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...]
If You Can Repeatedly Close a Freeway For Months At a Time, Do You Really Need It At All?
Ten years ago state highway officials closed I-65/I-70 in downtown Indianapolis for three months for a rehab project called "Hyperfix." This was expected to cause a "carmageddon," but as we've grown used to many times by now, the expected traffic disaster never materialized: As the start date approached, INDOT and its partners implemented other precautions to ensure smooth traffic flow but soon discovered the additional efforts were unnecessary. For example, the State budgeted $100,000 in overtime for police, mainly to direct traffic downtown. … [Read more...]
Suburban Blight in Kansas City
[ This week Eric McAfee takes a look at phenomenon that is on the rise in America today - suburban blight. Early generation suburbs across America are falling into decay, bringing with them all the ills we have traditionally associated with the inner city. Eric highlights an example for us in Kansas City - Aaron. ] Over the past century, the word “blight” has undergone a curious expansion in its denotations. It was originally a botanical term referring to a disease characterized by discoloration, wilting, and eventual death of plant tissues. … [Read more...]
Will Las Vegas’ Downtown Project Succeed?
This is the second installment in my look at the Las Vegas Downtown Project. In part one I gave an overview of the project and some of the positives and success indicators. On Thursday I looked at some of the commonalities between Vegas and other small cities as a bridge to this installment. And finally today I want to look at some of the challenges I see with the Downtown Project and ask, will it succeed? As for the answer to that question, some of it is a matter of how you define success. At a base level, there's already been success. … [Read more...]
Tony Hsieh and the Las Vegas Downtown Project
The Downtown Project in Las Vegas, an attempt to completely reinvent downtown Las Vegas spearheaded by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, is one of the better known downtown revitalization initiatives in America. I've been planning to write on it since I saw Tony speak about it in Providence last fall. I was kicked in the pants to finally do so by a trip I took to Vegas last week to check the Downtown Project out. Before going any further, I should disclose that I stayed there for free in one of the project's "crash pad" apartments (more on those … [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...]
Milwaukee’s Future as Part of Greater Chicagoland
Last summer I was invited to speak at a conference called "Milwaukee's Future in the Chicago Megacity" put on by the Marquette University School of Law and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. It was an interesting day of conversation about mega-regional integration between the two metros. In follow-up, Marquette Lawyer magazine asked me to write a piece for them about it. I'm including the full text of that article below. However, the current issue of the magazine has a couple of other major articles on the same topic. These are "Thinking and … [Read more...]
Worcester v. Providence: Is Downtown Revitalization the Sum of Urban Revitalization? by Stephen Eide
Worcester, MA and Providence, RI invite comparison for at least four reasons. They’re the same size (pop. ~180,000), they share the same history of deindustrialization and urban decline, they’re only 40 miles apart, and they’re different, which makes comparison stimulating and worthwhile. By most any fiscal or economic measure, Worcester outperforms Providence. But because of the so-called Renaissance, the revitalization of downtown Providence throughout the 1980s and 90s, Providence has attracted far more attention among urbanists and the … [Read more...]
No Parking, No Problem
[ Here's a rarity. It's one from the archives that I wrote way back in 1997. There are a lot of anachronisms in it, but it is still very relevant. Also, this should not be considered overly specific to Indianapolis, because the thinking is pervasive, though thankfully improving in a lot of places - Aaron. ] It is almost considered a truism in Indianapolis that one of the biggest obstacles to getting people to come downtown to shop, see the sights, etc. is a lack of free, convenient parking. People driving in from the suburbs are forced to … [Read more...]
The Strategic Case for Mass Transit in Indianapolis
Andrea Neal had a column in the Indianapolis Star last week called "Mass transit just isn't a good fit for Indy." This piece argues, basically, that because Indianapolis is low density, transit won't work there. Let me first say that I agree Indy is low density and transit is not something that's needed to address a serious, near term transport issue, save for the embarrassing state of the basic bus network. However, for a place like Indianapolis, the real case for transit is strategic. In a nutshell, the urban core of Indianapolis is … [Read more...]
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