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Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time

A focus on ‘missing middle’ housing: The plans feature housing that is fairly high density but not high rise — a combination of "row houses" between 2-4 stories high, and apartment buildings going up to 8 stories. This is the type of neighborhood that makes up the most beloved places in the world. Places like Amsterdam, Venice, Santa Monica, Lake C... See more

Devon Zuegel • Part 3: The first walkable city in America in a century

Place and Non-Place

newworldeconomics.com newworldeconomics.com

For people to choose to walk, the walk must serve some purpose. In planning terms, that goal is achieved through mixed use or, more accurately, placing the proper balance of activities within walking distance of each other. While there are exceptions, most downtowns have an imbalance of uses that can be overcome only by increasing the housing suppl

Jeff Speck • Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time

Here are some of the details from the initiative that stand out to me:

Emphasis on walking, biking, & high quality transit: Compact development is at the core of this proposal. It leads to walkability and enables efficient, high-quality transit services. This not only reduces carbon emissions but also fosters a sense of community and accessibili... See more

Devon Zuegel • Part 3: The first walkable city in America in a century

The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Jane Jacobs

amazon.com

Cover of The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Abolishing the off-street parking requirement is one of the three cornerstones of Shoup’s theory, because it would allow the market to determine how much parking is needed. He notes that “removing off-street parking requirements will not eliminate off-street parking, but will instead stimulate an active commercial market for it.”37 This would bring

Jeff Speck • Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time

This is remarkable. Compared to our colonial ancestors, we throw 25 percent more of our national and personal resources into transportation and we ultimately move no faster. But we do move farther, and Illich might as well have been speaking about contemporary Atlanta when he wrote that “everybody’s daily radius expands at the expense of being able

Jeff Speck • Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time

Portland’s system was instituted hand in hand with a commitment to “a host of other strategies and policies, including higher density, neighborhood-based urban design, elimination of minimum parking requirements, and basically the whole list of things that add up to walkability,” says Hales. “You can’t just drop in a streetcar.”