Development

Rudin Center conference on Transit Oriented Developments

In Cars, Development, Transportation on 21 November 2008 with no comments

Last Friday, the Rudin Center at NYU hosted a conference on Transit Oriented Development (TOD). Over the course of a few posts, I’d like to offer a summary of some of the best ideas that were thrown around the room that day. Here’s what keynote speaker Doug Foy—an environmental activist and former head of the [...]

Hitchens, on the meaning of bohemia and the West Village

In Development, London, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Urbanism on 16 June 2008 with no comments

Christopher Hitchens recalls bohemia’s eclipses in London, Paris, and San Francisco, and worries that New York’s West Village may soon become another victim of the skyscraper’s shadow. The loss would be immeasurable.
[T]ry picturing American culture without the contribution of this unique square mile. Inter alia, you would have to subtract Bob Dylan and the Cafe [...]

Michigan’s MEGA tax credits to include creative industries

In Detroit, Development, Michigan, State Government on 15 May 2008 with no comments

On the recommendation of Detroit Renaissance, Michigan hopes to attract more creative sector employers with recent legislation making these firms eligible for the state’s high-tech or high-wage MEGA tax credits. [via]

The two Cairos

In Cairo, Development, Megacity, Planning, Slums, Statistics on 13 November 2007 with no comments

In a pattern that is repeated in megacities–and not so megacities–everywhere, Cairo’s rich are opting “for the private gated enclaves, while the poor live in illegally built suburbs reclaimed from the surrounding countryside.”
What are the growth patterns within the city?
“It is only a slight exaggeration to say that informality is the defining characteristic of the [...]

gen·tri·fi·ca·tion (n.): “a benign ethnic cleansing”

In Criticism, Development, Gentrification, New York on 8 November 2007 with no comments

“What’s kind of going on now is a benign ethnic cleansing of the borough of Manhattan. . .”

The Anglophilic American suburb

In Atlanta, Branding, Britain, Development on 6 November 2007 with no comments

For over a century, American developers and suburban-boosters have branded their communities with an easily-pronounced, “safe”, Anglophilic vocabulary:
Anglophilia runs deep in American culture, but it’s been particularly useful in helping Americans lay out a fantasy for how they want to live, a measure of wealth and success that’s guided urban planners for a century…
We anoint [...]

Tensions between mass transit and mixed-use

In Atlanta, Development, Environment, Planning, Transportation on 5 November 2007 with no comments

Carbon Copy, on a tension within some municipalities between public transportation and mixed-use development:
…there is a contradiction in the planning approaches of many jurisdictions that are developing mass transit, in that promotion of mixed-use urban areas actually weakens the strong nodes that are the lifeblood of mass transit.
To be fair, the concept of mixed-use areas [...]