ,000 over the life of that vehicle, say 10 years. That is an average of 0 per year. Or you can choose to live in an efficient location where you can literally drive less. This will save you thousands of dollars per year. Americans aren't stupid. Why neither party is actually talking about this is ridiculous. To the Obama administration's credit, a lot of behind-the-scenes cooperation is occurring between agencies to better unite transportation and housing policy. This is wonderful, but deserves more attention. But why this isn't a conservative issue I don't know - after all, it is about conserving money, right? Location efficiency works in small towns (read "Real America") just as well as urban places. Resistance to appropriate densities in order to support location efficiency is a bipartisan problem - NIMBY's don't discriminate by political party. Housing and transportation affordability need not be a divisive issue. It isn't about herding people in to cities, it is about saving American households money. I know it isn't that easy in the real world. But I can tell you I'd rather save thousands of dollars per year versus just 0, and not be as beholden to gas price increases. An increasing number of Americans are figuring this out, too, and our energy, housing and transportation policy is struggling to keep pace.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:03:23 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1189 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (as fine a midsize city newspaper you'll find anywhere) predicted a jobs/housing imbalance in the greater Milwaukee metro area. Welcome to the club! There isn't a metro area in the country that doesn't have an imbalance of jobs and housing across its various municipalities. I'm talking of course of the imbalance between affordable or workforce housing and jobs that pay affordable or workforce wages - in other words, people who are working in any number of industries, including teaching and stocking the shelves at WalMart, but cannot afford a really nice home. The reality is, this includes a large percentage of Americans - up to 30% or more. There is great demand for housing in these income levels but insufficient supply, and there are nearly always imbalances across cities. Take the Milwaukee example. According to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, suburban Milwaukee cities like Brookfield, Cedarburg, Delafield, Mequon, New Berlin and Oconomowoc have more low-and moderate-wage jobs than affordable housing. Milwaukee is not alone - this geographic disparity exists in all metro areas to some degree. It is a simple relationship between just a couple factors - as each individual city grows, it generally adds single-family homes and jobs at a faster rate than they set aside land for their "fair share" of high-density housing sites in which more affordable housing can be built. Add to that an overall lack of resources and financing for affordable housing and you get this disparity. Nowhere else have I found a more concise but thorough analysis of affordable housing need than Determining Affordable Housing Need in the Twin Cities 2011-2020, released by the Metropolitan Council. The report is short, but well researched. It looks at four basic criteria - each city's planned total additional housing for the decade, that city's existing proximity to lower-wage jobs, existing affordable housing stock, and access to transit service. In practice this means a variety of outcomes. For example, a central city or inner-ring suburb with a vast supply of older apartments doesn't need to add as many affordable units as a newer suburb with very little existing affordable product. A city with good transit service must add more housing because of the lower-income households depend on transit service to a greater degree. Finally, a "bedroom community" doesn't need to add as many housing units versus a city with a greater supply of low-wage jobs. The map on page 12 of the Met Council study shows an interesting result. Just like in Milwaukee (and no doubt many metro areas), a pattern emerges that shows newer, wealthier suburbs in general need to provide a disproportionate share of new affordable housing units. What is interesting is the fact that the two core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul must add the most. This is not because of an existing imbalance of housing per se, but rather because the two core cities have the best proximity and transit service to a greater number of low-wage jobs. Released in 2006, the Met Council's plan influenced the resulting 2008 comprehensive plans for every city in the metro area. These plans are not strictly enforceable - no city will be held accountable for the development of their "fair share" of affordable housing. But it helps the industry argue for approvals and financing for affordable housing. For two recent affordable housing market studies I completed in the suburban communities of Woodbury and Savage, I found substantial demand and very little competition. My study was bolstered by the Met Council report indicating both communities needed to create more than 2,000 affordable housing units this decade. Conversely, my studies in Minneapolis show the sheer proximity to jobs and transit results in low vacancy for affordable housing, despite substantial competition. In other words, the numbers don't lie; there is a need and some communities have a more acute need than others. Every metro area should be so lucky as to have a study like the Met Council's Affordable Housing Need analysis. What is needed, moreover, is the political will to live up to the needs analysis and the financing tools with which to do so.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:39:45 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1187 New York Times article about a pedestrian plaza in Little India in Queens will undoubtedly provoke a mixed response among urbanists and retailers across the country. Last September the city of New York blocked off a one-block stretch of 37th Road in Jackson Heights in order to create a "park" and decongest a nearby roadway. According to business along 37th, the plan has worked too well. Business is reported to be way down for those located along the affected street. Gee, I wonder why? You have one guess - that's right, because it is harder to get to these businesses, so customers are apparently shopping elsewhere. Retail 101. The model referenced for this move by the city is the success of closing Times Square to traffic. The problem is, Times Square is truly one-of-a-kind. It is such an immense draw, known around the world as a major destination, that closing the street actually helped it. The same can be said of closing the street between Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery in London - again, a one-of-a-kind place. The key is, tens of thousands of people still show up to these destinations because of their surrounding density and access via transit and sidewalk. The same realities don't apply to most downtowns, and apparently not to Little India, either. Decades ago, dozens of downtowns closed off a major retail street to traffic. Most results were disastrous, as shoppers (who, as Bob Gibbs points out "don't need to shop") either stayed home or took their business elsewhere to places that were easier to access. Few downtown pedestrian streets survive, like Pearl Street in Boulder, and it is due to a large stable nearby pedestrian population (the University of Colorado) and a concerted effort on behalf of both the public and private sector to draw customers and help them find a place to park. What bothers me most about the situation in Queens is there was no apparent plan to attract and retain customers - the city just shut off the street. That said, there apparently was an 18-month study on traffic, but still no report that an actual plan existed between the city and local businesses. Still, I have to scratch my head at how local business owners can be unaware of an 18-month study that affects their livelihood so directly. Perhaps there was communication the city and businesses, although the Times reports there wasn't much if any. Perhaps only the building owners received notification, and if I know some building owners, communication with tenants isn't always very good. Still, this wouldn't be the first time a city has made life more difficult for small business owners, although I must say, if a city action hurts your businesses, you should be able to prove it by showing your books. Furthermore, the Times doesn't report that any business has actually closed...yet. I can also see it from the residents' perspective. They want traffic calming and some more open space. But they also value their small businesses, which are often put on a pedestal without a full understanding of how blocking access can submarine already razor-thin margins. It is one thing to be a NIMBY and worry that a nearby housing development may affect your quality of life in some way, but entirely another when the street in front of your store is blocked off and the impact on your revenue is immediate and dire. Area residents don't always understand the economics of operating a small business. Good placemaking must be rooted in economic and market realities. We can only speculate that maybe the best process would have been to openly engage all stakeholders and come up with a plan that provided advertising for affected businesses, created alternative parking nearby, charged for on-street parking, created a woonerf (shared street), only shut the street down on Sundays, coupling it with an event of some kind, or found financing for more attractive bollards and street furniture. Of course, it is possible that an open, transparent process would have led to a stalemate on the issue. Then again, perhaps in this case a stalemate would have been the best action.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:34:15 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1206 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com 612-251-4662 3913 29th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406 Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1235 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 14:39:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1232 this 2011 article in Urban Land, so I was pleased with this in-depth look at grocers at CNU 20. Despite an urban setting, parking is typically still critical. Sometimes the parking is underground, like at Ralphs in downtown Los Angeles. Sometimes it is at grade but the store is elevated to the second story, and sometimes parking is even on the roof. Rarely is parking less than five spaces per thousand square feet except in very dense urban areas. However, David Taulbee, Architectural Manager of Publix, notes that parking at many of their urban stores is full only at peak times, so that sacred parking ratio of five per thousand is called to question, particularly if the store has other parking options nearby like shared, on-street or bicycle parking. Uses can mix, but Neal Payton, Principal at Torti Gallas, cautions against a wide range of issues. For one, grocers are very special retailers with unique needs. Not only is sufficient parking important, but so is truck access, with several deliveries each day. As well, each major grocer has its own store layout that affects column spacing. Because column spacing does not always match the spacing of residential space above, creativity is required. In the CityVista project in Washington, DC, for example, this problem is avoided by placing the residential tower above liner retail instead of the ground floor Safeway store. One key issue addressed is just how many households are required to support a store and within what proximity? David Taulbee was coy about how many households Publix requires to build a new store, but noted that it varied by many factors, including density, access and existing competition. The bottom line for CNU members is the additional value a full-service grocer can provide an urban neighborhood. John Given, Principal of CIM Group, notes that when Ralphs opened in 2007 as part of a mixed-use project in South Park in downtown Los Angeles, it was nothing short of transformative. He noted there were thousands of new housing units in the area but no reason to walk anywhere. With an urban grocer, there now is. #cnu20 ]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 16:35:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1226 CNU20 in West Palm Beach. The rise of the Chinese middle class today is very different than the rise of the American middle class in the 1950s, and the impact on land use is immense. For one, it is sixteen stories instead of two! That is one of the many observations by Peter Calthorpe when presenting his work in China. If CNU doesn’t pay attention to China and offer part of the solution to land use decisions as the country rapidly urbanizes, “we are asleep at the wheel,” according to Calthorpe. In truth, there are similarities and differences. America has suburbanized in a one-mile square pattern of separated land uses divided by arterials. China’s most recent version of urbanization also divides areas of their cities in to single-use superblocks divided by large roadways. The similarities largely end there, but the result is a rapidly increasing rate of automobile use, a glaring problem given the scale of urbanization and pollution there. A number of cities are using regional planning principles by Calthorpe Associates to guide land use decisions. These plans are familiar to many new urbanists, using 150-meter blocks, paired couplet roadways not exceeding four lanes, and density focused around subway stations. Plans show a granular mixing of uses, which will encourage walking. This is critical so the tens and hundreds of millions of new city dwellers do not need to drive. In fact, China is considering a national policy of capping the modal split of automobile trips at 20% (it is now at 12%). Certainly opportunities abound in China. Growth is occurring, and planning for that growth is critical to not only building better cities but minimizing their carbon footprint for the sake of the planet. My big question is what the public process is like for Calthorpe and others. I sense that charrettes, the bread and butter of new urbanists, are not necessarily part of the process. Follow CNU 20 on Twitter at #cnu20.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 22:34:35 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1224 CNU 20 (#cnu20), Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk looked back on 20 years of CNU history and ahead to the next 20. She commented on the importance of being an elite organization. That got me thinking. CNU prides itself, in my opinion, for lack of better term, on "going rogue," of germinating ideas about urbanism that are against the grain and unpopular. This is an important role. Because of CNU, Plater-Zyberk pointed out, terms like "complete streets," "live-work," "granny flat," and the very idea that design matters and community building is important are part of our everyday. So elite ideas have their place, but perhaps more critical to the movement is the grassroots, bottom up approach. The future of the movement may depend on it. I recently attended a seminar about how the tea party rose to national awareness. Far from comparing or contrasting new urbanism and the tea party, what the latter shows us is success came from a grassroots, door-to-door effort and a handle on rhetoric to get their point across. They obviously tapped in to something not being provided to Americans, and the movement grew. CNU is trying to provide something many or most Americans want - better cities and towns. It strikes me that CNU is getting some of the rhetoric right, but not the grassroots effort. Maybe "tactical urbanism" is really tapping in to that grassroots demand for something better in our cities. I see it all the time in my community, but my neighbors cannot always express it or know what to do. If CNU can better grab and focus that desire through rhetoric and a grassroots effort, some very interesting things will happen. The next few days here at CNU may provide some clues.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:20:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1197 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:34:15 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1206 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:58:24 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1199 The Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation Affordability Index that living in a location-efficent place can save households thousands of dollars per year. So what would you choose? If you are "an average American," you could buy an energy-efficient car and save ,000 over the life of that vehicle, say 10 years. That is an average of 0 per year. Or you can choose to live in an efficient location where you can literally drive less. This will save you thousands of dollars per year. Americans aren't stupid. Why neither party is actually talking about this is ridiculous. To the Obama administration's credit, a lot of behind-the-scenes cooperation is occurring between agencies to better unite transportation and housing policy. This is wonderful, but deserves more attention. But why this isn't a conservative issue I don't know - after all, it is about conserving money, right? Location efficiency works in small towns (read "Real America") just as well as urban places. Resistance to appropriate densities in order to support location efficiency is a bipartisan problem - NIMBY's don't discriminate by political party. Housing and transportation affordability need not be a divisive issue. It isn't about herding people in to cities, it is about saving American households money. I know it isn't that easy in the real world. But I can tell you I'd rather save thousands of dollars per year versus just 0, and not be as beholden to gas price increases. An increasing number of Americans are figuring this out, too, and our energy, housing and transportation policy is struggling to keep pace.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:03:23 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1189 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (as fine a midsize city newspaper you'll find anywhere) predicted a jobs/housing imbalance in the greater Milwaukee metro area. Welcome to the club! There isn't a metro area in the country that doesn't have an imbalance of jobs and housing across its various municipalities. I'm talking of course of the imbalance between affordable or workforce housing and jobs that pay affordable or workforce wages - in other words, people who are working in any number of industries, including teaching and stocking the shelves at WalMart, but cannot afford a really nice home. The reality is, this includes a large percentage of Americans - up to 30% or more. There is great demand for housing in these income levels but insufficient supply, and there are nearly always imbalances across cities. Take the Milwaukee example. According to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, suburban Milwaukee cities like Brookfield, Cedarburg, Delafield, Mequon, New Berlin and Oconomowoc have more low-and moderate-wage jobs than affordable housing. Milwaukee is not alone - this geographic disparity exists in all metro areas to some degree. It is a simple relationship between just a couple factors - as each individual city grows, it generally adds single-family homes and jobs at a faster rate than they set aside land for their "fair share" of high-density housing sites in which more affordable housing can be built. Add to that an overall lack of resources and financing for affordable housing and you get this disparity. Nowhere else have I found a more concise but thorough analysis of affordable housing need than Determining Affordable Housing Need in the Twin Cities 2011-2020, released by the Metropolitan Council. The report is short, but well researched. It looks at four basic criteria - each city's planned total additional housing for the decade, that city's existing proximity to lower-wage jobs, existing affordable housing stock, and access to transit service. In practice this means a variety of outcomes. For example, a central city or inner-ring suburb with a vast supply of older apartments doesn't need to add as many affordable units as a newer suburb with very little existing affordable product. A city with good transit service must add more housing because of the lower-income households depend on transit service to a greater degree. Finally, a "bedroom community" doesn't need to add as many housing units versus a city with a greater supply of low-wage jobs. The map on page 12 of the Met Council study shows an interesting result. Just like in Milwaukee (and no doubt many metro areas), a pattern emerges that shows newer, wealthier suburbs in general need to provide a disproportionate share of new affordable housing units. What is interesting is the fact that the two core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul must add the most. This is not because of an existing imbalance of housing per se, but rather because the two core cities have the best proximity and transit service to a greater number of low-wage jobs. Released in 2006, the Met Council's plan influenced the resulting 2008 comprehensive plans for every city in the metro area. These plans are not strictly enforceable - no city will be held accountable for the development of their "fair share" of affordable housing. But it helps the industry argue for approvals and financing for affordable housing. For two recent affordable housing market studies I completed in the suburban communities of Woodbury and Savage, I found substantial demand and very little competition. My study was bolstered by the Met Council report indicating both communities needed to create more than 2,000 affordable housing units this decade. Conversely, my studies in Minneapolis show the sheer proximity to jobs and transit results in low vacancy for affordable housing, despite substantial competition. In other words, the numbers don't lie; there is a need and some communities have a more acute need than others. Every metro area should be so lucky as to have a study like the Met Council's Affordable Housing Need analysis. What is needed, moreover, is the political will to live up to the needs analysis and the financing tools with which to do so.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:39:45 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1187 New York Times article about a pedestrian plaza in Little India in Queens will undoubtedly provoke a mixed response among urbanists and retailers across the country. Last September the city of New York blocked off a one-block stretch of 37th Road in Jackson Heights in order to create a "park" and decongest a nearby roadway. According to business along 37th, the plan has worked too well. Business is reported to be way down for those located along the affected street. Gee, I wonder why? You have one guess - that's right, because it is harder to get to these businesses, so customers are apparently shopping elsewhere. Retail 101. The model referenced for this move by the city is the success of closing Times Square to traffic. The problem is, Times Square is truly one-of-a-kind. It is such an immense draw, known around the world as a major destination, that closing the street actually helped it. The same can be said of closing the street between Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery in London - again, a one-of-a-kind place. The key is, tens of thousands of people still show up to these destinations because of their surrounding density and access via transit and sidewalk. The same realities don't apply to most downtowns, and apparently not to Little India, either. Decades ago, dozens of downtowns closed off a major retail street to traffic. Most results were disastrous, as shoppers (who, as Bob Gibbs points out "don't need to shop") either stayed home or took their business elsewhere to places that were easier to access. Few downtown pedestrian streets survive, like Pearl Street in Boulder, and it is due to a large stable nearby pedestrian population (the University of Colorado) and a concerted effort on behalf of both the public and private sector to draw customers and help them find a place to park. What bothers me most about the situation in Queens is there was no apparent plan to attract and retain customers - the city just shut off the street. That said, there apparently was an 18-month study on traffic, but still no report that an actual plan existed between the city and local businesses. Still, I have to scratch my head at how local business owners can be unaware of an 18-month study that affects their livelihood so directly. Perhaps there was communication the city and businesses, although the Times reports there wasn't much if any. Perhaps only the building owners received notification, and if I know some building owners, communication with tenants isn't always very good. Still, this wouldn't be the first time a city has made life more difficult for small business owners, although I must say, if a city action hurts your businesses, you should be able to prove it by showing your books. Furthermore, the Times doesn't report that any business has actually closed...yet. I can also see it from the residents' perspective. They want traffic calming and some more open space. But they also value their small businesses, which are often put on a pedestal without a full understanding of how blocking access can submarine already razor-thin margins. It is one thing to be a NIMBY and worry that a nearby housing development may affect your quality of life in some way, but entirely another when the street in front of your store is blocked off and the impact on your revenue is immediate and dire. Area residents don't always understand the economics of operating a small business. Good placemaking must be rooted in economic and market realities. We can only speculate that maybe the best process would have been to openly engage all stakeholders and come up with a plan that provided advertising for affected businesses, created alternative parking nearby, charged for on-street parking, created a woonerf (shared street), only shut the street down on Sundays, coupling it with an event of some kind, or found financing for more attractive bollards and street furniture. Of course, it is possible that an open, transparent process would have led to a stalemate on the issue. Then again, perhaps in this case a stalemate would have been the best action.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:58:24 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1199 The Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation Affordability Index that living in a location-efficent place can save households thousands of dollars per year. So what would you choose? If you are "an average American," you could buy an energy-efficient car and save $8,000 over the life of that vehicle, say 10 years. That is an average of $800 per year. Or you can choose to live in an efficient location where you can literally drive less. This will save you thousands of dollars per year. Americans aren't stupid. Why neither party is actually talking about this is ridiculous. To the Obama administration's credit, a lot of behind-the-scenes cooperation is occurring between agencies to better unite transportation and housing policy. This is wonderful, but deserves more attention. But why this isn't a conservative issue I don't know - after all, it is about conserving money, right? Location efficiency works in small towns (read "Real America") just as well as urban places. Resistance to appropriate densities in order to support location efficiency is a bipartisan problem - NIMBY's don't discriminate by political party. Housing and transportation affordability need not be a divisive issue. It isn't about herding people in to cities, it is about saving American households money. I know it isn't that easy in the real world. But I can tell you I'd rather save thousands of dollars per year versus just $800, and not be as beholden to gas price increases. An increasing number of Americans are figuring this out, too, and our energy, housing and transportation policy is struggling to keep pace.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com 612-251-4662 3913 29th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406 Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1235 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 14:39:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1232 this 2011 article in Urban Land, so I was pleased with this in-depth look at grocers at CNU 20. Despite an urban setting, parking is typically still critical. Sometimes the parking is underground, like at Ralphs in downtown Los Angeles. Sometimes it is at grade but the store is elevated to the second story, and sometimes parking is even on the roof. Rarely is parking less than five spaces per thousand square feet except in very dense urban areas. However, David Taulbee, Architectural Manager of Publix, notes that parking at many of their urban stores is full only at peak times, so that sacred parking ratio of five per thousand is called to question, particularly if the store has other parking options nearby like shared, on-street or bicycle parking. Uses can mix, but Neal Payton, Principal at Torti Gallas, cautions against a wide range of issues. For one, grocers are very special retailers with unique needs. Not only is sufficient parking important, but so is truck access, with several deliveries each day. As well, each major grocer has its own store layout that affects column spacing. Because column spacing does not always match the spacing of residential space above, creativity is required. In the CityVista project in Washington, DC, for example, this problem is avoided by placing the residential tower above liner retail instead of the ground floor Safeway store. One key issue addressed is just how many households are required to support a store and within what proximity? David Taulbee was coy about how many households Publix requires to build a new store, but noted that it varied by many factors, including density, access and existing competition. The bottom line for CNU members is the additional value a full-service grocer can provide an urban neighborhood. John Given, Principal of CIM Group, notes that when Ralphs opened in 2007 as part of a mixed-use project in South Park in downtown Los Angeles, it was nothing short of transformative. He noted there were thousands of new housing units in the area but no reason to walk anywhere. With an urban grocer, there now is. #cnu20 ]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 16:35:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1226 CNU20 in West Palm Beach. The rise of the Chinese middle class today is very different than the rise of the American middle class in the 1950s, and the impact on land use is immense. For one, it is sixteen stories instead of two! That is one of the many observations by Peter Calthorpe when presenting his work in China. If CNU doesn’t pay attention to China and offer part of the solution to land use decisions as the country rapidly urbanizes, “we are asleep at the wheel,” according to Calthorpe. In truth, there are similarities and differences. America has suburbanized in a one-mile square pattern of separated land uses divided by arterials. China’s most recent version of urbanization also divides areas of their cities in to single-use superblocks divided by large roadways. The similarities largely end there, but the result is a rapidly increasing rate of automobile use, a glaring problem given the scale of urbanization and pollution there. A number of cities are using regional planning principles by Calthorpe Associates to guide land use decisions. These plans are familiar to many new urbanists, using 150-meter blocks, paired couplet roadways not exceeding four lanes, and density focused around subway stations. Plans show a granular mixing of uses, which will encourage walking. This is critical so the tens and hundreds of millions of new city dwellers do not need to drive. In fact, China is considering a national policy of capping the modal split of automobile trips at 20% (it is now at 12%). Certainly opportunities abound in China. Growth is occurring, and planning for that growth is critical to not only building better cities but minimizing their carbon footprint for the sake of the planet. My big question is what the public process is like for Calthorpe and others. I sense that charrettes, the bread and butter of new urbanists, are not necessarily part of the process. Follow CNU 20 on Twitter at #cnu20.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 22:34:35 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1224 CNU 20 (#cnu20), Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk looked back on 20 years of CNU history and ahead to the next 20. She commented on the importance of being an elite organization. That got me thinking. CNU prides itself, in my opinion, for lack of better term, on "going rogue," of germinating ideas about urbanism that are against the grain and unpopular. This is an important role. Because of CNU, Plater-Zyberk pointed out, terms like "complete streets," "live-work," "granny flat," and the very idea that design matters and community building is important are part of our everyday. So elite ideas have their place, but perhaps more critical to the movement is the grassroots, bottom up approach. The future of the movement may depend on it. I recently attended a seminar about how the tea party rose to national awareness. Far from comparing or contrasting new urbanism and the tea party, what the latter shows us is success came from a grassroots, door-to-door effort and a handle on rhetoric to get their point across. They obviously tapped in to something not being provided to Americans, and the movement grew. CNU is trying to provide something many or most Americans want - better cities and towns. It strikes me that CNU is getting some of the rhetoric right, but not the grassroots effort. Maybe "tactical urbanism" is really tapping in to that grassroots demand for something better in our cities. I see it all the time in my community, but my neighbors cannot always express it or know what to do. If CNU can better grab and focus that desire through rhetoric and a grassroots effort, some very interesting things will happen. The next few days here at CNU may provide some clues.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:20:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1197 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:34:15 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1206 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:58:24 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1199 The Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation Affordability Index that living in a location-efficent place can save households thousands of dollars per year. So what would you choose? If you are "an average American," you could buy an energy-efficient car and save ,000 over the life of that vehicle, say 10 years. That is an average of 0 per year. Or you can choose to live in an efficient location where you can literally drive less. This will save you thousands of dollars per year. Americans aren't stupid. Why neither party is actually talking about this is ridiculous. To the Obama administration's credit, a lot of behind-the-scenes cooperation is occurring between agencies to better unite transportation and housing policy. This is wonderful, but deserves more attention. But why this isn't a conservative issue I don't know - after all, it is about conserving money, right? Location efficiency works in small towns (read "Real America") just as well as urban places. Resistance to appropriate densities in order to support location efficiency is a bipartisan problem - NIMBY's don't discriminate by political party. Housing and transportation affordability need not be a divisive issue. It isn't about herding people in to cities, it is about saving American households money. I know it isn't that easy in the real world. But I can tell you I'd rather save thousands of dollars per year versus just 0, and not be as beholden to gas price increases. An increasing number of Americans are figuring this out, too, and our energy, housing and transportation policy is struggling to keep pace.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:03:23 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1189 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (as fine a midsize city newspaper you'll find anywhere) predicted a jobs/housing imbalance in the greater Milwaukee metro area. Welcome to the club! There isn't a metro area in the country that doesn't have an imbalance of jobs and housing across its various municipalities. I'm talking of course of the imbalance between affordable or workforce housing and jobs that pay affordable or workforce wages - in other words, people who are working in any number of industries, including teaching and stocking the shelves at WalMart, but cannot afford a really nice home. The reality is, this includes a large percentage of Americans - up to 30% or more. There is great demand for housing in these income levels but insufficient supply, and there are nearly always imbalances across cities. Take the Milwaukee example. According to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, suburban Milwaukee cities like Brookfield, Cedarburg, Delafield, Mequon, New Berlin and Oconomowoc have more low-and moderate-wage jobs than affordable housing. Milwaukee is not alone - this geographic disparity exists in all metro areas to some degree. It is a simple relationship between just a couple factors - as each individual city grows, it generally adds single-family homes and jobs at a faster rate than they set aside land for their "fair share" of high-density housing sites in which more affordable housing can be built. Add to that an overall lack of resources and financing for affordable housing and you get this disparity. Nowhere else have I found a more concise but thorough analysis of affordable housing need than Determining Affordable Housing Need in the Twin Cities 2011-2020, released by the Metropolitan Council. The report is short, but well researched. It looks at four basic criteria - each city's planned total additional housing for the decade, that city's existing proximity to lower-wage jobs, existing affordable housing stock, and access to transit service. In practice this means a variety of outcomes. For example, a central city or inner-ring suburb with a vast supply of older apartments doesn't need to add as many affordable units as a newer suburb with very little existing affordable product. A city with good transit service must add more housing because of the lower-income households depend on transit service to a greater degree. Finally, a "bedroom community" doesn't need to add as many housing units versus a city with a greater supply of low-wage jobs. The map on page 12 of the Met Council study shows an interesting result. Just like in Milwaukee (and no doubt many metro areas), a pattern emerges that shows newer, wealthier suburbs in general need to provide a disproportionate share of new affordable housing units. What is interesting is the fact that the two core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul must add the most. This is not because of an existing imbalance of housing per se, but rather because the two core cities have the best proximity and transit service to a greater number of low-wage jobs. Released in 2006, the Met Council's plan influenced the resulting 2008 comprehensive plans for every city in the metro area. These plans are not strictly enforceable - no city will be held accountable for the development of their "fair share" of affordable housing. But it helps the industry argue for approvals and financing for affordable housing. For two recent affordable housing market studies I completed in the suburban communities of Woodbury and Savage, I found substantial demand and very little competition. My study was bolstered by the Met Council report indicating both communities needed to create more than 2,000 affordable housing units this decade. Conversely, my studies in Minneapolis show the sheer proximity to jobs and transit results in low vacancy for affordable housing, despite substantial competition. In other words, the numbers don't lie; there is a need and some communities have a more acute need than others. Every metro area should be so lucky as to have a study like the Met Council's Affordable Housing Need analysis. What is needed, moreover, is the political will to live up to the needs analysis and the financing tools with which to do so.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:39:45 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1187 New York Times article about a pedestrian plaza in Little India in Queens will undoubtedly provoke a mixed response among urbanists and retailers across the country. Last September the city of New York blocked off a one-block stretch of 37th Road in Jackson Heights in order to create a "park" and decongest a nearby roadway. According to business along 37th, the plan has worked too well. Business is reported to be way down for those located along the affected street. Gee, I wonder why? You have one guess - that's right, because it is harder to get to these businesses, so customers are apparently shopping elsewhere. Retail 101. The model referenced for this move by the city is the success of closing Times Square to traffic. The problem is, Times Square is truly one-of-a-kind. It is such an immense draw, known around the world as a major destination, that closing the street actually helped it. The same can be said of closing the street between Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery in London - again, a one-of-a-kind place. The key is, tens of thousands of people still show up to these destinations because of their surrounding density and access via transit and sidewalk. The same realities don't apply to most downtowns, and apparently not to Little India, either. Decades ago, dozens of downtowns closed off a major retail street to traffic. Most results were disastrous, as shoppers (who, as Bob Gibbs points out "don't need to shop") either stayed home or took their business elsewhere to places that were easier to access. Few downtown pedestrian streets survive, like Pearl Street in Boulder, and it is due to a large stable nearby pedestrian population (the University of Colorado) and a concerted effort on behalf of both the public and private sector to draw customers and help them find a place to park. What bothers me most about the situation in Queens is there was no apparent plan to attract and retain customers - the city just shut off the street. That said, there apparently was an 18-month study on traffic, but still no report that an actual plan existed between the city and local businesses. Still, I have to scratch my head at how local business owners can be unaware of an 18-month study that affects their livelihood so directly. Perhaps there was communication the city and businesses, although the Times reports there wasn't much if any. Perhaps only the building owners received notification, and if I know some building owners, communication with tenants isn't always very good. Still, this wouldn't be the first time a city has made life more difficult for small business owners, although I must say, if a city action hurts your businesses, you should be able to prove it by showing your books. Furthermore, the Times doesn't report that any business has actually closed...yet. I can also see it from the residents' perspective. They want traffic calming and some more open space. But they also value their small businesses, which are often put on a pedestal without a full understanding of how blocking access can submarine already razor-thin margins. It is one thing to be a NIMBY and worry that a nearby housing development may affect your quality of life in some way, but entirely another when the street in front of your store is blocked off and the impact on your revenue is immediate and dire. Area residents don't always understand the economics of operating a small business. Good placemaking must be rooted in economic and market realities. We can only speculate that maybe the best process would have been to openly engage all stakeholders and come up with a plan that provided advertising for affected businesses, created alternative parking nearby, charged for on-street parking, created a woonerf (shared street), only shut the street down on Sundays, coupling it with an event of some kind, or found financing for more attractive bollards and street furniture. Of course, it is possible that an open, transparent process would have led to a stalemate on the issue. Then again, perhaps in this case a stalemate would have been the best action.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:03:23 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1189 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (as fine a midsize city newspaper you'll find anywhere) predicted a jobs/housing imbalance in the greater Milwaukee metro area. Welcome to the club! There isn't a metro area in the country that doesn't have an imbalance of jobs and housing across its various municipalities. I'm talking of course of the imbalance between affordable or workforce housing and jobs that pay affordable or workforce wages - in other words, people who are working in any number of industries, including teaching and stocking the shelves at WalMart, but cannot afford a really nice home. The reality is, this includes a large percentage of Americans - up to 30% or more. There is great demand for housing in these income levels but insufficient supply, and there are nearly always imbalances across cities. Take the Milwaukee example. According to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, suburban Milwaukee cities like Brookfield, Cedarburg, Delafield, Mequon, New Berlin and Oconomowoc have more low-and moderate-wage jobs than affordable housing. Milwaukee is not alone - this geographic disparity exists in all metro areas to some degree. It is a simple relationship between just a couple factors - as each individual city grows, it generally adds single-family homes and jobs at a faster rate than they set aside land for their "fair share" of high-density housing sites in which more affordable housing can be built. Add to that an overall lack of resources and financing for affordable housing and you get this disparity. Nowhere else have I found a more concise but thorough analysis of affordable housing need than Determining Affordable Housing Need in the Twin Cities 2011-2020, released by the Metropolitan Council. The report is short, but well researched. It looks at four basic criteria - each city's planned total additional housing for the decade, that city's existing proximity to lower-wage jobs, existing affordable housing stock, and access to transit service. In practice this means a variety of outcomes. For example, a central city or inner-ring suburb with a vast supply of older apartments doesn't need to add as many affordable units as a newer suburb with very little existing affordable product. A city with good transit service must add more housing because of the lower-income households depend on transit service to a greater degree. Finally, a "bedroom community" doesn't need to add as many housing units versus a city with a greater supply of low-wage jobs. The map on page 12 of the Met Council study shows an interesting result. Just like in Milwaukee (and no doubt many metro areas), a pattern emerges that shows newer, wealthier suburbs in general need to provide a disproportionate share of new affordable housing units. What is interesting is the fact that the two core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul must add the most. This is not because of an existing imbalance of housing per se, but rather because the two core cities have the best proximity and transit service to a greater number of low-wage jobs. Released in 2006, the Met Council's plan influenced the resulting 2008 comprehensive plans for every city in the metro area. These plans are not strictly enforceable - no city will be held accountable for the development of their "fair share" of affordable housing. But it helps the industry argue for approvals and financing for affordable housing. For two recent affordable housing market studies I completed in the suburban communities of Woodbury and Savage, I found substantial demand and very little competition. My study was bolstered by the Met Council report indicating both communities needed to create more than 2,000 affordable housing units this decade. Conversely, my studies in Minneapolis show the sheer proximity to jobs and transit results in low vacancy for affordable housing, despite substantial competition. In other words, the numbers don't lie; there is a need and some communities have a more acute need than others. Every metro area should be so lucky as to have a study like the Met Council's Affordable Housing Need analysis. What is needed, moreover, is the political will to live up to the needs analysis and the financing tools with which to do so.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com 612-251-4662 3913 29th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406 Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1235 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 14:39:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1232 this 2011 article in Urban Land, so I was pleased with this in-depth look at grocers at CNU 20. Despite an urban setting, parking is typically still critical. Sometimes the parking is underground, like at Ralphs in downtown Los Angeles. Sometimes it is at grade but the store is elevated to the second story, and sometimes parking is even on the roof. Rarely is parking less than five spaces per thousand square feet except in very dense urban areas. However, David Taulbee, Architectural Manager of Publix, notes that parking at many of their urban stores is full only at peak times, so that sacred parking ratio of five per thousand is called to question, particularly if the store has other parking options nearby like shared, on-street or bicycle parking. Uses can mix, but Neal Payton, Principal at Torti Gallas, cautions against a wide range of issues. For one, grocers are very special retailers with unique needs. Not only is sufficient parking important, but so is truck access, with several deliveries each day. As well, each major grocer has its own store layout that affects column spacing. Because column spacing does not always match the spacing of residential space above, creativity is required. In the CityVista project in Washington, DC, for example, this problem is avoided by placing the residential tower above liner retail instead of the ground floor Safeway store. One key issue addressed is just how many households are required to support a store and within what proximity? David Taulbee was coy about how many households Publix requires to build a new store, but noted that it varied by many factors, including density, access and existing competition. The bottom line for CNU members is the additional value a full-service grocer can provide an urban neighborhood. John Given, Principal of CIM Group, notes that when Ralphs opened in 2007 as part of a mixed-use project in South Park in downtown Los Angeles, it was nothing short of transformative. He noted there were thousands of new housing units in the area but no reason to walk anywhere. With an urban grocer, there now is. #cnu20 ]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 16:35:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1226 CNU20 in West Palm Beach. The rise of the Chinese middle class today is very different than the rise of the American middle class in the 1950s, and the impact on land use is immense. For one, it is sixteen stories instead of two! That is one of the many observations by Peter Calthorpe when presenting his work in China. If CNU doesn’t pay attention to China and offer part of the solution to land use decisions as the country rapidly urbanizes, “we are asleep at the wheel,” according to Calthorpe. In truth, there are similarities and differences. America has suburbanized in a one-mile square pattern of separated land uses divided by arterials. China’s most recent version of urbanization also divides areas of their cities in to single-use superblocks divided by large roadways. The similarities largely end there, but the result is a rapidly increasing rate of automobile use, a glaring problem given the scale of urbanization and pollution there. A number of cities are using regional planning principles by Calthorpe Associates to guide land use decisions. These plans are familiar to many new urbanists, using 150-meter blocks, paired couplet roadways not exceeding four lanes, and density focused around subway stations. Plans show a granular mixing of uses, which will encourage walking. This is critical so the tens and hundreds of millions of new city dwellers do not need to drive. In fact, China is considering a national policy of capping the modal split of automobile trips at 20% (it is now at 12%). Certainly opportunities abound in China. Growth is occurring, and planning for that growth is critical to not only building better cities but minimizing their carbon footprint for the sake of the planet. My big question is what the public process is like for Calthorpe and others. I sense that charrettes, the bread and butter of new urbanists, are not necessarily part of the process. Follow CNU 20 on Twitter at #cnu20.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 22:34:35 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1224 CNU 20 (#cnu20), Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk looked back on 20 years of CNU history and ahead to the next 20. She commented on the importance of being an elite organization. That got me thinking. CNU prides itself, in my opinion, for lack of better term, on "going rogue," of germinating ideas about urbanism that are against the grain and unpopular. This is an important role. Because of CNU, Plater-Zyberk pointed out, terms like "complete streets," "live-work," "granny flat," and the very idea that design matters and community building is important are part of our everyday. So elite ideas have their place, but perhaps more critical to the movement is the grassroots, bottom up approach. The future of the movement may depend on it. I recently attended a seminar about how the tea party rose to national awareness. Far from comparing or contrasting new urbanism and the tea party, what the latter shows us is success came from a grassroots, door-to-door effort and a handle on rhetoric to get their point across. They obviously tapped in to something not being provided to Americans, and the movement grew. CNU is trying to provide something many or most Americans want - better cities and towns. It strikes me that CNU is getting some of the rhetoric right, but not the grassroots effort. Maybe "tactical urbanism" is really tapping in to that grassroots demand for something better in our cities. I see it all the time in my community, but my neighbors cannot always express it or know what to do. If CNU can better grab and focus that desire through rhetoric and a grassroots effort, some very interesting things will happen. The next few days here at CNU may provide some clues.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:20:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1197 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:34:15 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1206 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:58:24 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1199 The Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation Affordability Index that living in a location-efficent place can save households thousands of dollars per year. So what would you choose? If you are "an average American," you could buy an energy-efficient car and save ,000 over the life of that vehicle, say 10 years. That is an average of 0 per year. Or you can choose to live in an efficient location where you can literally drive less. This will save you thousands of dollars per year. Americans aren't stupid. Why neither party is actually talking about this is ridiculous. To the Obama administration's credit, a lot of behind-the-scenes cooperation is occurring between agencies to better unite transportation and housing policy. This is wonderful, but deserves more attention. But why this isn't a conservative issue I don't know - after all, it is about conserving money, right? Location efficiency works in small towns (read "Real America") just as well as urban places. Resistance to appropriate densities in order to support location efficiency is a bipartisan problem - NIMBY's don't discriminate by political party. Housing and transportation affordability need not be a divisive issue. It isn't about herding people in to cities, it is about saving American households money. I know it isn't that easy in the real world. But I can tell you I'd rather save thousands of dollars per year versus just 0, and not be as beholden to gas price increases. An increasing number of Americans are figuring this out, too, and our energy, housing and transportation policy is struggling to keep pace.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:03:23 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1189 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (as fine a midsize city newspaper you'll find anywhere) predicted a jobs/housing imbalance in the greater Milwaukee metro area. Welcome to the club! There isn't a metro area in the country that doesn't have an imbalance of jobs and housing across its various municipalities. I'm talking of course of the imbalance between affordable or workforce housing and jobs that pay affordable or workforce wages - in other words, people who are working in any number of industries, including teaching and stocking the shelves at WalMart, but cannot afford a really nice home. The reality is, this includes a large percentage of Americans - up to 30% or more. There is great demand for housing in these income levels but insufficient supply, and there are nearly always imbalances across cities. Take the Milwaukee example. According to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, suburban Milwaukee cities like Brookfield, Cedarburg, Delafield, Mequon, New Berlin and Oconomowoc have more low-and moderate-wage jobs than affordable housing. Milwaukee is not alone - this geographic disparity exists in all metro areas to some degree. It is a simple relationship between just a couple factors - as each individual city grows, it generally adds single-family homes and jobs at a faster rate than they set aside land for their "fair share" of high-density housing sites in which more affordable housing can be built. Add to that an overall lack of resources and financing for affordable housing and you get this disparity. Nowhere else have I found a more concise but thorough analysis of affordable housing need than Determining Affordable Housing Need in the Twin Cities 2011-2020, released by the Metropolitan Council. The report is short, but well researched. It looks at four basic criteria - each city's planned total additional housing for the decade, that city's existing proximity to lower-wage jobs, existing affordable housing stock, and access to transit service. In practice this means a variety of outcomes. For example, a central city or inner-ring suburb with a vast supply of older apartments doesn't need to add as many affordable units as a newer suburb with very little existing affordable product. A city with good transit service must add more housing because of the lower-income households depend on transit service to a greater degree. Finally, a "bedroom community" doesn't need to add as many housing units versus a city with a greater supply of low-wage jobs. The map on page 12 of the Met Council study shows an interesting result. Just like in Milwaukee (and no doubt many metro areas), a pattern emerges that shows newer, wealthier suburbs in general need to provide a disproportionate share of new affordable housing units. What is interesting is the fact that the two core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul must add the most. This is not because of an existing imbalance of housing per se, but rather because the two core cities have the best proximity and transit service to a greater number of low-wage jobs. Released in 2006, the Met Council's plan influenced the resulting 2008 comprehensive plans for every city in the metro area. These plans are not strictly enforceable - no city will be held accountable for the development of their "fair share" of affordable housing. But it helps the industry argue for approvals and financing for affordable housing. For two recent affordable housing market studies I completed in the suburban communities of Woodbury and Savage, I found substantial demand and very little competition. My study was bolstered by the Met Council report indicating both communities needed to create more than 2,000 affordable housing units this decade. Conversely, my studies in Minneapolis show the sheer proximity to jobs and transit results in low vacancy for affordable housing, despite substantial competition. In other words, the numbers don't lie; there is a need and some communities have a more acute need than others. Every metro area should be so lucky as to have a study like the Met Council's Affordable Housing Need analysis. What is needed, moreover, is the political will to live up to the needs analysis and the financing tools with which to do so.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:39:45 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1187 New York Times article about a pedestrian plaza in Little India in Queens will undoubtedly provoke a mixed response among urbanists and retailers across the country. Last September the city of New York blocked off a one-block stretch of 37th Road in Jackson Heights in order to create a "park" and decongest a nearby roadway. According to business along 37th, the plan has worked too well. Business is reported to be way down for those located along the affected street. Gee, I wonder why? You have one guess - that's right, because it is harder to get to these businesses, so customers are apparently shopping elsewhere. Retail 101. The model referenced for this move by the city is the success of closing Times Square to traffic. The problem is, Times Square is truly one-of-a-kind. It is such an immense draw, known around the world as a major destination, that closing the street actually helped it. The same can be said of closing the street between Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery in London - again, a one-of-a-kind place. The key is, tens of thousands of people still show up to these destinations because of their surrounding density and access via transit and sidewalk. The same realities don't apply to most downtowns, and apparently not to Little India, either. Decades ago, dozens of downtowns closed off a major retail street to traffic. Most results were disastrous, as shoppers (who, as Bob Gibbs points out "don't need to shop") either stayed home or took their business elsewhere to places that were easier to access. Few downtown pedestrian streets survive, like Pearl Street in Boulder, and it is due to a large stable nearby pedestrian population (the University of Colorado) and a concerted effort on behalf of both the public and private sector to draw customers and help them find a place to park. What bothers me most about the situation in Queens is there was no apparent plan to attract and retain customers - the city just shut off the street. That said, there apparently was an 18-month study on traffic, but still no report that an actual plan existed between the city and local businesses. Still, I have to scratch my head at how local business owners can be unaware of an 18-month study that affects their livelihood so directly. Perhaps there was communication the city and businesses, although the Times reports there wasn't much if any. Perhaps only the building owners received notification, and if I know some building owners, communication with tenants isn't always very good. Still, this wouldn't be the first time a city has made life more difficult for small business owners, although I must say, if a city action hurts your businesses, you should be able to prove it by showing your books. Furthermore, the Times doesn't report that any business has actually closed...yet. I can also see it from the residents' perspective. They want traffic calming and some more open space. But they also value their small businesses, which are often put on a pedestal without a full understanding of how blocking access can submarine already razor-thin margins. It is one thing to be a NIMBY and worry that a nearby housing development may affect your quality of life in some way, but entirely another when the street in front of your store is blocked off and the impact on your revenue is immediate and dire. Area residents don't always understand the economics of operating a small business. Good placemaking must be rooted in economic and market realities. We can only speculate that maybe the best process would have been to openly engage all stakeholders and come up with a plan that provided advertising for affected businesses, created alternative parking nearby, charged for on-street parking, created a woonerf (shared street), only shut the street down on Sundays, coupling it with an event of some kind, or found financing for more attractive bollards and street furniture. Of course, it is possible that an open, transparent process would have led to a stalemate on the issue. Then again, perhaps in this case a stalemate would have been the best action.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:39:45 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1187 New York Times article about a pedestrian plaza in Little India in Queens will undoubtedly provoke a mixed response among urbanists and retailers across the country. Last September the city of New York blocked off a one-block stretch of 37th Road in Jackson Heights in order to create a "park" and decongest a nearby roadway. According to business along 37th, the plan has worked too well. Business is reported to be way down for those located along the affected street. Gee, I wonder why? You have one guess - that's right, because it is harder to get to these businesses, so customers are apparently shopping elsewhere. Retail 101. The model referenced for this move by the city is the success of closing Times Square to traffic. The problem is, Times Square is truly one-of-a-kind. It is such an immense draw, known around the world as a major destination, that closing the street actually helped it. The same can be said of closing the street between Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery in London - again, a one-of-a-kind place. The key is, tens of thousands of people still show up to these destinations because of their surrounding density and access via transit and sidewalk. The same realities don't apply to most downtowns, and apparently not to Little India, either. Decades ago, dozens of downtowns closed off a major retail street to traffic. Most results were disastrous, as shoppers (who, as Bob Gibbs points out "don't need to shop") either stayed home or took their business elsewhere to places that were easier to access. Few downtown pedestrian streets survive, like Pearl Street in Boulder, and it is due to a large stable nearby pedestrian population (the University of Colorado) and a concerted effort on behalf of both the public and private sector to draw customers and help them find a place to park. What bothers me most about the situation in Queens is there was no apparent plan to attract and retain customers - the city just shut off the street. That said, there apparently was an 18-month study on traffic, but still no report that an actual plan existed between the city and local businesses. Still, I have to scratch my head at how local business owners can be unaware of an 18-month study that affects their livelihood so directly. Perhaps there was communication the city and businesses, although the Times reports there wasn't much if any. Perhaps only the building owners received notification, and if I know some building owners, communication with tenants isn't always very good. Still, this wouldn't be the first time a city has made life more difficult for small business owners, although I must say, if a city action hurts your businesses, you should be able to prove it by showing your books. Furthermore, the Times doesn't report that any business has actually closed...yet. I can also see it from the residents' perspective. They want traffic calming and some more open space. But they also value their small businesses, which are often put on a pedestal without a full understanding of how blocking access can submarine already razor-thin margins. It is one thing to be a NIMBY and worry that a nearby housing development may affect your quality of life in some way, but entirely another when the street in front of your store is blocked off and the impact on your revenue is immediate and dire. Area residents don't always understand the economics of operating a small business. Good placemaking must be rooted in economic and market realities. We can only speculate that maybe the best process would have been to openly engage all stakeholders and come up with a plan that provided advertising for affected businesses, created alternative parking nearby, charged for on-street parking, created a woonerf (shared street), only shut the street down on Sundays, coupling it with an event of some kind, or found financing for more attractive bollards and street furniture. Of course, it is possible that an open, transparent process would have led to a stalemate on the issue. Then again, perhaps in this case a stalemate would have been the best action.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com 612-251-4662 3913 29th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406 Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1235 http://joe-urban.com/archive/economic-value-of-form-based-codes-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-4/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/#comments Mon, 14 May 2012 14:39:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1232 this 2011 article in Urban Land, so I was pleased with this in-depth look at grocers at CNU 20. Despite an urban setting, parking is typically still critical. Sometimes the parking is underground, like at Ralphs in downtown Los Angeles. Sometimes it is at grade but the store is elevated to the second story, and sometimes parking is even on the roof. Rarely is parking less than five spaces per thousand square feet except in very dense urban areas. However, David Taulbee, Architectural Manager of Publix, notes that parking at many of their urban stores is full only at peak times, so that sacred parking ratio of five per thousand is called to question, particularly if the store has other parking options nearby like shared, on-street or bicycle parking. Uses can mix, but Neal Payton, Principal at Torti Gallas, cautions against a wide range of issues. For one, grocers are very special retailers with unique needs. Not only is sufficient parking important, but so is truck access, with several deliveries each day. As well, each major grocer has its own store layout that affects column spacing. Because column spacing does not always match the spacing of residential space above, creativity is required. In the CityVista project in Washington, DC, for example, this problem is avoided by placing the residential tower above liner retail instead of the ground floor Safeway store. One key issue addressed is just how many households are required to support a store and within what proximity? David Taulbee was coy about how many households Publix requires to build a new store, but noted that it varied by many factors, including density, access and existing competition. The bottom line for CNU members is the additional value a full-service grocer can provide an urban neighborhood. John Given, Principal of CIM Group, notes that when Ralphs opened in 2007 as part of a mixed-use project in South Park in downtown Los Angeles, it was nothing short of transformative. He noted there were thousands of new housing units in the area but no reason to walk anywhere. With an urban grocer, there now is. #cnu20 ]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/the-value-of-urban-grocery-stores-dispatch-from-cnu-20-pt-3/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 16:35:43 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1226 CNU20 in West Palm Beach. The rise of the Chinese middle class today is very different than the rise of the American middle class in the 1950s, and the impact on land use is immense. For one, it is sixteen stories instead of two! That is one of the many observations by Peter Calthorpe when presenting his work in China. If CNU doesn’t pay attention to China and offer part of the solution to land use decisions as the country rapidly urbanizes, “we are asleep at the wheel,” according to Calthorpe. In truth, there are similarities and differences. America has suburbanized in a one-mile square pattern of separated land uses divided by arterials. China’s most recent version of urbanization also divides areas of their cities in to single-use superblocks divided by large roadways. The similarities largely end there, but the result is a rapidly increasing rate of automobile use, a glaring problem given the scale of urbanization and pollution there. A number of cities are using regional planning principles by Calthorpe Associates to guide land use decisions. These plans are familiar to many new urbanists, using 150-meter blocks, paired couplet roadways not exceeding four lanes, and density focused around subway stations. Plans show a granular mixing of uses, which will encourage walking. This is critical so the tens and hundreds of millions of new city dwellers do not need to drive. In fact, China is considering a national policy of capping the modal split of automobile trips at 20% (it is now at 12%). Certainly opportunities abound in China. Growth is occurring, and planning for that growth is critical to not only building better cities but minimizing their carbon footprint for the sake of the planet. My big question is what the public process is like for Calthorpe and others. I sense that charrettes, the bread and butter of new urbanists, are not necessarily part of the process. Follow CNU 20 on Twitter at #cnu20.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/peter-calthorpe-and-the-new-urbanism-in-china/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 22:34:35 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1224 CNU 20 (#cnu20), Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk looked back on 20 years of CNU history and ahead to the next 20. She commented on the importance of being an elite organization. That got me thinking. CNU prides itself, in my opinion, for lack of better term, on "going rogue," of germinating ideas about urbanism that are against the grain and unpopular. This is an important role. Because of CNU, Plater-Zyberk pointed out, terms like "complete streets," "live-work," "granny flat," and the very idea that design matters and community building is important are part of our everyday. So elite ideas have their place, but perhaps more critical to the movement is the grassroots, bottom up approach. The future of the movement may depend on it. I recently attended a seminar about how the tea party rose to national awareness. Far from comparing or contrasting new urbanism and the tea party, what the latter shows us is success came from a grassroots, door-to-door effort and a handle on rhetoric to get their point across. They obviously tapped in to something not being provided to Americans, and the movement grew. CNU is trying to provide something many or most Americans want - better cities and towns. It strikes me that CNU is getting some of the rhetoric right, but not the grassroots effort. Maybe "tactical urbanism" is really tapping in to that grassroots demand for something better in our cities. I see it all the time in my community, but my neighbors cannot always express it or know what to do. If CNU can better grab and focus that desire through rhetoric and a grassroots effort, some very interesting things will happen. The next few days here at CNU may provide some clues.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/cnu-elitist-or-grassroots-urbanism/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:20:09 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1197 http://joe-urban.com/archive/alexander-garvin-and-downtown-minneapolis/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:34:15 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1206 http://joe-urban.com/archive/tod-is-coming-to-the-lake-street-station/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/#comments Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:58:24 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1199 The Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation Affordability Index that living in a location-efficent place can save households thousands of dollars per year. So what would you choose? If you are "an average American," you could buy an energy-efficient car and save ,000 over the life of that vehicle, say 10 years. That is an average of 0 per year. Or you can choose to live in an efficient location where you can literally drive less. This will save you thousands of dollars per year. Americans aren't stupid. Why neither party is actually talking about this is ridiculous. To the Obama administration's credit, a lot of behind-the-scenes cooperation is occurring between agencies to better unite transportation and housing policy. This is wonderful, but deserves more attention. But why this isn't a conservative issue I don't know - after all, it is about conserving money, right? Location efficiency works in small towns (read "Real America") just as well as urban places. Resistance to appropriate densities in order to support location efficiency is a bipartisan problem - NIMBY's don't discriminate by political party. Housing and transportation affordability need not be a divisive issue. It isn't about herding people in to cities, it is about saving American households money. I know it isn't that easy in the real world. But I can tell you I'd rather save thousands of dollars per year versus just 0, and not be as beholden to gas price increases. An increasing number of Americans are figuring this out, too, and our energy, housing and transportation policy is struggling to keep pace.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/would-you-rather-save-8000-per-year-or-8000-over-10-years/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:03:23 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1189 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (as fine a midsize city newspaper you'll find anywhere) predicted a jobs/housing imbalance in the greater Milwaukee metro area. Welcome to the club! There isn't a metro area in the country that doesn't have an imbalance of jobs and housing across its various municipalities. I'm talking of course of the imbalance between affordable or workforce housing and jobs that pay affordable or workforce wages - in other words, people who are working in any number of industries, including teaching and stocking the shelves at WalMart, but cannot afford a really nice home. The reality is, this includes a large percentage of Americans - up to 30% or more. There is great demand for housing in these income levels but insufficient supply, and there are nearly always imbalances across cities. Take the Milwaukee example. According to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, suburban Milwaukee cities like Brookfield, Cedarburg, Delafield, Mequon, New Berlin and Oconomowoc have more low-and moderate-wage jobs than affordable housing. Milwaukee is not alone - this geographic disparity exists in all metro areas to some degree. It is a simple relationship between just a couple factors - as each individual city grows, it generally adds single-family homes and jobs at a faster rate than they set aside land for their "fair share" of high-density housing sites in which more affordable housing can be built. Add to that an overall lack of resources and financing for affordable housing and you get this disparity. Nowhere else have I found a more concise but thorough analysis of affordable housing need than Determining Affordable Housing Need in the Twin Cities 2011-2020, released by the Metropolitan Council. The report is short, but well researched. It looks at four basic criteria - each city's planned total additional housing for the decade, that city's existing proximity to lower-wage jobs, existing affordable housing stock, and access to transit service. In practice this means a variety of outcomes. For example, a central city or inner-ring suburb with a vast supply of older apartments doesn't need to add as many affordable units as a newer suburb with very little existing affordable product. A city with good transit service must add more housing because of the lower-income households depend on transit service to a greater degree. Finally, a "bedroom community" doesn't need to add as many housing units versus a city with a greater supply of low-wage jobs. The map on page 12 of the Met Council study shows an interesting result. Just like in Milwaukee (and no doubt many metro areas), a pattern emerges that shows newer, wealthier suburbs in general need to provide a disproportionate share of new affordable housing units. What is interesting is the fact that the two core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul must add the most. This is not because of an existing imbalance of housing per se, but rather because the two core cities have the best proximity and transit service to a greater number of low-wage jobs. Released in 2006, the Met Council's plan influenced the resulting 2008 comprehensive plans for every city in the metro area. These plans are not strictly enforceable - no city will be held accountable for the development of their "fair share" of affordable housing. But it helps the industry argue for approvals and financing for affordable housing. For two recent affordable housing market studies I completed in the suburban communities of Woodbury and Savage, I found substantial demand and very little competition. My study was bolstered by the Met Council report indicating both communities needed to create more than 2,000 affordable housing units this decade. Conversely, my studies in Minneapolis show the sheer proximity to jobs and transit results in low vacancy for affordable housing, despite substantial competition. In other words, the numbers don't lie; there is a need and some communities have a more acute need than others. Every metro area should be so lucky as to have a study like the Met Council's Affordable Housing Need analysis. What is needed, moreover, is the political will to live up to the needs analysis and the financing tools with which to do so.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/affordable-housingjobs-imbalance-in-milwaukee-the-twin-cities-and-everywhere/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:39:45 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1187 New York Times article about a pedestrian plaza in Little India in Queens will undoubtedly provoke a mixed response among urbanists and retailers across the country. Last September the city of New York blocked off a one-block stretch of 37th Road in Jackson Heights in order to create a "park" and decongest a nearby roadway. According to business along 37th, the plan has worked too well. Business is reported to be way down for those located along the affected street. Gee, I wonder why? You have one guess - that's right, because it is harder to get to these businesses, so customers are apparently shopping elsewhere. Retail 101. The model referenced for this move by the city is the success of closing Times Square to traffic. The problem is, Times Square is truly one-of-a-kind. It is such an immense draw, known around the world as a major destination, that closing the street actually helped it. The same can be said of closing the street between Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery in London - again, a one-of-a-kind place. The key is, tens of thousands of people still show up to these destinations because of their surrounding density and access via transit and sidewalk. The same realities don't apply to most downtowns, and apparently not to Little India, either. Decades ago, dozens of downtowns closed off a major retail street to traffic. Most results were disastrous, as shoppers (who, as Bob Gibbs points out "don't need to shop") either stayed home or took their business elsewhere to places that were easier to access. Few downtown pedestrian streets survive, like Pearl Street in Boulder, and it is due to a large stable nearby pedestrian population (the University of Colorado) and a concerted effort on behalf of both the public and private sector to draw customers and help them find a place to park. What bothers me most about the situation in Queens is there was no apparent plan to attract and retain customers - the city just shut off the street. That said, there apparently was an 18-month study on traffic, but still no report that an actual plan existed between the city and local businesses. Still, I have to scratch my head at how local business owners can be unaware of an 18-month study that affects their livelihood so directly. Perhaps there was communication the city and businesses, although the Times reports there wasn't much if any. Perhaps only the building owners received notification, and if I know some building owners, communication with tenants isn't always very good. Still, this wouldn't be the first time a city has made life more difficult for small business owners, although I must say, if a city action hurts your businesses, you should be able to prove it by showing your books. Furthermore, the Times doesn't report that any business has actually closed...yet. I can also see it from the residents' perspective. They want traffic calming and some more open space. But they also value their small businesses, which are often put on a pedestal without a full understanding of how blocking access can submarine already razor-thin margins. It is one thing to be a NIMBY and worry that a nearby housing development may affect your quality of life in some way, but entirely another when the street in front of your store is blocked off and the impact on your revenue is immediate and dire. Area residents don't always understand the economics of operating a small business. Good placemaking must be rooted in economic and market realities. We can only speculate that maybe the best process would have been to openly engage all stakeholders and come up with a plan that provided advertising for affected businesses, created alternative parking nearby, charged for on-street parking, created a woonerf (shared street), only shut the street down on Sundays, coupling it with an event of some kind, or found financing for more attractive bollards and street furniture. Of course, it is possible that an open, transparent process would have led to a stalemate on the issue. Then again, perhaps in this case a stalemate would have been the best action.]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/closing-a-street-and-businesses-in-little-india-in-queens/feed/ 0 http://joe-urban.com/archive/sam-schwartz-the-m-t-a-and-penn-station/ http://joe-urban.com/archive/sam-schwartz-the-m-t-a-and-penn-station/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:47:14 +0000 Joe Urban http://joe-urban.com/?p=1185 Bill Keller's recent Times Op-Ed about Sam Schwartz. In it, Mr. Keller prescribes some sensible transportation solutions for New York City, most of which are the ideas of Sam Schwartz. It is well worth reading, as it includes solutions for trains, buses, cars and even bikes, and a sensible way to pay for it all that could result in an additional $1.2 billion for the MTA. More provocatively, Keller ties Schwartz's ideas to another recent New York Times article that featured Michael Kimmelman's plan for Penn Station. I've traveled through Penn Station and understand its, um, drawbacks. I also understand that New York's transit funding has a similar relationship to all modes of transportation, and its solutions, while at a different scale, should be watched closely by metro areas across the country. Keller points out that a major investment bank believes Schwartz plan is worth a $15 billion bond issue - nothing to sneeze at. The transportation funding system for all modes is broken across the country and the outlook is bleak. It is quite possible Sam Schwartz's ideas won't be implemented or even listened to, but it is worth paying attention to any innovative transportation funding solutions wherever they emerge, be it New York or anywhere. ]]> http://joe-urban.com/archive/sam-schwartz-the-m-t-a-and-penn-station/feed/ 0