"The long-term utility of the megaregion as a distinct planning scale is still unproven. Does the megaregional approach confront or evade the core planning issues of equity, democracy, livability, economic vitality, and design excellence? If Jane Jacobs old quip about a region being 'an area safely larger than the last one to whose problems we found no solution' remains cogent, then the current interest in megaregions represents either a logical territorial scaling up to match the rapid expansion of regions, or another attempt by stalwart … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2012
Nashville Rolls On
I have a friend in Nashville and try to get there about once a year for a visit. He knows my insatiable desire for urban exploration, so tries to take me around to new places each time, which is awesome. A couple of my previous trips were documented in the posts "Impressions of Nashville" (from 2007) and "Nashville: Next Boomtown of the New South" (from 2008). As with previous visits, I want to highlight a few observations I had. The first is, "What Great Recession?" Yes, Nashville surely suffered from this, and there's a notable absence of … [Read more...]
Hoosiers to Pay 80% of Local Tolls for Ohio River Bridges Project
Update 4/6: The organization behind the polls has put up a web site with raw data and more findings from their scientific survey. Update 4/6: Later reports with more specific data from this poll show that the actual ratio is 74% of the local traffic is Hoosiers, not 80% - still a stunning ratio. The pollster estimates a slightly lower ratio of toll revenue to Indiana - 70%, though it's not clear how they did this math. And finally it looks like Southern Indiana officials are waking up to the fact that they are going to get pimped on this … [Read more...]