I'm sure this is a copyright violation, but this blog isn't very big and hopefully the AFP will appreciate the free translation. There were so many interesting things in this article about Paris' first experiment in over 30 years with tall buildings, and American sources make the plan sound a lot … [Read more...]
NJ, the far West Side, and LIC should pay for the No. 7 subway expansion
The transit blogosphere has been falling over itself with excitement since yesterday about Bloomberg's proposal to extend the No. 7 train into New Jersey, and I have to agree that it sounds like a very good plan. It would be much cheaper than the recently-axed ARC project and wouldn't involve a … [Read more...]
Environmentalism vs. density, federal style
Coatesville is a town about 45 miles east of Philadelphia, and they want to refurbish their train station and build some transit-oriented development around it. The town really took off around the turn of the last century with the Lukens Steel Company, and because the train line was the town's … [Read more...]
Another week, another consolation link list
Another week without posts (from me, at least), another giant consolation link list! I've got a lot of them piling up and probably won't be back to regular posting for a few more days, so I'll try to spread them out over a few posts. 1. Wendell Cox's Demographia came out with its 2010 … [Read more...]
More urban planning mismeasurement
Apparently I'm not the only one thinking about urban mismeasurement, because the planning blogosphere is lighting up with examples. In addition to my critique of per passenger-mile measurements and the aforelinked critique of average density (and the great follow-up post here), I've noticed two … [Read more...]
Environmentalism vs. density
Recently I was reading an article about the death-by-delay of an upzoning proposal near a train station in Boston because the property might have been "considered 'priority habitat' for rare species, including the eastern box turtle," and I thought about all the times I've heard of opponents of … [Read more...]
Urbanization driving reforestation to outpace deforestation?
by Stephen Smith While most people associate cities with pollution and the material and ecological excess of late capitalism, I've long believed that urbanization has the potential to be a great environmental savior. The NYT has a fascinating article that confirms what I said about cities … [Read more...]
Redistribution
Discussing Ithaca, New York's plan to increase permitted density and reduce parking minimums, I can dig what Matthew Yglesias says : The distributive impact of parking minimums is to redistribute income from people who don’t own cars to people who do own cars—not to shift income from poor to rich. … [Read more...]