Perhaps because I just witnessed the birth of my second son, I couldn’t help but notice the discussion of Birth Places in Christopher Alexander’s “A Pattern Language” (for those of you who treat A Pattern Language like the bible, Birth Places can be found in the “Book” of Towns, “Verse” 65). It makes perfect sense – birth and death are part of life and should be any healthy community. As Alexander writes, “It seems unlikely that any process which treats childbirth as a sickness could possibly he a healthy part of a healthy society.” Therefore: “Build local birth places where…

If you have never been to the Town Center at San Elijo Hills, I encourage you to visit at once. Located about 30 miles north of downtown San Diego, it is the finest marriage of land use and transportation planning in a suburban setting that I am aware of in the United States. It should serve as an example for anyone seeking a holistic solution to achieve attractive, functional mixed-use suburban development. You can view pictures of San Elijo Hills here. I was very impressed upon my first visit five years ago, and I recently returned to San Elijo Hills…

“That site is going to sit vacant for a decade.” That was the quote from a frustrated developer as he left a public hearing this past spring, after the city council voted down his planned apartment project. I prepared a market study for the proposed project that was voted down. It was to be a market rate, general occupancy housing on a vacant site in an inner ring suburb. Which city does not matter here, nor do the specifics of the project. What matters is this is but one of countless examples across the country of short-sighted cities passing on…

It bothers me that my four-year-old son Ellis is most familiar with Target as the source of his food. We’ve tried to balance that with the purchase of a Community Share Agriculture (CSA), so a trip to the farm where that food comes from is certainly in order. Still, in a perfect world, I’d have a full-service grocery store a five-minute walk from my house, and the most logical location would be next to the 38th Street light rail station. Every transit station area should be anchored by a grocery store. A recent Citiwire post by Neal Peirce about supermarkets…

I recently participated in the creation of a master plan vision for a prominent transit-oriented development site at the southwest quadrant of Lake Street and Hiawatha Avenue. The master plan vision/development concept is a collaboration with the Corcoran Neighborhood Organization, the BKV Group and a team of developers. I represented my firm, Joe Urban, Inc., in largely a market research role. You can view the plan here. The driving objective of the master plan vision is to build on past plans and provide the Corcoran Neighborhood Organization with a means of helping to inform the approvals process when the Minneapolis…

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (posted here on the New Geography website), Joel Kotkin takes on the myth of the move back to the city. He raises some very good issues, but I believe there is a hole in his argument. First of all, we should not be confusing the demand for condos in downtown Miami, Los Angeles and Las Vegas (very speculative and investor-driven during the housing bubble) with actual demand and desire for urban living in mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods served by transit. Mr. Kotkin cited a 2004 survey by Smart Growth America as proof…