A story in the Sunday Journal Gazette titled “Section 8 leaves poor unmoved: Efforts to scatter poverty meet unplanned hurdle” takes a look at where poorer people live,evenwhen given the chance to move: If people living in the projects were bedeviled by crime, deteriorating conditions, bad schools, few resources and urban blight, a voucher that would [...]
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The stubborn neighbor
by Jon Swerens on June 20, 2008, in Culture, Neighborhoods
You’ve heard of the woman who lived in this house, haven’t you? Here’s the lead to the story in the Seattle P-I: Edith Macefield died at home, just the way she wanted. The Ballard (Wash.) woman who captured hearts and admirers around the world when she stubbornly turned down $1 million to sell her home [...]
‘Is America’s suburban dream collapsing into a nightmare?’
by Jon Swerens on June 20, 2008, in Culture, Neighborhoods, Urbanism
The above is the provocative headline on a story on cnn.com. After some description of the foreclosures in suburbia, the story focuses on the shifting attitudes of homeowners. “The American dream is absolutely changing,” (Christopher Leinberger, an urban planning professor at the University of Michigan and visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution,) told CNN. This [...]
Good links
by Jon Swerens on June 11, 2008, in Architecture, Neighborhoods, Urbanism
Be sure to check these links: The New York Times Magazine published an architecture issue titled “The Next City.” It tackles questions such as why are sidewalks essential for democracy and can an instant city ever feel like the real thing? City Journal features a story about how New Orleans is rebuilding from the bottom [...]
Melborne: A Pedestrian Paradise
by Jon Swerens on May 6, 2008, in Neighborhoods, Urbanism
In preparation of Wednesday’s talk about walkable communities, take a 10-minute stroll through Melbourne. Go here to watch the video. Here’s a paragraph about Melbourne: There is an invaluable lesson here. In the early 90s, Melbourne was hardly a haven for pedestrian life until Jan Gehl was invited there to undertake a study and publish [...]
What does it cost to live in your neighborhood?
by Jon Swerens on May 5, 2008, in Neighborhoods, Urbanism
The Spaulding brothers do a great service by pointing us to the Housing and Transportation Affordability Index, which shows the affordability of your Fort Wayne neighborhood based on housing and transportation costs. As you can guess, everything’s cheaper the closer you get to the core of the city. As the Spauldings say over on their Web [...]
Traditional neighborhoods and modern architecture
by Jon Swerens on April 26, 2008, in Architecture, City culture, Neighborhoods, Urbanism
Scott Greider, over on his personal blog, quotes a portion of the San Jose historic design guidelines that addresses the role of modern architecture in older neighborhoods. (If you’re adventurous, you can download the entire 95-page PDF.) What does San Jose say? It says, “Bring it on”: Rather than imitating older buildings, a new design [...]
Breaking the Three Rules of urban design
by Jon Swerens on April 21, 2008, in Architecture, Neighborhoods, Urbanism
Above is an artist’s rendering of what a developer hopes will be The Shoppes on Broadway, near the corner of Broadway and Taylor Street. Leaving aside the fact that it looks like every other suburban strip mall built in Fort Wayne over the past five years, is it a good building for a city street? [...]
Suburbia: The next slum?
by Jon Swerens on March 19, 2008, in Neighborhoods, Urbanism, Where the sidewalk ends
(Jon) Next American City points us toward a sobering article in The Atlantic about the effects of the subprime crisis on the nation’s suburbs. “The Next Slum?” says these changes “may turn today’s McMansions into tomorrow’s tenements.” Here are some highlights: At Windy Ridge, a recently built starter-home development seven miles northwest of Charlotte, North [...]
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