"Downtown Grove City makeover unveiled" The Columbus Dispatch

Link: Downtown Grove City makeover unveiled
Martin Rozenman
The Columbus Dispatch
July 16, 2008

Grove City residents got a look this week at a major makeover envisioned for their downtown.

About 70 residents heard from architect Frank Elmer, developer Mo Dioun and Mayor Ike Stage at the E.L. Evans Senior Center on Monday night.

Dioun's Stonehenge Co., which developed Gahanna's Creekside project, plans a 120,000-square-foot building fronting Park Street behind City Hall.

Possible occupants include Grove City's Southwest Public Libraries branch, which would move from Park Street, an Ashland University branch and an Ohio State University extension office...

...Neil Baker, 60, a 14-year resident, said he liked Elmer's plan but was a bit disappointed with Dioun's project because it doesn't include housing and because moving the library wouldn't create traffic.

"Suburbs feeling the pinch as fuel prices soar" Reuters

Link: Suburbs feeling the pinch as fuel prices soar
Helen Chernikoff
Reuters
July 10, 2008

Ever since the rise of the automobile in the 1950s, the American Dream has featured a home in the suburbs and two cars in the garage.

Now the iconic white picket fence comes with a hefty price tag in the form of the cost of the gasoline needed to drive to work and to the supermarket, and the suburban idyll is under review.

In different parts of the United States, there are signs of change. While home prices in the suburbs have crashed, apartments in city centers are in demand. Home builders across the country are frantically trying to unload land they had intended for new subdivisions. And planners are rethinking how they can meet demand for housing...

"Creekside gets costlier for Gahanna" The Columbus Dispatch

Link: Creekside gets costlier for Gahanna
Jim Woods
The Columbus Dispatch
July 8, 2008

Gahanna's government will end up paying $16.5 million for its share of the Creekside development, $6 million more than originally planned.

Creekside is a public-private partnership with Stonehenge Company to build stores, offices, condominiums and a public park along Mill Street. The project, which recently had its grand opening, has been winning raves and national awards.

Last night's City Council meeting, though, offered some criticism for the costs incurred...

"Gentrification: Not Ousting the Poor?" TIME

Link: Gentrification: Not Ousting the Poor?
Barbara Kiviat
Time
June 29, 2008

People tend to think gentrification goes like this: rich, educated white people move into a low-income minority neighborhood and drive out its original residents, who can no longer afford to live there. As it turns out, that's not typically true.

A new study by researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Pittsburgh and Duke University, examined Census data from more than 15,000 neighborhoods across the U.S. in 1990 and 2000, and found that low-income non-white households did not disproportionately leave gentrifying areas. In fact, researchers found that at least one group of residents, high school–educated blacks, were actually more likely to remain in gentrifying neighborhoods than in similar neighborhoods that didn't gentrify — even increasing as a fraction of the neighborhood population, and seeing larger-than-expected gains in income...

"Obama Urges Mayors to Focus on Urban Growth, but Not to Expect Increased Federal Aid" NYTimes.com

Link: Obama Urges Mayors to Focus on Urban Growth, but Not to Expect Increased Federal Aid
John M. Broder
NYTimes.com
June 22, 2008

Senator Barack Obama told the nation’s mayors on Saturday that current urban policy was obsolete and needed to be replaced by a model that focused on rational metropolitan growth rather than chiefly on inner-city crime and poverty.

Drawing on his years as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, said that while he intended to be a supportive partner if he won the White House, the mayors should not count on significant additional help from Washington. Change, he said, comes from the bottom up, not the top down.

Mr. Obama also said the federal government’s ability to help cities would be limited in part by a long-term budget deficit left by the Bush administration, which he called “the most fiscally irresponsible administration in modern times.”...

"Sharp Rise in Shopping Center Vacancies" The Hometown Advantage

Link: Sharp Rise in Shopping Center Vacancies
The Hometown Advantage
June 19, 2008

The number of shuttered box stores and empty strip malls has expanded dramatically over the last six months, according to data compiled by commercial real estate brokers and investment advisors. And the situation is likely to get much worse.

Chain retailers have announced plans to close more than 6,500 outlets by year's end, even as shopping center construction continues at a furious pace. Developers are on track to bring an estimated 137 million square feet of new retail space online this year. That's more than the average annual growth during the first half of the decade.

"Alarming" is how one commercial brokerage described the unabated pace of shopping center construction. It is an indication of the degree to which the forces driving retail expansion have become untethered from actual consumer demand. Communities that have not taken steps to limit retail sprawl through their land use policies are at risk of seeing growing numbers of buildings become derelict...

"Fuel Costs Pinch Cities; Mayors Push Mass Transit" NYTimes.com

Link: Fuel Costs Pinch Cities; Mayors Push Mass Transit
Damien Cave
NYTimes.com
June 21, 2008

...Coinciding with a real estate meltdown, rising energy costs have wreaked havoc because many city budgets were passed months ago with the assumption that gasoline would cost $2 a gallon. Now mayors are finding themselves squeezed by rising costs, declining revenues and increased demands for public transportation.

In the survey, 88 percent of mayors said their cities had experienced growth in the use of public transit, with nearly half of those reporting that the increases were significant or very significant. Some studies have documented growth of 10 percent to 15 percent over the last year in parts of the South and West.

“Public transportation is the way everyone is going,” said Mufi Hannemann, mayor of Honolulu. “Right now in my city, it’s all about the public bus.”...

...“There is a strong argument that over the last 10 years there has been a trend of young professionals and empty nesters coming back to downtowns,” said Mayor John Hickenlooper of Denver. “We built 15,000 housing units in the past few years. If gas gets up to $8 or $10 a gallon, that will dramatically accelerate something that’s already going on. There is a silver lining.”...

"Is America's suburban dream collapsing into a nightmare?" CNN.com

Link: Is America's suburban dream collapsing into a nightmare?
Lara Farrar
CNN.com
June 16, 2008

...While the foreclosure epidemic has left communities across the United States overrun with unoccupied houses and overgrown grass, underneath the chaos another trend is quietly emerging that, over the next several decades, could change the face of suburban American life as we know it.

This trend, according to Christopher Leinberger, an urban planning professor at the University of Michigan and visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, stems not only from changing demographics but also from a major shift in the way an increasing number of Americans -- especially younger generations -- want to live and work.

"The American dream is absolutely changing," he told CNN...

"High gas prices won't stop sprawl" The Columbus Dispatch

Link: High gas prices won't stop sprawl
Mark Ferenchik
The Columbus Dispatch
June 14, 2008

Soaring gas prices are prompting potential homebuyers to look closer to the central city to save money, say those promoting so-called “smart growth” for Columbus.

They want people to buy in urban neighborhoods where they can walk to the store and bike to work.

But planners and developers say the slowdown in central Ohio's outward growth is temporary. A regional planning agency says central Ohio's population is expected to grow by 500,000 by 2030, and 60 percent of that growth will be in unincorporated land, much of it outside Franklin County...

"D.C. Council votes to double tax on vacant properties" Washington Business Journal

Link: D.C. Council votes to double tax on vacant properties
Jonathan O'Connell
Washington Business Journal
June 4, 2008

The D.C. Council voted Tuesday to double the tax rate on vacant properties and make permanent some of the tighter enforcement rules the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has been practicing since early last year.

Starting Oct. 1, the vacant property rate will be $10 per $100 of assessed value, up from $5, once approved by D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and Congress. The new rate is more than five times the $1.85 charged to the majority of commercial properties and the 85 cents charged for residential properties.

Fenty included the increase in his fiscal 2009 budget proposal, adding an estimated $7 million in revenue and lessening the likelihood that the council would settle on a lower rate that would require budget cuts...

"Downtown Dublin to get centerpiece" The Columbus Dispatch

Link: Downtown Dublin to get centerpiece
Mike Pramik
The Columbus Dispatch
June 2, 2008

Dublin is central Ohio's gathering place when the Memorial Tournament is in town, but the city is hoping a new project will encourage people to visit more frequently.

BriHi Square promises more than offices, shops and restaurants in its two buildings at Bridge and High streets. The project's village green promises to provide space for public events or just relaxing, as well as a long-missing centerpiece to Dublin's historic downtown.

The $9 million project will get under way this week, said Mo Dioun, president of developer Stonehenge Co. The completion goal is summer 2009...

"UA builder's projects draw fire" The Columbus Dispatch

Link: UA builder's projects draw fire
Martin Rozenman
The Columbus Dispatch
May 28, 2008

...Neighbors have blasted his five-story, 56-unit Arlington Crossing condominiums, across from Kingsdale Shopping Center, as too close to the street and too big for the neighborhood. The project replaced duplexes and apartments on Tremont Road.

But the condos are popular compared with his proposed office building down the road on Tremont.

That project angered residents in the two surrounding subdivisions so much that they're trying to place a referendum on the ballot to stop it...

That Wave of Retirees? Not So Big

Link: That Wave of Retirees? Not So Big
Adam Aston
BusinessWeek
May 15, 2008

...But demography is not destiny—and it may not even make for a good business plan. It looks like fewer of those 78 million will be either rich enough or young enough at retirement to meet the expectations of businesses catering to boomers released from the workforce. This shortfall, and how it may dash such hopes, is the focus of a new study co-authored by Kevin P. Coyne of Atlanta's Coyne Partnership. In coming decades, "the size and growth rate of the U.S. retirement market will be much smaller than is widely believed," he says.

Other experts are reaching the same conclusion, at least for the short term. "It's no secret that some are delaying retirement," says Bruce Schobel a vice-president and actuary at New York Life Insurance and a former adviser at the Social Security Administration. After all, boomers face falling stock and housing values plus skyrocketing health-care and energy costs. These are all reasons to stay on the payroll. Meanwhile, stock losses have led 14% of retirees to consider returning to work, according to the AARP. (Of course, any slowdown in the rate of retirement will also postpone the predicted insolvency of the Social Security Trust Fund.)...

"Cleveland part of effort to revive urban areas" The Columbus Dispatch

Link: Cleveland part of effort to revive urban areas
Jonathan Riskind
The Columbus Dispatch
May 23, 2008

...Living Cities, funded by more than a dozen major foundations and banks, describes the effort as a groundbreaking effort to remake urban policy. The organization has spent more than $11 million throughout Ohio over the past decade and a half on housing improvement and other initiatives, saying it helped generate additional spending of $63 million.

About $500,000 is being spent initially to draw up a blueprint for aiding Cleveland, which has seen more than its share of economic woes in recent years, including many subprime loan-related foreclosures.

The idea is to figure out how Cleveland could more effectively obtain and spend existing state and federal dollars in areas such as housing and infrastructure -- and how new public and private dollars could be spent to have the greatest impact....

"What Street Parking Can Do For Downtowns" Courant.com

Link: What Street Parking Can Do For Downtowns
NORMAN W. GARRICK AND WESLEY MARSHALL
Courant.com
May 18, 2008

...Although this practice of not accommodating street parking is now routine, there has been little research done to assess its impact on urban centers. However, a growing number of urban planners have pointed out that centers that have retained street parking, along with other compatible features of pre-1950s town centers, are some of the most successful downtowns in the country.

In order to address this dichotomy between conventional practice and emerging urban theory, we at the University of Connecticut designed two studies of on-street parking and its impact on downtowns. One was based upon case studies of six New England town centers (West Hartford; Northampton, Mass.; Brattleboro, Vt.; Avon Center; Glastonbury Center and Somerset Square in Glastonbury). In the second study, we investigated how street design affected vehicle speeds and safety, based on a study of more than 250 Connecticut roads.

What we found through these studies was that on-street parking plays a crucial role in benefiting activity centers on numerous levels. Here are some of the main benefits...

"Stranded in Suburbia" New York Times

Link: Stranded in Suburbia
Paul Krugman
New York Times
May 19, 2008

...There have been many news stories in recent weeks about Americans who are changing their behavior in response to expensive gasoline — they’re trying to shop locally, they’re canceling vacations that involve a lot of driving, and they’re switching to public transit.

But none of it amounts to much. For example, some major public transit systems are excited about ridership gains of 5 or 10 percent. But fewer than 5 percent of Americans take public transit to work, so this surge of riders takes only a relative handful of drivers off the road.

Any serious reduction in American driving will require more than this — it will mean changing how and where many of us live.

To see what I’m talking about, consider where I am at the moment: in a pleasant, middle-class neighborhood consisting mainly of four- or five-story apartment buildings, with easy access to public transit and plenty of local shopping.

It’s the kind of neighborhood in which people don’t have to drive a lot, but it’s also a kind of neighborhood that barely exists in America, even in big metropolitan areas. Greater Atlanta has roughly the same population as Greater Berlin — but Berlin is a city of trains, buses and bikes, while Atlanta is a city of cars, cars and cars...

"As Deaths Outpace Births, Cities Adjust" New York Times

Link: As Deaths Outpace Births, Cities Adjust
Sam Roberts
New York Times
May 18, 2008

...What demographers call a natural decrease has been occurring for years in tiny rural towns and in some retirement meccas in the South. But the phenomenon is relatively new in metropolitan areas in the Northeast, the Rust Belt of the Middle West and Appalachia.

Hospitals are closing obstetrics wards and converting them to acute care. Local governments and other social service providers are adjusting to the emergence of entire neighborhoods where the average age is soaring, and private foundations are awarding scholarships to retain students and attract new ones...

...In the 1990s, deaths outnumbered births in only four metropolitan areas with more than 250,000 people, and three of those were in the South. Since 2000, 10 metropolitan areas — half of them outside the South — have suffered a net loss of population to natural decrease...

"Residents, community leaders turn out for development's grand opening" This Week News

Link: Residents, community leaders turn out for development's grand opening
Enterprise Staff Writer
This Week News
May 8, 2008

State and local officials and private enterprise joined together Thursday, May 1, to celebrate Creekside, a project that was 10 years in the making.

Creekside features 100,000 square feet of retail and office space, 71 condominiums and 35,000 square feet of public and parking space. A private dedication ceremony was held last Thursday to celebrate the grand opening...

"Spike in gas prices help burst housing bubble, a Portland economist suggests" OregonLive.com

Link: Spike in gas prices help burst housing bubble, a Portland economist suggests
Dylan Oregonian
OregonLive.com
April 30, 2008

...The report, funded by CEOs for Cities, a pro-urban Chicago-based nonprofit, advances an argument gaining steam in national urban planning circles: Rising gas prices have made it less attractive to live in suburban neighborhoods that require driving to work, shop and fun.

In metro areas where home prices are falling, they're falling more steeply in suburbs than in central areas. In metro areas with strong inner city neighborhoods -- like Portland -- prices of centrally located homes continue to rise while the region's prices fall...

"Downtown Gahanna reborn at Creekside" The Columbus Dispatch

Link: Downtown Gahanna reborn at Creekside
Gail Martineau
The Columbus Dispatch
May 3, 2008

Gahanna is celebrating the rebirth of its original downtown with the formal opening of the city's multimillion-dollar Creekside project.

The mixed-use development features 100,000 square feet of retail and office space, 71 loft condominiums and an underground parking garage.

Gahanna Development Director Sadicka White said she's ecstatic over the completion of the project, which also includes public plazas, waterfalls, a lagoon and an outdoor stage...

"Good-Bye, Cheap Oil. So Long, Suburbia?" BusinessWeek

Link: Good-Bye, Cheap Oil. So Long, Suburbia?
Mara Der Hovanesian
BuinessWeek
April 24, 2008

...Why is suburbia now threatened?
Cheap oil is what made suburbia possible. But we'll run into problems with spot shortages. As we get into trouble with these supplies, our economy will suffer. Major instabilities in the system will present themselves much sooner than we are led to believe. And by that I mean the way we produce food, the way we conduct commerce, and the way we move around...

"Sign of things to come: Carfree conference comes to the U.S." CoolTown Studios

Link: Sign of things to come: Carfree conference comes to the U.S.
Neil Takemoto
CoolTown Studios
April 23, 2008

What's a carfree conference? That's probably what most U.S. citizens would wonder since the first six carfree conferences occurred only in Europe**. However, as you read through the list below, you'll see that's about to change...

Towards Carfree Cities I: Lyon, France; October 1997;
Organized by EYFA (European Youth for Action) and RVV (Regroupement pour une ville sans voiture, or Group for a Carfree City, Lyon), with 60-80 primarily young participants. This led to the founding of Car Busters, the magazine and resource centre (which later became the World Carfree Network) of the global carfree movement...

"Mixed-use developments often struggle to fill retail space" Dallas Morning News

Interesting observations on mixed-use retail in a story out of Dallas, Texas. I was driving by the South Campus Gateway on Friday and observed that they still have retail spots that haven't been filled. If retail can't fill out in a location that has as much traffic as the Gateway, albeit students with lower discretionary income, the question arises if we'd see the same vacancy issues if we were to barage downtown with multiple mixed use projects in the future.

This article brings up a few good points on the topic:

Link: Mixed-use developments often struggle to fill retail space
Steve Brown
Dallas Morning News
April 11, 2008

...Developers are hoping that retail business will pick up in the project when the DART rail station opens across the street in 2010.

Such mixed-use developments with shops and apartments are all the rage with developers.

Although the apartments have been a hit, somebody forgot to check with the shopkeepers. And some of these projects – like the one on Medical District Drive – have been slow to lease...

..."It's a good idea to have multiple uses with a property," he said. "But you still have to have the critical mass and population density to support it."...

"Third place coffeehouses as economic development" CoolTown Studios

Link: Third place coffeehouses as economic development
Neil Takemoto
CoolTown Studios
April 3, 2008

I first profiled Tryst back in 2003 as a popular coffeehouse third place in Adams Morgan, Washington DC. But five years later, ten years after it first opened, it's not only become a neighborhood institution, but it really should be seen as a contemporary model for job creation.

Here's the big picture:

1. A majority of big businesses come from small businesses, and small businesses are started by entrepreneurs... from their homes.
2. Many (not all) entrepreneurs who tried working exclusively from home will tell you one thing - it sucks. No human interaction, no place for meetings, no escape from spending most of your life stuck at home.
3. Coworking sites are ideal, but are often too pricey for the budding entrepreneur...

"Government says gas prices could hit $4" The Columbus Dispatch

Link: Government says gas prices could hit $4
The Columbus Dispatch
April 8, 2008

Retail gas prices could climb as high as $4 a gallon this summer, but prices at such lofty levels will make many Americans think twice about hitting the road this summer, the Energy Department said Tuesday.

High prices and a weak economy are expected to cut demand for gasoline by about 0.4 percent during the peak summer driving season, the department's Energy Information Administration said in a monthly report on petroleum supplies and demand. Overall consumption of petroleum products will drop by 90,000 barrels a day this year. Previously, the EIA had projected petroleum consumption would rise by 40,000 barrels a day...

"New Urbanism" LifeStyle Magazine

Link: New Urbanism
Maryanna S. Phinn
LifeStyle Magazine
Linked March 9, 2008

...Just like the post-WWII era transformed the American landscape in the 20th century, another movement, called New Urbanism, is creating new American communities for the 21st century.

New urbanists are planners, developers, architects, investors, interested citizens, community activists and local officials who are rethinking the way communities in the suburbs and cities are developed. New urbanist communities are walkable. In fact, a walkable, sustainable neighborhood is a core principle.

Urbanist communities have a distinctive town center and a defined outer edge. Ideally, they offer denser and diverse housing, recreational activities, shops, schools, places to worship, transportation alternatives and job opportunities – all within five minutes or a quarter mile walking distance. New Urbanism promotes more lifestyle choices for city dwellers and suburbanites and brings back walkability to all types of communities...

"Austin looks to keep their 'Live Music Capital of the World' reputation" CoolTown Studios

Link: Austin looks to keep their 'Live Music Capital of the World' reputation
Neil Takemoto
CoolTown Studios
March 28, 2008

How important is live music to the city of Austin? How many cities do you know of that have a Live Music Task Force? Not only that, the city-funded group won't consist of the usual suspect government bureaucrats, but local musicians, music venue owners and regular music-loving Austin residents - all deciding how to spend the government's money to keep Austin's Live Music Capital of the World reputation thriving...

"The third place" CoolTown Studios

Link: The third place
Neil Takemoto
CoolTown Studios
July 21, 2003

The first place is your home. The second place is your workplace. The third place is where you hang out in between. Ray Oldenburg wrote the book on it.

A cool town is full of great third places. If you aren't motivated to leave home or your workplace, chances are you don't live around too many successful third places...

"'Third places' for bicycle commuters" CoolTown Studios

Link: 'Third places' for bicycle commuters
Neil Takemoto
CoolTown Studios
March 21, 2008

We know third places are that familiar social gathering place away from home and work, and we're thankfully witnessing a renaissance of them in neighborhoods everywhere. So, it was inevitable that as more creatives turn to more natural means of transportation we would start to see third places for biking commuters, aka urban bike stations (thank you Springwise)...

"We Need Washington: Some of North Texas' Problems Are Too Big To Go It Alone" Brookings Institution

One of my favorite and telling statistics for Columbus was one I heard about 2 years ago. I forget the exact number, but Columbus' Central Business District (CBD) is 1% of the City of Columbus' land mass, but is responsible for contributing 13% of the tax revenue. Considering that downtown is still mostly surfaces lots, there is a lot of room to grow that 13$ skywards by focusing on downtown development of all kinds.

The following article takes Columbus' numbers and plays out that "minimal land mass maximum revenue" theme nationally while discussing some issues that Texas is dealing with:

Link: We Need Washington: Some of North Texas' Problems Are Too Big To Go It Alone
Brookings Institution
March 5, 2008

...Despite occupying just 12 percent of U.S. land mass, the nation's 100 largest metro areas account for 65 percent of its people and 75 percent of its economic output. They hold the keys to America's future prosperity, generating 78 percent of the nation's new patents, 81 percent of jobs devoted to research and development and 94 percent of venture capital funding. They also face challenges that threaten not only their own viability but the nation's as a whole: underperforming school systems, pockets of concentrated poverty that dissipate economic activity, outmoded infrastructure, climate change and other environmental ills...

Despite what one might think with my own motivations for promoting urban revitalization, I'm far from a zealot. It's more about deductive reasoning, numbers, efficiency and making the system work.

With nearly thousands of vacant homes and underutilized infrastructure in Columbus' inner-city and with the ever-expanding suburban ring demanding more new infrastructure, there comes a time when paying for the old and forking out the money for the new has to stop functioning financially.

If we keep building new infrastructure while still have to pay for an maintain the old infrastructure that we are barely using, when do our tax dollars fall short of being able to cover the infrastructure maintenance and public service needs?

Current real estate and financial downward trends may make the infrastructure growth a non-issue for the short-term, but it would also make it a good time to readjust some policies (land use maybe) while there are fewer big corporate engines pushing their own agendas. Of course, I love to over simplify everything, but...just a thought.

Being that we can't put flowers in our parks, I say we are already there.

"A level playing field for cities" The Boston Globe

Link: A level playing field for cities
Edward Glaeser
The Boston Globe
February 29, 2008

...Does the special role that cities play in the economy and society mean that cities need special treatment from state and national governments? No. Cities are strong. Give them a level playing field and they can compete robustly. However, cities shouldn't have to face a policy deck stacked against urban living. Urban firms and residents shouldn't have to pay a disproportionate share of the taxes needed to care for disadvantaged Americans. Suburbanites shouldn't get a free pass on the environmental damage created by a car-based lifestyle...

"Microhousing affordable to buyers, profitable to developers" CoolTown Studios

Link: Microhousing affordable to buyers, profitable to developers
Neil Takemoto
CoolTown Studios
February 29, 2008

...Microhousing is defined as very small one-two bedroom units, 300 to 500 square feet, with an emphasis on shared amenities like fitness facilities, party rooms with kitchens, libraries, laundry rooms, and car-sharing. While they are more expensive to build per square foot, they also sell at a higher dollar value per square foot, with the key benefit to first-time home buyers being a much lower price point to own rather than rent...

"Gas Prices Soar, Posing a Threat to Family Budget" New York Times

Link: Gas Prices Soar, Posing a Threat to Family Budget
Jad Mouwad
New York Times
February 27, 2008

Gasoline prices, which for months lagged behind the big run-up in the price of oil, are suddenly rising quickly, with some experts saying they could approach $4 a gallon by spring. Diesel is hitting new records daily, and oil settled at a record high of $100.88 a barrel on Tuesday.

The increases could not come at a worse time for the economy. With growth slowing, energy increases that were once easily absorbed by consumers are now more likely to act as a drag on household budgets, leaving people with less money to spend elsewhere. These costs could worsen the nation’s economic woes, piling a fresh energy shock on top of the turmoil in credit and housing...

...“An oil crisis is coming in the next 10 years,” John B. Hess, the chairman of the Hess Corporation, said at a recent conference held by Cambridge Energy Research Associates. “It’s not a matter of demand. It’s not a matter of supplies. It’s both.”

"Oil hits new high near $102 a barrel" The Columbus Dispatch

Link: Oil hits new high near $102 a barrel
Gillian Wong
The Columbus Dispatch
February 27, 2008

SINGAPORE—Oil prices rose to a new intraday high near $102 a barrel today as a slide in the U.S. dollar prompted investors to pump more money into energy futures as a hedge against inflation.

The dollar sank to a record low against the euro after the release of three disheartening U.S. economic reports yesterday that show that the economy is slowing even as prices are rising. The dollar's decline prompted investors to seek a safe haven from turmoil in the financial markets and the threat of inflation.

"Crude has cracked through the $100-level again and that's driven by financial investors moving money into commodities markets," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore...

"The Next Slum?" theatlantic.com

Link: The Next Slum?
Christopher B. Leinberger
theatlantic.com
March 2008

...For 60 years, Americans have pushed steadily into the suburbs, transforming the landscape and (until recently) leaving cities behind. But today the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and there are many reasons to believe this swing will continue. As it does, many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and ’70s—slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay...

"Suburbia’s March to Oblivion" New York Times

Link: Suburbia’s March to Oblivion
Dan Mitchell
New York Times
February 23, 2008

...But frantic selling is just the beginning, according to Christopher B. Leinberger, a professor of urban planning at the University of Michigan. “Signs of physical and social disorder are spreading” thro'gh cul-de-sac suburbia, he writes in the March issue of The Atlantic. And it is not just because of the mortgage mess. A “structural change” is occurring in the housing market — a “major shift in the way many Americans want to live and work,” moving social problems out of the city and into the suburban fringe.

Mr. Leinberger cites the work of Arthur C. Nelson, the director of Virginia Tech’s Metropolitan Institute, who has predicted that, by 2025, there will be a surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (those built on at least one-sixth of an acre). This, Mr. Leinberger writes, is a result of “the pendulum swinging back toward urban living,” thanks to a set of economic, social, and demographic trends.

The result, he says, could be that low-density suburbs “may become what inner cities became in the 1960’s and 1970’s — slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay.”...

"In Search of a Real Urban Policy" New York Times

Link: In Search of a Real Urban Policy
Editorial
New York Times
February 19, 2008

By now, many Americans have heard the presidential candidates talk about issues close to the heart of rural America. They fell all over themselves to praise ethanol in Iowa and condemn nuclear storage in Nevada. But as important as rural problems are, they’re not nearly as big as the task of helping the nation’s struggling cities — where most Americans live or work. The cities have been the hardest hit as federal policies have failed or gone missing in education, housing, health care, jobs, transportation and environment, to name a few. Yet urban issues have gotten scant attention in this campaign...

...Continue to ignore the plight of urban schools, and soon about half of New York City’s one million schoolchildren won’t graduate from high school. Continue to neglect infrastructure, and face the prospect of more Katrina-like disasters where large numbers of people live or more collapsed bridges that carry thousands of commuters, as happened last summer in Minneapolis. Let brownfields remain polluted, and risk health problems and hurt the potential for job-creating development. Keep encouraging fossil-fueled transportation, and cities will choke on gridlock, and so will businesses and jobs...

"Millions taken by abandoned properties in Ohio" Business First of Columbus

Talk about a homerun argument for more aggressively seeking means to revitalize and reutilize our existing inner-city infrastructure and housing stock. The more we leave to rot in favor of the easy path of building new, the more it costs us in the long run.

There is a definitive financial tipping point at which the cost of building and supporting new infrastrucutre and houses, being constanly countered by rotting and abandoned infrastructure and homes, will break the city's bank.

We can't keep building out without out an equally divided effort to reuse what lies within:

Link: Millions taken by abandoned properties in Ohio
Business First of Columbus
February 19, 2008

Vacant and abandoned properties cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year in municipal services and lost tax revenue in Ohio, a study by the Community Research Partners has found.

There are at least 25,000 vacant and abandoned properties in eight cities of varying size in the state.

Community Research Partners, a nonprofit research center, studied six cities in Ohio, including neighborhoods in the Columbus area -- North Linden, Livingston-Driving Park and Franklinton...

...The abandoned properties cost the eight cities a combined $15 million in added municipal services and $49 million in lost property tax revenue -- a drain of more than $64 million annually...

"Retailers check out from Brice" The Columbus Dispatch

Link: Retailers check out from Brice
Mike Pramik
The Columbus Dispatch
February 17, 2008

As Columbus and its suburbs sprawl beyond the Outerbelt, the trend suggests that it's only a matter of time before a once-bustling shopping district falls victim to the next hot spot.

The newest victim: Brice Road north and south of I-70.

Once the East Side's busiest shopping corridor, it is now marked by a growing number of empty storefronts and acres of barren asphalt -- and more key tenants are on the way out...

"3CDC pursuing $81M in federal, state tax credits" Business Courier of Cincinnati

Link: 3CDC pursuing $81M in federal, state tax credits
Lucy May
Business Courier of Cincinnati
February 8, 2008

The Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. will seek $75 million in New Markets Tax Credits to continue its redevelopment work in Over-the-Rhine and downtown north of Fifth Street.

The economic development agency, known as 3CDC, won a $50 million New Markets Tax Credits allocation in 2004. But the agency essentially has used up those credits on its revitalization of Fountain Square and development of condos and commercial space in Over-the-Rhine, said 3CDC President and CEO Stephen Leeper.

A new allocation would give 3CDC more financial muscle to continue its work along Vine Street, as well as its planned developments around Washington Park in Over-the-Rhine, he said...

...Over the past 30 months, 3CDC and the city have invested more than $70 million in Over-the-Rhine. About $56 million of that has been private investment through the Cincinnati Equity Fund and the New Markets Tax Credit Fund managed by 3CDC, Leeper said...

"Columbus aims to create brownfields clean-up fund to spark building" Business First of Columbus

Link: Columbus aims to create brownfields clean-up fund to spark building
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Jeff Bell
Business First of Columbus
January 25, 2008

...A bill introduced in the Ohio Senate on Jan. 22 would pave the way for the city to create the Clean Columbus Fund, which would use proceeds from city bonds to clean so-called brownfield sites so they can be developed. The initiative would be modeled after the state's Clean Ohio Fund program, which has pumped $15 million into brownfield revitalization projects in Columbus since 2002...

...If the bill passes, the city intends to make the Clean Columbus Fund part of a capital project bond package that would go before Columbus voters in November, Coleman said. No decision has been made on how much money would be sought for the fund or what brownfield sites would be at the top of the clean-up list, he said...

Conservation Neighborhoods Pilot Program is Approved

Link: Conservation Neighborhoods Pilot Program is Approved
in "Parking garage put on hold" article
Robert Vitale and Mark Ferenchik
The Columbus Dispatch
January 29, 2008

...In other business, the City Council approved a two-year pilot program designed to let neighborhoods preserve characteristics in their architecture and other areas.

The plan calls for up to three "conservation neighborhoods," each restricted to 10 square blocks. Residents of Merion Village, Harrison West and the Near East Side have expressed interest.

Each would identify specific characteristics that residents want to protect, anything from requiring porches to maintaining tree-lined streets, said Roxyanne Burrus, administrator for the city's neighborhood-services division. Sixty percent of residents would need to approve...

"Crowdsourcing a local, indie brand for creatives, by creatives: A green restaurant" CoolTown Studios

Link: Crowdsourcing a local, indie brand for creatives, by creatives: A green restaurant
Neil Takemoto
CoolTown Studios
January 22, 3008

...Even better though, is to enjoy that success on day one, which is a little unexpected given that it's a new business. That's where crowdsourcing comes in, with the ability to not only develop a loyal customer base on opening day, but well before then. But this is all just talk right? So here's an example of such a case with a local, indie business in Washington DC that doesn't even have a space yet...

What started out last year with a visionary entrepreneur and a meeting of 14 progressive creatives has since become Elements, a community of 180 future customers (and growing) that have since crowdsourced the name, the logo (above), a leading partner, and the program, which has evolved from a 1000 s.f. coffeehouse to a 5000 s.f. green, vegetarian restaurant and education/community/entertainment center. The owner is currently negotiating leases...

"Creating centers of attention" The Columbus Dispatch

Link: Creating centers of attention
Martin Rozeman
The Columbus Dispatch
January 25, 2008

Gahanna did it. Hilliard is about to do it. Now, Grove City plans to do it.

Creating town centers to renovate slumping downtowns is hot among central Ohio suburbs. Some have them (think Westerville and Worthington), and some don't (think Upper Arlington and Whitehall)...

...It's a community's centerpiece, a gathering place that includes workplaces, shopping, dining and entertainment, said Hazel Morrow-Jones, associate dean in Ohio State University's College of Engineering and an expert in city planning.

"Some of the movement is baby-boomer nostalgia," she said. Part of it is driven by "younger people who think there was something in a downtown they missed."...

"Middle-income housing prohibited" Examiner.com

Link: Middle-income housing prohibited
Examiner.com
January 8th, 2008

...But this trade-off leaves out of the equation something absolutely essential to San Francisco’s future economic and social well-being — badly needed additional middle-income residences for the working households that everyone agrees are being priced out of The City. Even worse, unintended consequences of San Francisco’s restrictive planning and building codes virtually guarantee that nothing new can be profitably built by private enterprise at prices affordable to midrange homebuyers.

Yet, what if it were possible to easily adapt the permit codes so that private developers actually wanted to build middle-income housing — because they could then do so at a fair profit and without any need for taxpayer subsidies? According to a new task force study by the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, this could be accomplished by simply easing city regulations to enable lower-cost construction of new housing in neighborhoods where land prices permit.

SPUR, The City’s own urban development think-tank, found that the midrange housing market could be effectively served by offering an option of smaller but more efficient units with fewer amenities. Such units are now extremely difficult to bring to market because of unnecessary restrictions involving building density, common spaces, parking capacity and height limits on wood-frame construction...

"The End of Sprawl?" washingtonpost.com

Link: The End of Sprawl?
Eduardo M. Peñalver
washingtonpost.com

...With credit tight and the demand for housing drying up (sales of new homes fell last month to the lowest level in 12 years) new construction in the exurbs is grinding to a halt. The result is a decline in the building industry's appetite for rural land on the urban edge. The question now is whether that decline will last. In the past, a sudden drop-off in demand for housing in the exurbs would have represented merely a hiatus. Builders would have bided their time until the housing market recovered, and the outward push would soon have begun again. But persistently high gas prices may mean that the next building boom will take place not at the edges of metropolitan areas but far closer to their cores. People are more willing to drive 20 miles each way to work every day, burning a couple of gallons of gas in the process, when gas costs less than milk. But as gas prices climb, long car commutes become a rising tax on exurban homeownership, and the price people are willing to pay for homes in remote areas will fall...

...Although the end of sprawl will require painful changes, it will also provide a badly needed opportunity to take stock of the car-dependent, privatized society that has evolved over the past 60 years and to begin imagining different ways of living and governing. We may discover that it's not so bad living closer to work, in transit- and pedestrian-friendly, diverse neighborhoods where we run into friends and neighbors as we walk to the store, school or the office. We may even find that we don't miss our cars and commutes, and the culture they created, nearly as much as we feared we would...

"Cities Across the Globe Propose Large Real-Estate Projects" RealEstateJournal.com

Link: Cities Across the Globe Propose Large Real-Estate Projects
Alex Frangos
RealEstateJournal.com
December 27, 2007

Some of the biggest cities in the world are proposing the most ambitious real-estate projects in a generation, a sign of growing confidence in urban living even as the current financial landscape grows bleaker...

...Most of them reflect the growing popularity of downtowns as places to live, shop and work. For example, developers say New York's Hudson Yards project, to be built over a rail yard on Manhattan's West Side, is needed because the city is running out of office space.

But these are inauspicious times for such plans. Banks are sharply cutting back on commercial real-estate loans. While some projects such as those in cash-rich countries like Dubai are somewhat insulated, developers are worried privately that many of these ambitious, city-changing endeavors -- difficult to complete in good times -- may be at risk...

"How Green is Your Neighborhood?" TIME

Link: How Green is Your Neighborhood?
Brian Walsh
TIME
December 19, 2007

...For most Americans outside a handful of urban areas, not driving is not an option. But auto addiction takes a hidden toll. There's health: The average American walks as little as four minutes a day, in part because little is within walking distance. That sedentariness has contributed to the rise in obesity over recent decades. Next is the theft of time: More driving means more hours in the car, especially with traffic worsening. The population of extreme commuters — those who travel 90 minutes or more each way — has hit 3.5 million, double the number in 1990. But the worst effects — the ones that affect us all — are environmental. As long as the car is central to the American lifestyle — one we're in the process of exporting to developing countries like China — making the necessary, drastic cuts in carbon emissions will be very difficult. "What is causing global warming is the lifestyle of the American middle class," says Duany. "It's terrible for nature and for humans."...

"Trend toward mixed use often benefits developer, community" ThisWeek Community Newspapers

Link: Trend toward mixed use often benefits developer, community
Alan Froman
ThisWeek Community Newspapers
December 27, 2007

In recent years, few urban design standards have been as important to local communities as mixed use. From Bexley to Delaware and in between, city planners have adopted these guiding principles to give depth to their neighborhoods while creating multi-faceted opportunities for residents and businesses.

From coast to coast, it's one of the biggest trends in urban planning.

Mixed-use development principles - also known as new urbanism - are creating density, architectural homogeny and a synergy among residents and businesses...

"'McMansions': Lots of room for debate" The Columbus Dispatch

Link: 'McMansions': Lots of room for debate
Debbie Gebolys
The Columbus Dispatch
December 19, 2007

...McMansions can help curb sprawl, by filling in vacant lots in neighborhoods rather than building on farmland, and can prompt neighbors to reinvest in their homes. But they also can create hard feelings.

"Typically, when you have an older neighborhood and there's not a significant new-house industry in place, like in Grandview or Columbus, they don't have the controls in place" to keep out McMansions, La Mantia said. "I don't know of any community locally that is actively addressing it."

Without specific regulations, he said, "it's hard to come up with a case to stop it."

"Courtyard Living" Metropolismag.com

Link: Courtyard Living
Linda Baker
Metropolismag.com
December 10, 2007

Portland is widely recognized as an urban planning and design leader. In 1974, the city council killed plans for a highway and instead used the federal funding to create the first modern day light rail system. Six years later, the city became the first in the nation to create an urban growth boundary to contain sprawl. Nevertheless, in the 21st century, Portland faces many of the crises common to the contemporary American metropolis: lack of affordable housing, declining numbers of families with children, and rapid growth at the suburban-rural fringe.

Enter the Portland Courtyard Housing Design Competition, whose winning entries were announced in late November. Sponsored by the city, the competition promotes courtyard housing as an affordable way of increasing neighborhood densities without sacrificing public space and environmental sustainability. The courtyard model also extends Portland’s tradition of street oriented urbanism. “Suburban houses avoid the street,” said Mark Gillem, a competition director and a professor of architecture at the University of Oregon. “The courtyard can engage it.”...

"How Should We Be Thinking About Urbanization? A Freakonomics Quorum" Freakonomics - New York Times Blog

Link: How Should We Be Thinking About Urbanization? A Freakonomics Quorum
Stephen J Dubner
Freakonomics - New York Times Blog
December 11, 2007

Urbanization has been climbing steadily of late, with more than half of the world’s population now living in cities. Given the economic, sociological, political, and environmental ramifications, how should we be thinking about this? We gathered a quorum of smart thinkers on