I recommend reading Neal Peirce’s latest column about urban policy as it relates to the upcoming presidential election. Read “McCain Versus Obama: Who’s Best for Cities” here. I think this column is enlightening to say the least, and should remind us of the importance of good metropolitan policy at the local, state and especially the federal level.

On a recent visit to Charlotte, I took some time to ride their new light rail line and check out some good old fashioned transit oriented development. The line connects Charlotte’s strong central business district with the South End neighborhood and on towards the southwest of the city. Ridership has already exceeded forecasts for years from now, and the day I was there a newspaper article noted that transit ridership in Charlotte is at record levels. I was impressed by development I saw around stations, and of the train operation itself. It seems the good people of Charlotte have a…

Gordon Price stopped me in the middle of a street in Vancouver, and said, “Now look around and count the number of pedestrians you see. Fourteen. Now how many cars? One.” Sure enough, here I was in Vancouver’s West End, a neighborhood as dense and urban as Manhattan (75 people per acre), and it was pedestrian dominated. That was just the first lesson in a six-hour walking tour by Gordon Price, a fellow urbanist and former city council member in Vancouver, British Columbia. The tour included inspecting infill housing sites, analyzing building height and massing, tree canopies, awnings, sidewalk and…

In a sign of the times, some of my friends that used to develop condos are now developing wind farms. The condo market may have dried up, but the wind still blows. And indeed it blows, especially here in Minneapolis, so much so that one particularly windy day last sping, one of those days that would be pleasant but for the wind, I signed our household up to receive a portion of our electricity from the wind. Those friends of mine, the former condo developers, recently put on a presentation about wind power for our local Young Leaders Group of…