Project for Public Spaces » smart growth

9 Communities Selected to Receive Free Place-Based Sustainability Technical Assistance

Project for Public Spaces — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:02:50 +0000

This Earth Day, Project for Public Spaces and our partners at Livability Solutions are pleased to announce the 9 communities selected to receive free technical assistance in 2013, thanks to a grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Sustainable Communities under their Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program.

These governments and organizations represent a diverse group of communities from across the United States, from large cities to rural communities. All have a strong commitment to sustainability and smart growth and are poised to implement positive change by making use of the assistance we are offering. Each community will receive a one- or two-day training session with a livability expert from Project for Public Spaces or one of our Livability Solutions partners on an issue of their choice.

Livability Solutions is a coalition of professionals from 10 leading nonprofit organizations with deep experience in sustainable development. Our common purpose is to work with communities on transportation, land use, Placemaking, environmental issues, and public involvement, with the goal of achieving livability, smart growth, and sustainability.

The communities selected for free technical assistance in 2013 are:

City of Omaha, NE, which will work with Project for Public Spaces (PPS) on efforts to improve their planning process to create more vibrant, attractive, and livable neighborhoods.
City of Seattle Department of Planning & Development, Seattle, WA, which will work with Reconnecting America (RA) and the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) to train in Transit Oriented Development data and implementation tools in order to help promote walkable, vibrant, and affordable neighborhoods around major public transportation hubs in the region.
City of Twinsburg, OH, will work with the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) to train the community on the benefits of walkable urban thoroughfares. This training will help create a town center that improves connections and creates a safe healthy downtown destination.
Lee County, FL, where the Local Government Commission (LGC) will work with the community on how to evaluate and improve neighborhood walkability, as well as solicit feedback on local citizens’ walking and bicycling needs, in order to inform the County’s Bicycle and Pedestrian plan.
Valley Metro, Phoenix, AZ, where RA and CNT will train local officials in the use of Transit Oriented Development data and implementation tools to track indicators and build capacity in the region for more efficient, vibrant neighborhoods around public transportation.
Upstate Forever, Spartansburg, SC, where PPS will facilitate workshops focused on training local citizens and government staff in the creation, implementation, and enforcement of Form-Based Codes in order to help create a more attractive and livable Duncan, SC.
Village of Hyde Park, VT, where PPS has already begun training local stakeholders in the use of the Power of 10 and Place Audit tools to strengthen the village’s Main Street as a destination by building on local assets, as well as improving the area’s walkability and connectivity.
Vanguard Community Development Corp., Detroit, MI, which will work with PPS to envision a more vibrant public realm and destinations in the North End neighborhood, identifying site-specific improvements to serve as pilots for Placemaking in the neighborhood.
Working in Neighborhoods (WIN), Cincinnati, OH, which will work with the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute (WALC) to identify opportunities to transform streets for improved safety for all modes, and to better support economic development.

The EPA’s Building Blocks program funds quick, targeted assistance to communities that face common development problems. Two other nonprofit organizations—Global Green USA and Smart Growth America—also received competitively awarded grants under this program to help communities achieve their sustainable development goals.

We encourage interested communities to continue to check the Livability Solutions website for additional opportunities for technical assistance. We also welcome interested foundations, organizations, and individuals to contact us if they are interested in supporting assistance to one of the many other qualified applications we received.

Click here for information on other opportunities to work with Livability Solutions or here for training and technical assistance offered by Project for Public Spaces or our partners.

Interested in Free Livability Solutions Technical Assistance? Apply by November 2nd!

Project for Public Spaces — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 20:41:47 +0000

Through a grant from the EPA Office of Sustainable Communities’ Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program, the Livability Solutions coalition will be offering free technical assistance workshops for up to 12 communities around the US; applications are due by Friday, November 2nd. Livability Solutions is a coalition of professionals from 10 leading nonprofit organizations with deep experience in sustainable development. PPS is proud to be a part of this group, which is dedicated to helping communities around the country to put their planning priorities into action.

During one- to two-day workshops, Livability Solutions coalition members will work with selected communities to help them address a variety of challenges. Whether you are working to overcome a significant hurdle within a longer-term process, or just starting to develop a plan for achieving a particular livability or sustainability goal, coalition members can help you to identify the tool or palette of tools that will best help your community to move forward. A short report will be prepared for each community following the technical assistance, and communities receiving technical assistance will be asked to follow up one month and nine months after receiving technical assistance to report on their progress toward objectives set during the assistance.

If you’re interested in learning more, or have questions about the program, click here to register for a webinar on October 10th that will provide an overview of the application process.

We’re looking forward to working with you and other members of the Livability Solutions coalition to help your community implement changes that will move them along the road towards smart growth and sustainability. To get started on your application, visit the Livability Solutions website today!

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Please note that there are also two other organizations currently offering free technical assistance through the Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program:

Through a 3-day intensive visit and consultation, the technical experts on the Global Green team will evaluate how the sustainability of a specific neighborhood can be enhanced through an upcoming catalytic project by applying metrics from the LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system and developing actionable recommendations for our grant recipients.
Each year, Smart Growth America offers free assistance to local communities interested in building stronger local economies and creating great neighborhoods. These workshops will be awarded to a limited number of qualifying communities. Communities interested in receiving free technical assistance from SGA are invited to join our informational webinar on Thursday, September 27th at 2:00 pm EST.

Placemaking Connects People to the Environment by Connecting Them to Each Other

Project for Public Spaces — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 17:52:13 +0000

How does Placemaking strengthen sustainability efforts, you ask? Great places make people feel like a part of a community that's worth sustaining! / Photo: Fred Kent

The dialogue generated around the idea of “Placemaking as a New Environmentalism” is showing that this matter of how to engage with building sustainable spaces and places resonates with people across professions. In particular, Kaid Benfield’s articles from earlier this year, Is placemaking a ‘new environmentalism’? and Smart growth is a start. But it’s not enough have inspired us to expand on our original thoughts.

While the majority of the world’s citizens would probably not label themselves as environmentalists, most people do care about having a safe and enjoyably world to live in into the future—in the near term, for themselves, but in the long term for their children and grandchildren, as well. For an environmental movement struggling to find a new language as it looks to tap into this latent concern, Placemaking can provide a holistic vocabulary for defining the problem and reframing the solution.

Often, when we talk about the relationship between human beings and the environment, we use a very specific, almost clinical vocabulary; we talk about minimizing your carbon footprint, eliminating waste, and reducing stormwater runoff. This language of being less bad and at best achieving a state of environmental neutrality fails to spark peoples’ imaginations and get them thinking about how such improvements will lead to them living a better and more enjoyable life. In contrast, the messaging that has been used to re-frame the American Dream around the automobile and draw millions of people out into suburbs has focused squarely on inspiring visions of social mobility and privacy. “Don’t you want a safe, private yard for your kids or dog to run around in?” ask proponents of sprawl. “Don’t you want to keep the freedom that your car gives you?”

Placemaking can offer environmentalists a way to re-frame discussions about creating more compact, planet-friendly neighborhoods, streets, and cities. The deepest benefit of Placemaking is that it gives people a reason to gather and discuss their own visions for the future of their community. This process builds social capital by prodding neighbors to talk meaningfully about the places that they share. As a result, Placemaking instills a sense of ownership in the people who use a given space, and develops the kind of community pride and stewardship that is so critical to creating truly sustainable cities and towns. Put simply: there’s a big difference between posing the question “Don’t you want to limit your city’s Combined Sewer Outflows?” versus “Don’t you want to live in a neighborhood where people are proud to be connected to the land that they share?”

Another related challenge that environmentalism faces today is that solutions are routinely framed in a consumptive way. Activists, advertisements, and pamphlets encourage people to buy green products and services. Beyond that, green design is mostly about capital-intensive projects–big buildings with big green roofs, big infrastructure–which most people have no personal connection to, as they can only utilize these buildings, parks, and bridges once they’re already complete. In trying to sell people on the idea of building a truly sustainable society, the passivity of the role of “consumer” is a serious problem.

Placemaking is proactive. It introduces a new level of stewardship and a new paradigm for sustainable design that transforms people’s relationship to the environment from abstract to concrete. Although donating money to environmental organizations, passing new laws, and buying green products are important contributions, the heart of the matter–the physical place of the environment–is not often directly touched upon.

Placemaking aims to inspire communities to want, desire, and create better human environments. The vision is thereby built into the action, and people can engage in attainable results in both the long- and short-term. The creation of great places, neighborhoods, cities and towns transcends a single issue and brings diverse, interdisciplinary stewards to the table. Placemaking therefore attracts new partners into the environmental movement. While many groups, activists, and citizens may not be energized by issues framed in purely environmental terms, they will engage in Placemaking when it encompasses their passion for public health, food access, local economics, culture, or myriad other concerns as well as ecology. Sustainability is arguably most effective when it is not an end in itself, but a strong undercurrent to an inclusive effort to build better lives and places.

Join us in Beacon this September 10th to learn more about Placemaking and sustainability! / Photo: PPS

To that end, our own Phil Myrick has been developing a multi-module course, Placemaking in a Changing Climate, that hits on a number of topics from transportation and land use to green infrastructure. The next offering, focused on green infrastructure, will take place this September 10 in Beacon, NY. According to Phil, “Budgets are slim and cities need multiple outcomes from every investment, even an investment in sustainability should bring return on multiple levels. By using Placemaking to frame investments in green infrastructure, for example, we can create lively town centers, enhance pride of place, promote local economic development, and address sustainability. In fact, local sustainability measures can be spent in ways that produce huge social and economic returns for our communities.”

When people collaborate to create stronger community identity, they also engage what Phil calls “communal synapses” that enable them to act. Karl-Hendrik Robert, founder of The Natural Step, said it best: “Without healthy social settings, we cannot share experience and understanding about what is happening to our world, and we don’t have the opportunities to act as communities and address great problems.”

If you’re interested in learning more about the course, adding Placemaking into your mission to create greater, greener places, and abundant examples and data specific to green infrastructure, click here to download a flyer with more information, or click here to register for the course.

Please note that there is a $75.00 participant fee for the Placemaking in a Changing Climate course, or $125.00 with CEUs for planners and architects.

Urbanism Scales Down for Small Towns

Gary Toth — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:27:41 +0000

The Village of Cheshire's master plan was developed by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company

I had the unique opportunity to participate in a “Smart Growth” bus tour of communities in North Carolina, organized last year by the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute and the Local Government Commission. We visited a variety of neighborhoods, from low-density to high, pre-car to newly developed, to learn how livable and sustainable principles can help a wide range of communities to adapt to meet the challenges of the 21^st Century.

Important lessons can be learned from each of the communities we visited. None were perfect, but as Joel Garreau pointed out in Edge City: Life on the New Frontier, now-revered places like Venice and London were pieced together over centuries; flaws were frequently pointed out by critics, and fixed over time. Flaws in these places will be addressed over time as well. What is critical about each location is that they are testing out new ideas of what a sustainable future could look like. The neighborhoods that had the best sense of place were those that were created over a hundred years, and they serve as great models for how to take Traditional Neighborhood Development, Form Based Codes and other contemporary planning strategies to the next level.

My observations from the experience are below. You can click here to download my full report on the trip, which includes more detailed information on each of the communities that we visited across the state: Charlotte, Belmont, Kannapolis, Cornelius, Davidson, Black Mountain, and Asheville.

1.) Urbanism can be scaled to fit all types of development, from big city to rural: One of the major misconceptions holding back the acceptance of livability and sustainability policies across a broad spectrum of American communities is that urbanism is anti-suburb, and holds no answers for rural areas. The variety of communities seen on the North Carolina Smart Growth Tour proves otherwise. Urbanism has improved livability in communities ranging from small towns like Black Mountain; to once-rural villages like Cornelius, Belmont, and Kannapolis that are struggling to avoid losing their identity as they are being absorbed by modern auto-oriented development; all the way up to larger cities like Asheville and Charlotte that are looking to repair damage inflicted by post-WWII retrofits implemented to make way for cars.

Residential development at the Bland Street Station in Charlotte’s South End / Photo: Gary Toth

True, urbanism reaches is fullest value at higher densities. But the social benefits of having a small center where one can walk to eat breakfast, grab a quart of milk, or hang out and chat with others around a cup of coffee can be achieved even in application of urbanism principles in small – and new – rural villages. While residents of places like Black Mountain and Cornelius will probably not be able to ditch their cars entirely, these places have the potential to reduce the daily auto trip load from the average of 12-14 daily trips per household. While this may not seem significant, reducing daily trips from 14 to 12 represents a 14% decrease – a significant contraction.

The clustering around a center offered by Cornelius and Black Mountain also dramatically increases the feasibility of a transit provider offering service. Typical suburban communities are too spread out to make transit stops efficient. Even a town as small as Black Mountain creates a focal point for passengers waiting for transit service to hang out, grab a cup of coffee, and perhaps even do some business.

More importantly, creation of urbanist developments in these traditional rural areas creates a sense of place, a sense of community, and better livability.

2.) Placemaking, New Urbanism, and Smart Growth can help protect rural communities from losing their identity to suburbanism. Communities such as Davidson, Cornelius, Belmont and Kannapolis have recognized that the biggest threat to their rural landscapes is NOT livability and New Urbanism; it is business-as-usual suburban sprawl. The latter, by leading to formula-driven housing, commercial and office developments that look the same whether in New Mexico, New Jersey, or North Carolina, erodes the sense of community that preceded its arrival. Beginning in 1996, Belmont, Davidson and Cornelius adopted form based codes to help stem the tide of suburbanism emanating out from Charlotte as its metropolitan area boomed.

3.) The production line efficiency of stamping out off-the-rack buildings limits the value of New Urbanism. The Town of Belmont’s clustering of new development into small pods with connected, properly-sized streets and alleys is an important step in the right direction. However, when compared to the Antiquity at Cornelius development, where a series of building styles varies from building to building, Belmont pales. While Cornelius does not exhibit an infinite variety of architectural styles from house to house, even a mild variety in housing types here makes a dramatic difference in the sense of place. It chips away at the “Disney-esque” feeling that New Urbanism is sometimes accused of creating.

4.) Pods of New Urbanist residential development need to be within walking distance of activity centers. Not to pick on Belmont, but their dozen or so New Urbanist pods are isolated and are a mile or two from commercial activity. Belmont does have a quaint, mixed-use Main Street, but shopping options are limited and in tough competition with auto-oriented strip development located along State Route 74, with a particular concentration at the interchange with Interstate 85. Compare this to Antiquity at Cornelius, where a small town center is being built right in the midst of new residential neighborhoods; or Davidson, which has recognized the importance of its historic downtown, surrounded by hundreds of residential units adjacent to and within easy walking distance of downtown. Antiquity, Davidson and even Black Mountain offer the potential to eliminate at least one round trip a day by car. Isolated pods do not.

5.) Livable street design is equally important in all residential places, regardless of population density. Complete streets create the engineering foundation for a great street; Placemaking completes the job. On destination streets, multi-modal activity is fostered by triangulating multiple destinations within easy walking distance. Buildings are located to create the “walls” of an outdoor living room, and ground floor uses engage people on the street. This is as true in the two-story buildings in downtown Belmont as it is with the multi-story buildings on Tryon Street in downtown Charlotte. The street cross sections tame traffic and provide comfortable settings for activity; the speed of cars does not intimidate. A street does not need to have been created 100 years ago to establish the destination street feel, as the developers of Biltmore Park Town Square have proven.

6.) Malls don’t have to be totally auto-dependent, surrounded by seas of parking. Biltmore Park Town Square in Asheville proves that mall can move back towards a more sustainable form, centered on a Main Street and with office and residential mixed in.

7.) New development may need to age gracefully like a fine wine; Placemaking layered on top of modern planning can accelerate the creation of attractive patinas. New Urbanist principles such as Smart Codes, Form Based Codes, Complete Streets, and Mixed-Use Destinations create the bones for sustainable communities. However, while newly-created developments like Antiquity and Biltmore Square, there is some of that “Disney-esque” feel mentioned above. Older downtowns in Asheville and Davidson, by contrast, felt more natural and comfortable, the result of gradual informal Placemaking over the years.

Antiquity at Cornelius / Photo: Gary Toth

Click here to download the full report.

Want to Apply for Free Technical Assistance? Watch the Webinar!

Project for Public Spaces — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:55:46 +0000

Did you miss the webinar we had this week about applying for the technical assistance we’re offering under the U.S. EPA’s Building Blocks program? Never fear, we’ve got an archived copy that you can check out.

Click here to view the archived webinar.

PPS is proud to be one of four recipients of grants from the United States Environmental Protection Agency under their Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program. The Building Blocks program funds quick, targeted assistance to communities that face common development problems. Three other nonprofit organizations have received competitively awarded grants under this program this year to help communities get the kinds of development they want – Forterra (formerly Cascade Land Conservancy), Global Green USA, and Smart Growth America.

This grant will enable us and our partners at Livability Solutions to offer FREE technical assistance to communities that have set goals for achieving improved livability, smart growth, or sustainability, but have run into barriers in achieving these goals. You can read more about the opportunity and see the application here.

The deadline for applications is coming up. Candidates must complete and submit the application by Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 8pm EST. Late applications will not be accepted.

Upcoming Webinar on Applying for Free Technical Assistance

Project for Public Spaces — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:40:17 +0000

As we announced in September, PPS is proud to be one of four recipients of grants from the United States Environmental Protection Agency under their Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program. The Building Blocks program funds quick, targeted assistance to communities that face common development problems. Three other nonprofit organizations have received competitively awarded grants under this program this year to help communities get the kinds of development they want — Forterra (formerly the Cascade Land Conservancy), Global Green USA, and Smart Growth America.

Interested in applying, but have questions? We’re pleased to announce an upcoming webinar that will provide a forum where you can get answers. From Smart Growth America’s blog:

Upcoming webinar on Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities
Want to learn about all the available resources under the Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program? Confused on what types of tools are being offered and the deadlines for each? Join the EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities and the four nonprofits providing technical assistance for a webinar on Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 2:00 PM EST. The webinar will explain the programs, their processes and timeline. Participation is free, but advance registration is required: click here to register.

We look forward to answering your questions!

Apply Now for Free Technical Assistance from PPS and Livability Solutions!

Project for Public Spaces — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:39:24 +0000

Has your community set goals for achieving improved livability, smart growth, or sustainability?

Are you running into barriers in achieving these goals?

Applications for free technical assistance are now available on the Livability Solutions website!

PPS is excited to announce that applications for free technical assistance to address this challenge are now available on the Livability Solutions website. We will be offering this technical assistance with our partners at Livability Solutions thanks to a grant from the EPA Office of Sustainable Communities’ Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program.

We are looking for applications from communities with a strong interest in and commitment to livability, smart growth, and sustainability principles, but who face a significant challenge or barrier to moving forward. This targeted technical assistance will provide selected communities with tools and improved capacity to achieve the livability, smart growth, and sustainability goals they have set, and engage them with a network of other communities working toward similar goals and facing similar challenges.

We will be working with our partners at Livability Solutions to lead one- and two-day workshops to assist selected communities in implementing sustainable and smart growth development and programs. We’ll be using time-honored approaches — such as our Power of 10 method of inventorying and mapping a community’s place-based assets — as well as innovative new strategies for transportation and land-use planning that create better places, such as the Center for Neighborhood Technology’s Housing and Transportation (H+T®) Affordability Index. With our unique suite of tools, we can help communities through the process of implementing better places to live that are also more sustainable. For more information on this technical assistance, and instructions for how to apply, please see the Livability Solutions website. For inquiries, contact livabilitysolutions@pps.org.

This assistance is funded by US EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities under their Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program. The Building Blocks program funds quick, targeted assistance to communities that face common development problems. Three other nonprofit organizations have received competitively awarded grants under this program this year to help communities get the kinds of development they want –Cascade Land Conservancy, Global Green USA, and Smart Growth America.

Our partners in this project are the members of Livability Solutions, a coalition helping communities succeed:

The Center for Neighborhood Technology
Reconnecting America
The Walkable and Livable Communities Institute
National Center for Biking & Walking
The Local Government Commission
The National Charrette Institute
The Congress for New Urbanism
Paul Dreher of the Newport City Renaissance Corporation
Leigh Lane of the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) at NC State University
The Surface Transportation Policy Partnership

For more information on PPS’s other technical assistance and training programs, visit our website.

Placemaking and Smart Growth: Our Fred Kent to Keynote Great Neighborhoods Summit 2011

Megan MacIver — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:43:37 +0000

Join Fred tomorrow, Thursday, June 23, 2011, 8 am to noon, at UMass-Boston Campus Center. Hosted by the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance, this conference is the second gathering of leaders building vibrant, welcoming, healthy, and affordable neighborhoods.

Fred Kent

Fred will keynote the conference and is joined by fellow speakers Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino; Richard Walker, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; Melinda Marble, Barr Foundation; and Lisa Davis, Ford Foundation. Registration is still open. The event is free but seating is limited.

Placemaking for Smart Growth

In recent months PPS has been called on to keynote another Smart Growth Conference in Traverse City, Michigan- which is part of the larger shift in Michigan toward a Place-based agenda. Check out videos from all the keynotes at the Smart Growth conference in Traverse City, including an interview with Fred.

Placemaking provides the tools to achieve smart growth outcomes. Learn more about Placemaking for Smart Growth, including the benefits of applying a Placemaking approach to Smart Growth:

Brings in new and “unlikely” partners
Identifies short–term opportunities that are small scale and cost effective
Leverages existing infrastructure and assets, funding and projects
Builds community partnerships, grassroots support and capacity for implementation
Transforms the way we think of the role of our streets, parks, public buildings, farmers markets, and new development.
Attracts commitment and investment for bold new visions

Beware the “It’ll Do Disease”- Lessons from NJ Future’s 2011 Redevelopment Forum

Pippa Brashear — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 20:02:39 +0000

As a Redevelopment Forum Partner, Project for Public Spaces attended the recent NJ Future’s Redevelopment Forum 2011- and we want to share some of the valuable things we learned there.

The Redevelopment Forum is an annual event where movers and shakers in the public, private and non-profit sector who are committed to a smart future for New Jersey through sustainable redevelopment come together, discover good work happening around the state, and discuss opportunities.

Trends and Take-Aways

Many great redevelopment resources emerged from this year’s Forum and you can download lots of the Forum’s presentations for free here. Discussions focused on topics including Energy & Environment; Housing & Community; Legal, Technical & Financial; Transportation & Infrastructure Planning & Design.

This is a must do if not only if you are working for smart growth and sustainable development in New Jersey, but also if you are working somewhere else: there is a great deal to be learned from the challenges and opportunities that New Jersey is facing.

Tom Murphy, Peter Dontas, Peter Kasabach, and Anne Hoskins spoke at the 2011 NJ Future Redevelopment Forum

Place-Based Redevelopment is Key to a Sustainable Future

New Jersey is our nation’s densest state (1,185 people /sq mi). It sits between two of the countries largest metro regions (New York and Philadelphia), yet has many cities of its own, as well as small towns, townships, boroughs and villages (NJ has 566 municipalities), as well as significant agricultural and natural preservation areas.

These realities make redevelopment a key component of sustainable development for New Jersey’s future. In his in his opening remarks, NJ Future Executive Director Peter Kasabach said, “redevelopment allows us to re-use infrastructure that we have, take advantage of historically strategic locations; maintain and improve our communities; and preserve our remaining open space.” Kasabach emphasized “there is no better time than now to make redevelopment the first way we think to develop.”

In New Jersey and elsewhere, successful redevelopment will start from place; it will build off of existing destinations, historically important places, and infrastructure networks to build more vibrant communities. This was the message that we were pleased to hear and a vision that we look forward to seeing NJ Future and others help New Jersey achieve.

A place-based strategy for redevelopment is a powerful way to turn underused infrastructure into some of the state’s greatest assets- and take places that are merely functional and turn them into extraordinary destinations.

Beware the “It’ll Do Disease”

Tom Murphy

In his keynote address, Tom Murphy, former Mayor of Pittsburgh (now Senior Resident Fellow for Urban Development at the Urban Land Institute) warned forum attendees to beware the “it’ll do disease.”

His message was that no city or community wants to be an “it’ll do” city-settling for just what will do, rather than what it wants and can envision for itself. He argued that communities need to clear about their values and the place they want to be, and warned that money is “always the excuse, and never the real reason” for not making positive change.

He highlighted many things he thinks are critical to achieving positive redevelopment and change including committed leadership, a strong vision, institutional capacity, a transparent process, flexible and entrepreneurial financing, land control, and design excellence.

In the end though, he said, success comes down to the community’s will to make things happen, and the most powerful person in the room is not necessarily the one holding the purse strings, but the one who can bring everyone to the table, the person who can speak everyone’s language – the translator.

The Forum was organized by New Jersey Future, a “statewide research and policy group advocating a smarter way to grow: one that protects our open lands and natural resources, revitalizes neighborhoods, keeps housing affordable, and provides more transportation choices.” For more, check out their coverage of the launch of the “Strategic State Planning Process” at the Forum.

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Pippa joined PPS as a project manager with the Streets as Places campaign. Pippa is a landscape designer and urban planner whose work strives to integrate design and planning in improving the public realm, specifically making spaces of transportation successful public places.

The Story of Sprawl

Craig Raphael — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 03:09:01 +0000

An increasing number of signs have been pointing to a sea change in the patterns of sprawl that have shaped modern America: The burst of the housing bubble; a growing awareness of global warming; a relative shift in development away from the exurbs and towards center cities; and the new administration’s commitment to livability, smart growth, and high-speed rail.

At such a pivotal moment, we’d be well-advised to look back at how we ended up here in the first place, and a new DVD series is doing just that. “The Story of Sprawl,” produced by Planetizen’s managing editor Tim Halbur, traces the patterns of growth in America over the last 60 years, through a collection of well-chosen film clips going all the way back to Lewis Mumford’s 1939 “The City.”

Halbur’s also assembled a group of expert commentators to put these films in the context of how attitudes about cities and growth have evolved over the years. The star-studded line-up includes Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, of DPZ Associates; James Howard Kunstler, author of the Geography of Nowhere; Anthony Flint, author of The Battle Over Sprawl and The Future of America; Prof. Robert Cervero, UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design; and John Norquist, President of the Congress for New Urbanism.

The 2-disc DVD’s official release date is April 20; you can pre-order a copy here.

Screen-capture courtesy of Planetizen.

Prioritizing Stimulus Funding: If It Is Broke, Let’s ‘Fix it First’

Robin Lester — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:07:50 +0000

Gary Toth, Senior Director of Transportation Initiatives at PPS, has recently authored a new article for Smart Growth America and T4 America titled, “Why Fast Track ‘Fix it First’ Projects are a Better Stimulus.”

Gary has been reviewing State DOT spending proposals for Stimulus funding and has found many proposals for capacity increases and major road rebuilding that would perpetuate our existing transportation problems. In this article he further challenges this approach to stimulus spending arguing that these types of spending proposals will not create jobs and stimulate local economies as effectively as focusing on fixing infrastructure that is currently broken and awaiting repairs.

Fast Track Fix it First projects create more jobs, faster; they are also more labor intensive than other projects, use man power that can be quickly trained, and can be easily staffed by state employees. With Fast Track Fix it First projects, more money enters the economy faster because funds are not held up in plan creation, or spent on buying land or expensive equipment. Almost all preservation and short-term resurfacing can be completed in a season, whereas other highway funds spend out slowly with typically 27% of a project completed in the first year. With Fix it First projects, money gets pumped into local economies faster and is spread across the state more evenly so that construction investments are shared across the state, rather than being concentrated on a few large projects.