So, how does the financing of Harrison Square fit together?
Here’s how the city’s Web site shows the relationships:
OK, that clears that up.
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Today’s rant: Abandon downtown!
From today’s News-Sentinel:
When you drive on our terrible streets or drop your kids off at schools that are in dire need of repair, just think of all that could have been done with the money being wasted on downtown.
But don’t think about how the financing of Harrison Square actually works. From the city’s Web site (PDF):
Q: How will Harrison Square be financed?
A: The initial Harrison Square development will have a development cost of approximately $125 million with a 50/50 private-public sharing of the cost. No general property taxes will be used to finance the project. The majority (78%) of the public dollars for the project will come from funding tools and revenue streams dedicated specifically to downtown development and are geographically restricted. Those tools are known as Community Revitalization Enhancement Districts (CRED) and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Districts. The remaining 22% of the public dollars would come from unrestricted funds such as CEDIT. The numbers presented are the most accurate available based upon current information. Final numbers depend upon the outcome of project component negotiations.
Again: “No general property taxes will be used to finance the project.”
But I do have to lay the blame for the misunderstanding at the feet of the city. The Fort Wayne mayor’s office did a poor job communicating the complicated financing tangle behind Harrison Square when it was announced. The confusion that still exists shows that the city must do better in explaining these complicated deals so the citizens can agree and disagree intelligently
Left turn to nowhere
This is the repaved block of Calhoun Street between Jefferson and Washington boulevards.
Instead of a turn lane that directs you into the breakfast buffet at the Hilton, perhaps the city could consider a center-of-the-road refuge island for hotel-goers crossing the street? Such an island would typically be used on wider streets, but visitors would likely be carting a lot of suitcases, making such an island useful.
Leave the center lane for cars coming from the north and turning left into the parking garage. Then build the refuge just to the south of the garage entrance.
It’d certainly help welcome visitors to Fort Wayne.
Here’s an example posted on Flickr:
– top photo by Jon and posted to Flickr
Will Harrison Square hate pedestrians?
Will the Harrison Square retail development in downtown Fort Wayne make pedestrians more or less welcome? And why would I ask the question, seeing as how there are so many pedestrians drawn on the architectural renderings?
But there’s a potential problem with the above streetscape, and David Sucher’s Three Rules for urban design (PDF) addresses it directly. Allow me to quote from his book, “City Comforts“:
If the problem is to create a walkable, pedestrian-oriented neighborhood, much of the answer is architectural. Actually, it is not so much “architectural” in the usual sense of the word, for it ignores style. Site plan trumps architecture. …
The key decision is the position of the building with respect to the sidewalk. This decision determines whether you have a city or a suburb.
- Build to the sidewalk (i.e., property line).
- Make the building front “permeable” (i.e., no blank walls).
- Prohibit parking lots in front of the building.
Now, at first, it may seem that Harrison Square meets the conditions. It will be built to the sidewalk, the front will not be bare walls, and obviously there’ll be no parking lot in front.
But take another look at the streetscape above. The retail establishments are not at street level; they are maybe five feet above street level, separated from the street and sidewalk by seven steps and a brick wall.
Now, imagine walking by the retail stores. You would not be eye level with the stores. You’d be ankle level. And when you drive down Jefferson Boulevard, you’ll have the same problem of not being able to see directly into the stores. This elevation of the retail establishments reduces the building’s “permeability” — not completely, but partially.
Another interesting wrinkle is that the rendering above seems to show on-street parking on Jefferson, which would require reducing Jefferson’s four lanes to three. Is that really part of the plan? I hope so, because if not, that small sidewalk with a wall on one side and heavy traffic on the other will not feel so friendly to the pedestrian, trees or no trees.
But here’s the clincher: If you are handicapped, how do you enter the stores?
Well, if you have the misfortune of approaching Harrison Square from the west, you’ll have to travel an entire city block to find a ramp that allows you access to the stores.
Now, before my criticism gets criticized for being too, well, pedestrian, please remember that these details matter. City residents will not approach Harrison Square from the air, as in the virtual fly-throughs. We will approach it on foot. And the way we interact with the building as pedestrians is the only way we’ll ever know.
I know that renderings are only plans, and are subject to change. But since construction of the stadium has been underway for some time, bringing the first floor of Harrison Square down to street level is probably out of the question.
– images from the city of Fort Wayne Web site
Apocalyptic parking
There’s plenty to say about Parkview Hospital’s expansion up north and contraction on State Boulevard, but first, I wanted to address another angle of the proposed Shoppes on Broadway (sits plan shown above).
Why do all new retail developments look like suburban strip malls? Why is the parking lot almost twice as large as the footprint of the building?
A major reason is that every 180 square feet of retail space built in Fort Wayne requires its own parking space.
So the Phase I building at the top with 6,050 sq.ft. of space requires 34 parking spaces. And the Phase II building at the bottom with 10,200 sq.ft. of space requires 57 parking spaces.
The law doesn’t care what kind of stores are in the building. The stores could be low traffic or high traffic. There could be on-street parking, nearby garages or an abundance of pedestrian traffic. You still need a parking space for every 180 square feet of store.
But how often do you see a parking lot so full that you cannot find a space? Maybe, just maybe, the lot fills up on the day after Thanksgiving. But for the rest of the year, the lots are seldom more than half full. It’s parking built for the apocalypse and not for normal day-to-day shopping.
Not only are these hugs empty parking lots expensive, they separate stores from each other, making walking or biking unpleasant and sometimes dangerous.
We shouldn’t seek laws that force developers to create retails centers that shoppers would avoid. Instead, we should seek to loosen the existing, overly strict mid-20th-century zoning laws that are slowly dismantling our urban fabric by forcing suburban parking on inner-city blocks. The Shoppes on Broadway development is a great example of why the city of Fort Wayne should not just ease the rules for downtown development, but also expand such freedoms to other center-city neighborhoods. Downtown isn’t the only part of town that needs help.
‘Urban excitement is possible close to home’
This comment by Michael Bates of BatesLine in Tulsa was too good to be ignored:
Two generations have been raised to see the tidy segments of the suburbs as normal and the city as a messy mix that needs sorting out. That’s starting to change, and a significant number of people have experienced the pleasures of urban living, either directly, or vicariously through TV shows like Seinfeld and Friends. (And it could be argued that the appealing depiction of urban life on those programs was made possible by Giuliani’s cleanup of New York in the ’90s.)
I think the starting point is for cities like Fort Wayne and Tulsa to create and preserve urban places for the many who already know they want to live there. As these areas thrive, others will see that urban excitement is possible close to home, not just on the East Coast or in Europe. Over time there may be enough demand to redevelop badly aging post-war suburban neighborhoods in a new urbanist fashion.
Politics still matters: You need councilors and planning commissioners with the courage and vision to approve a pilot project for form-based codes or special zoning with design guidelines to protect traditional neighborhood development from suburban-style redevelopment.
But mostly you need entrepreneurial types willing to reuse old buildings in traditional neighborhoods, and others who are willing to build new in a traditional style. Recreating a vital urban core will happen the same way it was destroyed: one building at a time.
– beautiful vintage photo of Fort Wayne posted to Flickr by Zach Klein
City may allow downtown to look like downtown
This is great news: Revamp of zoning in works — City wants to ease the rules for downtown development
The city hopes to rezone much of the downtown into this district, or a slightly less dense variation, and away from other commercial and industrial zoning.
The rules are more conducive to a downtown, (city planner Sherese Fortriede) said, because they ease parking restrictions and allow for multiple uses. They also allow buildings to be closer to the street, creating more of a dense urban feel. But the rules aren’t perfect, which is why the city also plans to take a closer look at its zoning laws. For example, Fortriede said the city probably shouldn’t allow anyone to just build more surface parking lots downtown when there is already ample parking.
Message to Midwest: Change or die
Today’s article at Next American City sets its sights on the Midwest:
Richard Longworth (a senior writer for the Chicago Tribune) wants you to know two things: First, globalization is happening and it will continue to change the world. Second, if you live in the Midwest, you’d better be very afraid about your region’s chances of competing in an increasingly “flat” world.
Contrary to the hoo-ha churned out by the countless chambers of commerce that dot the Midwest, not all is well in Mayberry. In a passionately argued and well-researched new book, Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalization, Richard Longworth takes us through a Midwest that is facing rapid change, as rural economies strain under the increasingly automated and corporate nature of modern agriculture, and as old industrial cities from Canton to Cleveland, Muncie to Milwaukee, struggle to find a new economic niche in a state of permanent deindustrialization.
The article takes us from the lows of Detroit to the highs of Chicago, and then offers a few suggestions:
Longworth offers a few policy suggestions, such as investment in biotech and biofuels, which would leverage the Midwest’s natural strength in food production into becoming a leader in future technologies. He also argues for a regional approach to development, a Midwest conversation on who we are as a region and what we should aim to become.
Read the whole article here. Read a Chicago Tribune review of Longworth’s book here.
– photo of a distressed portion of Detroit by Luca & Vita on Flickr
10 reasons cities are works of art
The Work Research Foundation‘s Comment magazine published a little point of view piece called “Public Arts in the City: with reference to Chicago.”
Not only does the author — Clinton Stockwell, the executive director of the Chicago Semester — give ten positive reasons for considering cities as works of art, he peppers his short essay with great quotes, including these:
“Place is space with historical meanings, where some things have happened which are now remembered and provide continuity and identity across generations.” — Walter Brueggemann
“Art points out to the Calvinist both the still visible lines of the original plan, and what is even more, the splendid restoration by which the Supreme Artist and Master-Builder will one day renew and enhance even the beauty of His original creation.” — Abraham Kuyper in Lectures on Calvinism
photo of Chicago’s Michigan Avenue by kitchaboy on Flickr
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