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 [...]
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‘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 [...]
Harrison Square financing: A primer
by Jon Swerens on June 4, 2008, in Downtown, Harrison Square
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.
Today’s rant: Abandon downtown!
by Jon Swerens on June 4, 2008, in 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 [...]
Will Harrison Square hate pedestrians?
by Jon Swerens on May 24, 2008, in Architecture, Downtown, Urbanism
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 [...]
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 [...]
Apocalyptic parking
by Jon Swerens on April 30, 2008, in Downtown, Urbanism
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 [...]
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