Photo Credit: Flickr/julianmeadeThis is another in a periodic series about building sustainable suburbs properly so-called. To recap, I consider the suburban decay facing inner ring suburbs across America, especially those of the 60's and 70's vintage built on a modern suburban pattern, as one of the key challenges facing urban leaders over the coming decades. I outlined a lot of the case in my review of the book "Retrofitting Suburbia". Why is this happening? One big reason cities tend to fall into decline is that they accumulate huge … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2010
Louisville – An Identity Crisis
Following on from my article on Cincinnati, I'll now take a short 100 mile trip downstream to another old river city, Louisville. Louisville came of age in a similar era and traditionally viewed itself as a sort of little brother to Cincinnati. However, while Cincinnati was once the Paris of the west, Louisville never held so lofty a position, so it lacks Cincy's grandeur. Luckily, it also appears to be missing some of the dysfunction. See here the river city tradition as the Belle of Louisville steamboat fires up. There were obviously no … [Read more...]
Livability Needs to Starts Now For Indianapolis
CEOs for Cities recently held an event called the Livability Challenge in Indianapolis. Among its major themes was creating more beautiful cities. I did not attend this, but someone who did told me, "The last 3 days have been some of the most inspiring days of my civic life in Indianapolis." I'm not surprised. CEOs for Cities a) just gets it and b) puts on the best events I know, both from a content and organization perspective. If you ever get the opportunity to attend one of their events, I can't encourage you enough to do so. But … [Read more...]
A Better Road to Clean Water Act Compliance
I’ve noted before that the astronomical cost of Clean Water Act compliance for our cities was a killer. Most older cities are also struggling with deteriorated street infrastructure that would require another massive dose of spending to correct. Also, in the Midwest, most cities have street networks that are not even right in their very conception for the modern day anyway. And, they need to make major investments to create a more green city as well. A plan out of Philadelphia shows the way to kill three birds with one stone. With the most … [Read more...]