Mass Urban

“Impressive Denver study on equity & transit should become national model

Kaid Benfield. May 4, 2012

Transit analysts Reconnecting America and the Denver equity coalition Mile High Connects have released an impressive compendium of maps and research showing how expansion of that city’s transit system could bring major opportunity to traditionally underserved populations – if local agencies take the necessary steps to prepare and coordinate.  Called the Denver Regional Equity Atlas, the data-rich report is among the more sophisticated uses of GIS mapping that I have seen.

It should be immensely useful not only to city officials, advocates, planners and social scientists in Denver, but also to anyone looking for a state-of-the-art analytical model to assist the coordination of transportation, housing, jobs, and access to important services in other American cities.  It must have cost a fortune to underwrite. 

The Atlas comprises five chapters and 31 large-scale maps that cover demographics, housing, health, jobs and education; data were collected from a variety of sources for seven counties in the metro Denver region. Each map also shows the current and future transit network, including high-frequency bus routes and rail lines, enabling users to see quickly how well the transit lines and stops match up with, for example, concentrations of low-income populations, jobs, affordable housing, parks, shopping, medical services and the like.  The report was co-written with the Piton Foundation.

Denver’s Regional Transportation District is currently engaged in one of the country’s most ambitious expansions of public transportation infrastructure and services.  RTD’s“FasTracks” Program is a multi-billion dollar effort to build 122 miles of new commuter rail and light rail and 18 miles of bus rapid transit, and to enhance current bus service for access and transfers across an eight-county district.  It is already beginning to change the region by bringing more and better ways of getting around to more people, while stimulating walkable development around the rail stations.

The potential for such substantial investment to be transformative is obvious.  Within walking distance of most transit stations, communities across the region hope to build a mix of housing, office, shopping and other essential community resources in order to create a unique sense of place and reduce reliance on automobiles.  But the authors make clear that it cannot be assumed that these benefits will accrue equitably:”

Via: NRDC Switchboard

“It’s unanimous: El Paso commits to a smarter, greener future

Kaid Benfield.

Earlier this week, the city council of El Paso, the nation’s 19th-largest city, unanimously adopted a detailed comprehensive plan built around the principles of smart growth and green development.  With significant economic importance and a rich cultural history, but plagued with sprawling recent development patterns coupled with alarming rates of land consumption and carbon pollution, the city constructed Plan El Paso over the past two years.  It is among the best, most articulate comprehensive plans I have ever seen.

In January of last year, I reviewed Connecting El Paso, a precursor to the new comprehensive plan that focused on four key transit station areas.  I called the document“a comprehensive guide to smart growth design and implementation” and predicted that it would be a winner when the year’s planning awards were handed out.  Sure enough, in December the US Environmental Protection Agency honored the draft of Plan El Pasowith a national award for achievement in smart growth, judging the effort as the year’s best example of outstanding “programs, policies and regulations.”

The plan has actually gotten better, and certainly more detailed (it runs some 900 pages in all) since I reviewed its predecessor.  Early on, the new document makes clear that it is time for a bold new vision and commitment:

“In recent years health problems such as obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and the maladies associated with social alienation have become a normal response to a built-environ­ment that does not allow walking or facilitate human interac­tion. The young and the elderly of El Paso, especially, have been left behind by urban forms that necessitate driving long dis­tances. The plan proposes strategies to bring more of the activi­ties of daily living within walking distance and a framework of transportation alternatives including transit and bicycle systems. Encouraging walkability helps create healthy life styles. Building complete places that enable neighbors to know each other will help create and retain close-knit communities …

“The plan recognizes the indispensability of beauty, not as some­thing separate and apart from life like pictures in a gallery, but beauty in homes, neighborhoods, civic buildings, streets, and public spaces. In this way Plan El Paso aims not to return to a vanished time, but rather to grow a choiceworthy contem­porary City based on cherished and enduring values. The plan revives the idea that additions to the built-environment must be functional and long-lasting but also delightful and attractive. Plan El Paso recognizes that design matters.”

Via: National Resources Defense Council

Image: Dover Kohl & Partners via Plan El Paso

theoriginalchingy:

Space frontiers - “Is it possible to track human behavior — movement patterns and purse snatching, shopping preferences and all kinds of other things, from property values to energy consumption — within the confines of city spaces? Tim Stonor, founder of Space Syntax, thinks so. He founded the urban planning software company some 15 years ago, inspired in part by the work of Bill Hillier, whose landmark book “The Social Logic of Space” codified spatial layouts and urban movement. City neighborhoods from London to Beijing are thought to have their own unique deep structure and spatial signature.

The analysis of how human beings actually navigate urban places will comes in handy for the task of retrofitting the spaces that don’t quite work right…”

via The Boston Globe.

(via irishboyinlondon)