[ Contributor Robert Munson sent me the below as his take on how Chicago should reform its transportation governance structure. Comments will be enabled on this post and you can email Robert at rcmunson@icloud.com - Aaron.} Photo by NASANight-time shows Chicagoland’s transportation corridors radiating from its center, but does not reveal their weakness: corridors don’t connect well to one another, adding to congestion and time wastage. Many connection improvements proposed in the region’s 2040 Plan are being failed by our politics. As an … [Read more...]
Search Results for: Robert Munson
Chicago’s Secondary Stations: Little Engines That Could…And Should
This is part of the series North America's Train Stations: What Makes Them Sustainable or Not? To describe how central stations can help us evolve toward sustainable transportation, this series uses a middle category called “Economic Engines.” This category stimulates its surrounds. These three Chicago stations do that job well. Category: Economic Engines (click for all currently reviewed stations) Consolidated Scorecard: Click to view full scorecard Scorecard Summary: max pnts = 100 80 Ogilvie Transportation Center … [Read more...]
New York Penn Station: Taming the Beast
[ This week Robert Munson returns to his look at North America's central train stations with a look at New York's infamous "beast" - Pennsylvania Station. He picks up after his look at the "beauty" that is Grand Central Terminal - Aaron. ] This post is part of a series by Robert Munson called North America’s Train Stations: What Makes Them Sustainable — or Not? Showing the grandeur of the original Penn Station (destroyed 1963), this main waiting room approximated the volume of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. Photo via Wikimedia … [Read more...]
North America’s Train Stations: What Makes Them Sustainable – or Not?
This series by Robert Munson is examining all of the central train stations in North America in terms of their present condition and future potential to boost the fortunes of their region. Series Introduction: North America's Train Stations: What Makes Them Sustainable - Or Not? Sustainable Stations: Grand Central Terminal Philadelphia Center City Stations Economic Engine Stations: Chicago's Ogilivie Transportation Center (Northwestern Station), Millennium Stations (Randolph St. Station) and LaSalle St. Station Newark Penn … [Read more...]
The Tough Realities Facing Smaller Post-Industrial Cities
A couple weeks ago the Economist ran a leader and an article on the plight of smaller post-industrial cities, noting that these days the worst urban decay is found not in big cities but in small ones. They observe: Partly, this reflects the extraordinary success of London and continuing deindustrialisation in the north of England. Areas such as Teesside have been struggling, on and off, since the first world war. But whereas over the past two decades England’s big cities have developed strong service-sector economies, its smaller industrial … [Read more...]
Grand Central Terminal And Penn Station: Will The Beauty and The Beast Ever Get Married?
This post is part of a series by Robert Munson called North America’s Train Stations: What Makes Them Sustainable — or Not? See the series introduction for more. Photo by the author to celebrate GCT’s 100th anniversaryIn today’s tale, Grand Central Terminal is The Beauty. Admired also for her goodness, she touches souls in ways most civic buildings cannot. Many souls, such as this author, find her exquisite. So when our mid-Century trend of destroying beautiful buildings put GCT on the demolition list, the public’s stored-up admiration … [Read more...]
Newark Penn Station
This post is part of a series called North America’s Train Stations: What Makes Them Sustainable — or Not? See the series introduction for more. Photo from City of Newark websiteA visual pleasure inside and out, Newark’s Penn Station is more than a pretty face. An excellent workhorse, this station helped save one of America’s most troubled cities. Seemingly married to a special Destiny, this station was born in spite of the Great Depression and has endured as a leading Economic Engine; pulling its city through half a Century of … [Read more...]
North America’s Train Stations: What Makes Them Sustainable – or Not?
[ Today and Tuesday I'm kicking off a series by Robert Munson that reviews North America's train stations. Entries will be posted periodically as Robert writes them. Today is the set up followed by Philadelphia, and many more analyses that should surely get people arguing - Aaron.] Before cities waste more time and money fumbling, let’s first describe how train stations should serve the 21st Century. Which of these encourages you to travel by train? New York’s former Penn Station was cathedral-like, an elegant concourse and … [Read more...]
Chicago’s Daley Deals
Politics + Projects = Planning......And The Deal Beyond Daley Chicago has trouble beating its rap portrayed in the popular media these days. So do the Daleys. Three books give a balanced description of what The Daley Years got done, focusing on the son’s service as Mayor from 1989 to 2011. By reviewing these books in context, this essay suggests that two key tasks in completing Chicago’s transformation -- revitalized poorer neighborhoods and improved transit -- requires sacrifice from taxpayers and a new deal. Richard M. Daley was raised … [Read more...]
Is Urbanism the New Trickle-Down Economics?
The pejoratively named "trickle-down economics" was the idea that by giving tax breaks to the wealthy and big business, this would spur economic growth that would benefit those further down the ladder. I guess we all know how that worked out. But while progressives would clearly mock this policy, modern day urbanism often resembles nothing so much as trickle-down economics, though this time mostly advocated by those who would self-identify as being from the left. The idea is that through investments catering to the fickle and mobile educated … [Read more...]
