Columbus, Ohio is by far the best performing city in Ohio. In a state that has become a byword for the challenges and pain of de-industrialization, Columbus is a clear standout, with strong economic and population growth. A lot of the analysis of what makes Columbus different from Cleveland, Toledo, Dayton, Youngstown, and even Cincinnati often starts out by noting all the advantages Columbus had. It is the state capital. Ohio State University is there. It was not a traditional heavy manufacturing center (less true than you might think), and … [Read more...]
The Mark of a Great City Is in How It Treats Its Ordinary Spaces, Not Its Special Ones
Cities turn to starchitecture in order to create iconic images to symbolize their city and its aspirations to the world. Famous buildings can, as with the Bilbao Guggenheim or the Milwaukee Art Museum, even come to symbolize a city itself. Such buildings or spaces also fulfill the human need for the spectacular, and for sacred space in the community. Similarly cities create "gateways" to mark the entry to special districts, or engage in various "placemaking" initiatives around branding. We frequently see, for example, the main street, plaza, … [Read more...]
Bruce Mau’s Massive Change
"Natural resources ... pollution ... world's food supply ... pressures of population growth ... Every trend in material human welfare has been improving - and promises to do so indefinitely." - Julian Simon, The Ultimate Resource With those provocative words on the cover, economist Julian L. Simon launched his magnum opus, a paean to the ingenuity of man and a rebuke to the doomsayers who have been more or less continuing to predict man-made catastrophe for the world since the time of Malthus. Simon was an unapologetic free trader … [Read more...]
The Neighborhoods of Cincinnati
Cincinnati can be incredibly surprising to people who don't know much about it. Cincinnati was the Queen City of the Midwest when Chicago was a small village. And it has an incredible legacy from that day. Cincinnati simply has the greatest collection of assets of any city its size in America. It's an embarrassment of riches. Yet Cincinnati has not been a strong economic performer in some time. It's not doing poorly, but it isn't great either. I examined Cincinnati in one of my signature overview posts a couple years ago called "A Midwest … [Read more...]
Next American Suburb: Carmel, Indiana
The fate of the suburb is one of the most important issues facing Americas metro areas. While many have decried their environmental unsustainability, even those who don't agree on that should worry greatly about their demographic, economic, and fiscal sustainability. As early inner ring suburbs across America increasingly face decay, poverty, and crime, it is clear that the allure wears off these places once they are no longer shiny and new and people can simply move to another, newer suburb on the fringe that is. If most of today's boomburgs … [Read more...]
People for Urban Progress and the New Grass Roots
I'm starting a new feature on the blog today in which I'll periodically profile great examples of positive urban change coming from the new grass roots. Today I'm featuring People for Urban Progress (PUP) from Indianapolis. One day back when I had an apartment in Indy's Fountain Square neighborhood, I popped into the local bike shop, Joe's Cycles, and saw two people having a conversation with Joe about a project they were working on to make bicycle bags out of reused fabric from the roof of the RCA Dome. I was intrigued and so introduced … [Read more...]
Louisville – The Case for 8664
Tuesday is Louisville's mayoral primary. This is one of the issues that matter for the city's future. 8664 has published the results of a candidate questionnaire on their web site. Also note that 8664 co-founder Tyler Allen is running for mayor. If I still lived in Louisville, it would be a sure thing he'd have my vote! - Aaron. ] A few weeks ago, JC Stites, co-founder of 8664 invited me down to Louisville to talk about the proposal and take a first hand tour of the riverfront. Even as a Louisville native, I had never really walked around … [Read more...]
What Made Chicago’s Burnham Plan Successful
As part of my Burnham Plan centennial celebration, I was recently prompted to ponder what made this plan successful. (Let us put aside for future postings the question of whether it was in reality a success). I started creating a list of attributes of the plan I think contributed to its success. Interestingly, all of these are lessons for today's planners and are often overlooked. So let's consider some of them. 1. It was a private sector, business led initiative. I hear people today moan about the feckless political leadership in their … [Read more...]
This Is Sprawl
Sprawl is a word familiar to most people, but few can tell you exactly what it means. Even experts don't always agree on a precise definition. The term itself is somewhat ambiguous, and often divisive. This is especially true when the word is preceded by the modifiers suburban or urban, which is commonly the case. Then the term is really loaded. Political discussion of the topic regularly provokes the already contentious relationships between cities and suburbs. This needlessly causes communities that should be cooperating to take sides … [Read more...]
The New Look of the American Suburb
This article is about the intersection of two trends I've written about before: suburban redevelopment and immigration. If you want an easy demonstration of the unsustainability of the classic American suburb, just take a drive around the inner ring suburbs of almost any city, starting with the ones that have a classic branching, winding streets, not traditional grids or those that grew up along transit lines. It is easy to find untold miles of decay, of "dead malls", "grayboxes", and subdivisions that have seen better days. If most of … [Read more...]
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