A rather prosaic economic development announcement in Indianapolis provides an opportunity to hammer home in a concrete way the connection between quality of life investments and economic development. This is something I've long argued we urbanists do a poor job of. We tend to adopt a "build it and they will come" marketing approach to quality of life initiatives where the connection between cause and effect is tenuous. Additionally, these tend to focus almost entirely on and tell stories about "the best and brightest" which in a country dying … [Read more...]
Archives for August 2013
In Case You’ve Forgotten How Badly Freeways Damaged Our Cities, Cincinnati Edition
A couple weeks ago I posted a series of photos demonstrating the damage freeway construction did to Indianapolis. Since I've been covering Cincinnati this week, I thought I'd show the damage freeways did there too. Over the Rhine is one of America's most stunning historic districts. When I visited the city last year, one of the locals explained that there had been "miles" of neighborhoods just like it obliterated by freeway construction. I found this difficult to credit until I came across the photographic proof. Here's a picture of one … [Read more...]
Rezoning Midtown East by Micah Rodman
[ Many of you are probably aware by now that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is pushing to upzone the Midtown East area around Grand Central Terminal before he leaves office. Micah Rodman, a student at Yale, wrote an a paper on this I thought would be of interest as an example showing the way Bloomberg has been seeking to reshape New York - Aaron. ] Currently, the New York City Department of Urban Planning is in the public approval process of changing the zoning for East Midtown as a means of redeveloping the neighborhood. In this 73-block … [Read more...]
The Growing Public Safety Inequality Gap in Chicago
[ Daniel Hertz writes over at his City Notes blog. He was gracious enough to give me to permission to repost the results of his research into changes in crime patterns in Chicago over time - Aaron. ] Here are two maps: HOMICIDE RATE BY POLICE DISTRICT 1990-1993 2008-2011 Like the captions say, the one on the left shows homicide rates by police district in the early 90s, when crime was at its peak in Chicago, and the one on the right shows the same thing, but about two decades later.* The areas in dark green are the … [Read more...]
In Case You’ve Forgotten How Much Damage Freeway Construction Did to Our Cities
Curt Ailes recently pointed me at this post from Historic Indianapolis showing the before, during, and after of freeway construction in the southeast quadrant of Indianapolis. The pictures say it all: Before: During: Today: You may also want to check out my post on the even worse damage done in Cincinnati. … [Read more...]
What Is a Global City?
This post originally ran on August 19, 2012. We hear a lot of talk these days about so-called "global cities." But what is a global city? Saskia Sassen literally wrote the book on global cities back in 2001 (though her global cities work dates back well over a decade prior to that book). She gave a definition that has long struck with me. In short form, in the age of globalization, the activities of production are scattered on a global basis. These complex, globalized production networks require new forms of financial and producer … [Read more...]