All posts by Kristen Jeffers

Issues and Ideas, Traveling as An Urbanist

Are We Missing Major Place-Making Opportunities With Our Airports?

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Terminal 2, RDU

Yes, this looks cool, but I think I’ve seen this airport before…(Image Credit Flickr user: Evil Jess

Floating through airports over the summer, I have noticed how remarkably similar they are. I would think  an international building with the ability to showcase the local culture would in fact be that showcase. Instead, I’m seeing  the same generic architecture. I feel that the airport, as the million (and lately billion) dollar showpiece of your town , should be unique in not only architecture, but in the content that it sells and displays.

When I arrived at Raleigh-Durham International Airport on the way to the CNU 19 in Madison, WI,  my first response was a series of oohs and ahhs. The arches, the glass elevators, the pre-security Starbucks and sandwich shop, the big windows, I was amazed. Then I started thinking, somehow this all looks very familiar. The baggage claim with the ticketing floor terrace was Baltimore. Same with the security tables between the restaurants. The arches I’ve seen in Detroit, Indianapolis, Charlotte. Everybody has windows.  Even in Madison, without the arches, there were windows, beige and the feel of the constricted and shed-like RDU Terminal 1. Great, I’m thinking now, we have always had an airport plan that’s bland and adds nothing to the character. Yes, the art is different and cool, but when did big arches come to symbolize air travel?

At this point you can go ahead and ask why I should care? It’s just the airport. You come in and you go out and you are only there as long as it takes to get on a plane. However, we all know you can spend a minimum of two hours preparing to get on a plane, 30 minutes getting into flight, the time of the flight, then about 30-45 minutes to exit. This of course assumes that there is no layover. If that’s the case, you are stuck in a building with processed food, stale air, overpriced wi-fi and horribly uncomfortable chairs. You might be able to pay to access an airline lounge, but it’s not worth the expense.

So what do I think airport authorities should encourage out of their architects? What kind of experience do I want in the airport?

First of all, I like the Tampa model for architecture. Tampa’s main building has a nice mid-century modern, golden age of passenger air travel feel in their main terminal. Once you go upstairs, you are then invited into the 21st century, through people movers that take you to one of five spoked terminals, each of which reflects a different tone and character. There are still windows so you can see the planes, but it doesn’t all look the same. Also we could add chairs at the gate that don’t have the bars, in case people do in fact need to sleep at the airport.

For what’s sold in the airport, the airport needs to reflect Austin’s model, with a ban on chain restaurants. RDU is about half and half. Still, my true home airport of Greensboro only has one restaurant and I assume it’s locally owned, but even it may be controlled by that airport franchising company . Same with the stores. Outside of a few duty-free and magazine shops, having a store like the Motown store in Detroit is excellent for establishing the meaning of a place.

One last amenity that should be offered is a family wing. Similar to the USO lounge for soldiers and families, maybe around Christmas and other major holidays, one of the airline lounges can become a family area, so that families can calm their children down and keep them from being loud  on planes or tired young professionals can catch a few hours of sleep on the way home from visiting parents.

But I digress, what do you think your home airport should have or look like? How can we make our airports better places?

The Thursday List

Four Ways Old Malls and Strip Centers Are Coming Back to Life

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North Hills Mall Plaza from the Roof of Renaissance

Yes, I know North Hills Raleigh is a great retrofit of an old mall. But it’s still mostly retail. Read below and find out more about other rebirth options. (Image credit: Flickr user radellaf).

I know in my last post I came down pretty hard on the lifestyle center trend. However, living up the street from an enclosed mall that regularly gets business makes me wonder if it’s the form of the mall that matters as much as the function.  Still, economics does matter in many cases and malls do fail. Our second enclosed mall died a slow death partially for being near a landfill, while the “lifestyle center” was one of the first major outdoor strip malls in the state of NC. It had been written off when the enclosed malls opened and now it has it’s own addition and all of the “upscale” stores. Then there are the two major bigbox thoroughfares.  It’s all in the perception of a place. Which leads me to list four ways that malls can and have come back to life:

Schools: In Florida, a school building looks nothing now like the Kmart that once embodied it.

Churches: Here in Greensboro, a Kmart still bears it’s marks, but inside the place is clearly an arena-style worship center. It’s one situation where the large parking lot is full at least once a week as if it was Christmas.

Hosptials: In Nashville, TN, this mall now houses over 20 health clinics as well as some of the remaining stores.

Daycares: This California center has even gained a second story.

While some of these are technically big box retrofits, the idea of reforming old, once vibrant, shopping strips and enclosed areas is alive and well. Notice how these are general community uses, not commercial stores that may fall out of favor with shoppers. What are some other examples of good mall and strip center retrofits?

Durham, Greensboro, Issues and Ideas

Shopping Malls and Strip Centers Are Not Dead Yet

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Queen's Square Shopping Mall, Yokohama

Image Credit: flickr user steven.y

As much as we hate them, I still do believe there is life in our traditional enclosed shopping malls and strip shopping centers. When these facilities opened, they were bright, shiny, air-conditioned and convenient. Supermarkets offered everything imaginable under one roof. Some even had lounges for spouses and kids, so harried housewives could shop in peace. They had tall smiling Santa’s and community Christmas trees. They invited the community in not only to shop, but to watch movies, jam at concerts and walk around for exercise.

Yet, we fast forward to the present day and many are  blighted. Others aren’t dead yet, but have been pushed aside as unsustainable, uncool or dirty. I do agree that  many were built with a few too many unsustainable stores. However for others, you have to admit the crowd inside didn’t suit your fancy, so you pushed for a more upscale shopping experience. You moved up in the world and  your money and the stores followed. The owner stopped cleaning and lighting the property. Big time developers no longer want to clean and air-condition spaces, so they created these fake main streets that the elements can hose down and clean off. Of course there are the Circuit Cities, Linens and Things and K-Marts that just sit empty, because of those chains poor management of money.

Yet, I also see a different story. Story #1 is my mom. She gets up early on the days she doesn’t go to work or go to the doctor and walks around our nearby enclosed mall. If she wanted to, she could walk there in about 15, but she drives there in less than five. Story #2 is the Fanta City International Center in Greensboro. While not as shiny and occupied as it was when it first started, it’s goal has been to create a marketplace for our many refugee and immigrant communities. It’s a strip mall without a known anchor, but with it’s Super G Market, does a great job of being a Wal-Mart for foreigners. Lastly, there’s that mall in Cleveland that turned it’s enclosed mall into a greenhouse.

As I said before,many of the so called new urbanist “lifestyle centers” take a facade of a main street, but space the stores way too far apart in the name of parking. Also, these “main streets” are just as much private industry as the malls, meaning no loitering, photography or even legit public gathering after certain hours. Don’t get fooled by the planters and benches in the middle of the parking lot. And oh, isn’t that a Macy’s in one corner and a Nordstrom way across two faux streets? These centers aren’t new urbanism as much as they are corporate greenwashing and anchors for a lifestyle that’s not so sustainable anymore due to inability for families and even working single professionals to afford their wares.

Hence why I say that people aren’t killing the mall. Often it’s shop-owners who want a certain clientele and the developers who want to save money and make big bucks. Once these two people have wielded their muscle, its then the community that often says, hey, I don’t want to shop there anymore. For those of you who say it’s gangs killing off malls, I’ve noticed groups of young people of all types hanging out at both facilities. A man was killed in 2008 at an Old Navy at one of our lifestyle centers in Greensboro. This was after a person was shot in the 2006 at the traditional enclosed mall at the Baby Gap. Both of these cases were private disputes that came to the mall, not a protracted effort for people to come to the mall and shoot and harass people. There have been other cases, but I count those on one finger and once again, not a conspiracy to kill mall shoppers.

To close my thoughts today, If the mall is dying, then it’s dying not because of the tired “people want to shop at lifestyle centers and they want to be able to walk around and shop” meme. There is a need for adaptive reuse of the existing dead mall structures. You can blend the enclosed mall with a main street feel, case in point, the Streets of Southpoint in nearby Durham. It provides a good weather and bad weather shopping experience. Also, these places are still not public third space, but cities and towns can buy them up and create third spaces inside and around them. Older strips can be re-facaded and parking structures and homes can be added to the wide swaths of asphalt that surround them.

So what do you think, is the mall really dead? Are lifestyle centers faux-urbanism?

Greensboro, The Thursday List

Five Ways You Can Be a Grassroots Planner

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downtown greensboro during 2009 Fun Fourth
Street festivals are great examples of Grassroots Planning, bringing vibrancy to the street and exposing people to businesses and parks they may not know about. (Image Credit, Myself)

I know many of my readers are like myself. They can’t draw buildings or maps. However, they may have the time and money to go out and organize the community.  The  passion for the city is still there, but in a different way. So how can these people contribute to urban planning? Here are five ways:

  • Run for office– I know in Greensboro, 75% of the issues that come before council are related to property and zoning issues. If you don’t have the stomach for a campaign, try to get appointed to the zoning commission or the board of adjustments. You can also do like I am doing and volunteer your services for someone with this gift.
  • Join your neighborhood association. I’ve discussed the need for neighborhoods to have a neighborhood driven, low-fee group to air community concerns and provide community entertainment. If your neighborhood association is too structured (managed by an outside group that has no clue what the real needs of the neighborhood are), or non-existent, see how you can get one going.
  • Join me in the blogosphere. If you are reading this and thinking about sharing your ideas on urban planning, go ahead. The more citizen voices that exist, then more decision-makers can understand the true reach of the market for certain activities and living areas.
  • Start a business in an underused area. I’d prefer that it would be a green business, but any business that treats employees fairly or adds life to an inner city area that appears to be lifeless is good. Encourage your employees and supporters to give back to the community as well.
  • Read the Tactical Urbanism guide and get a project started– There are so many great projects in this book. Although these are mostly temporary projects, some that  have become permanent. Also, you don’t need a license or talent  just a will to see the project through and a few friends who do have the talent or license. The idea is that urbanism is not just for those with large, sweeping multi-block or acre city plans, but  plans that are smaller and cheaper and still transform and create great places.

However, because we are talking about grassroots strategies, there are plenty more ways one can get involved. Share with me your ways of getting involved in planning and urban development, besides drawing the plans themselves.

Greensboro, Issues and Ideas

How I Find Meaning as The Black Urbanist

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Can I really make a difference for urbanism with just my keyboard? (Image Credit Sharon McMillan)

It really did all start with a map. I’ve told my story before, but I wanted to revisit it again this week as we will be talking about grassroots planning.

This week also marks the launch of my new weekly e-newsletter, the Blackurbanpaper. Be sure to use the purple box on the top right to subscribe so you don’t miss an issue. If you already subscribe to my posts via email, you are all set to receive the newsletter.

Anyway, back to the story. Lately I’ve been feeling a little lost. I don’t exactly want to draw plans (although I like sketching in my notebook) as a career. Also, I’ve never pounded the pavement to save my neighborhood either. Never had to really. I’ve always lived in stable environments, but had a hunger for making less sustainable and stable communities better. After wrestling over this question in the middle of the night, at CNU and in the middle of downtown Greensboro, I’ve determined that there’s not really a need to put a label on what I do. Well, besides the one that adorns the top of this page. So what do I think makes me qualified to be an urbanist? Here are my reasons:

  • I love my city and I want to see it grow.
  • I never stopped believing in the idea of the city, even as I’m forced by economics to live in more suburban terrain.
  • I think we can solve a few social problems with improved urban and suburban forms that promote connectivity.
  • As a person of color, many of us found opportunity and then lost it in the urban form. I think we can regain opportunity in this new smart city framework, as well as regain the connectivity and community my elders speak of.
  • I have no problems using the city bus, riding a bike AND driving a car, when appropriate.
  • I believe community goes beyond, but is strengthened by a positive built environment.

Even though I made my decision to become a writer and public relations guru for great causes and companies, I feel like I still need to tell this story. The story of the city. The story of the community.  The story of life.

I know I don’t have all the answers. I’m not the expert (yet). I know that my definition doesn’t match perfectly the Charter of New Urbanism or even popular opinion on what a city is. However, I’m going to keep doing what I can to make my community better. Even if some days it’s just putting up another post on this blog. Hopefully someone will read it and know how important it is to make their community a better place.

The Thursday List

The Thursday List: 5 Ways to Bring Schools and the Community Together

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This week I’m adding something new to the blog, a more in-depth, quick facts way to start applying principles I discuss on the blog directly back into the community. This week’s theme was education, so I’m revisiting  steps we need  to bridge the gap between our schools and the community. Here are five of those steps:

Host Community Events Free of Charge

School lunchrooms, auditoriums, gymnasiums and classrooms are perfect event spaces. If need be, bring in food and supplies to offset rental and staffing costs.

Use The Yard Space(If You Have It) For Community Gardens

Most schools gladly use their yards for sporting events. While this is a great release for kids sometimes, how much better would it be to teach kids how to grow their own food  and even run their own small business by using a community garden.

Establish Apprenticeship and Internship Programs with Students as Young as Middle School Age.

Go ahead and build brand loyalty, as well as introducing kids to a sure career path. They will be more motivated to do well in school and pick a college or trade school that gets them exactly where they need to go. Then they can come back and build up communities themselves by repeating the cycle. Also consider becoming a Big Sibling

Create a Carpool/Bikepool/Walking Group

In my neighborhood, the kids could walk to school with one or two adults in tow. If the schools a little further away in your neighborhood, but the streets are safe, get a bike group together. And if walking is dangerous or the school is across town, get a carpool together. Also, the school bus works too, but not every district pays for busing all students to school. Also, what if your child is in a charter or private school, where busing is optional.

Sponsor and Donate to the School.

Lastly, unless the district has established a district-wide endowment, donate to the closest, most needy school you can find. This can be your time or your money. However, keep in mind that the school you think may not give the ROI you expect may be the most grateful. If you want to get your feet wet, check out a few projects on Donors Choose.

Greensboro, Issues and Ideas

Urban Design Must Have Heart and Soul

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We must be careful that the Southside neighborhood and others like it, not fall back into the darkness at the expense of other vibrant neighborhoods, such as our traditional downtown (Image Credit: Unknown Flickr user via CityBoi at Skyscraper City Forums)

Recently the national-award winning, Duany Plater-Zyberk designed community of Southside in Greensboro lost a key tenant, Vintage 301. Outside of Manny’s Universal Café, this was the only restaurant in the neighborhood and only consistent draw of people outside of the small neighborhood inside. While there are a few hair salons and other small businesses left, the neighborhood has gradually gone from mixed use back to urban-esque suburbia.

I say this to deal with the idea that is at the core of much of new urbanism:

If you build it they will come + a cleaner urban form= success despite our economic and social failures

Yet, at the end of the day, many of us have no disposable income. We can’t sell our houses or afford to buy new ones. Some of us can’t even afford to rent homes, rent or buy cars or even eat. We want to start businesses, but you need money to do that too. Some existing business and homes are getting choked by the increased tax values. Cities are not working carefully with small businesses to deal with tax liabilities (yet continually give breaks to big ones who can more than afford to pay).

So what does one do in a situation like this? What does this mean for urbanism (and suburbanism and ruralism)? I’m not sure of all the answers, but it starts in one place, working together.

When we lose money and get poor, we often retract into the worse of ourselves. We hoard, we covet, we criticize. The fear of losing our identity swells far and above our own minds and makes us create false stories about our friends, family, colleagues and leaders. With this negativity, we find it hard to go on in our present state and we spend time over-analyzing how others seem to be getting along.

I think this negativity is at the root of where we stand as a country right now. However, I recently learned that no matter what, it’s better to be grateful for what does exist. Even though I can’t rent a house, I am able to live with my mom and help her with things at our house. The bus still runs from 5 AM to 11PM here in Greensboro and 24 hours in some places. I could ride a bike. And at the basic level, I’m breathing, seeing, walking and talking and writing this post.

To bring this tangent back to a close, we have to look past the built environment for a minute and work on restoring the souls of our fellow community members. We have to have hard conversations and ask hard questions. We have to make hard demands. Yet, I don’t know of a person who has some means, yet is complaining about lost of livelihood, that doesn’t have something they can share. Maybe it’s a shoulder to cry on, an extra shirt, an extra plate or a ride to work.

Still, we will not be able to fill our communities and embrace a density until we desire to live in harmony again. A harmony that looks past differences in matters of the heart and makes sure people can have the freedom to wake up and live comfortably.

Just like I called on DC residents on Twitter to do, it’s not about race-baiting, it’s not about keeping improvements off the streets, it’s about getting our city economics back on track, and remembering all legal business is good business. Even if it’s just an upscale wing joint that moves into the old Vintage 301 space.

Greensboro, Issues and Ideas

The Case for Better Neighborhood Associations

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A group of people who are happy, is this your neighborhood association board? It should be.

You either pay exorbitant amounts of money to it or you have moved to a community on purpose to get away from it. You probably want to get rid of it, especially if you want to tear out your front yard or save for retirement without watching that $300 a month go down the drain. Yet, you might like your neighbors and the National Night Out picnic and block party every year is fun.

I’m talking about the neighborhood association and its related fees.

Neighborhood associations at their root go along with what I consider to be a successful community. They allow neighbors of all stripes and kinds to gather to solve problems, keep areas clean and presentable and provide families and friends with the opportunity to gather.

However, some neighborhood groups are contentious. With the cost of food and gas increasing, it is harder to justify spending money to give to neighbors who fight over what colors should be banned from houses. Also, many neighborhood associations are spending money defending their boundaries and fighting city governments. While this activity is expensive, and can be productive are these legal battles draining the productivity out of your neighborhood?

I’m not sure if this is what happened to my neighborhood, as we have never had one. The adjacent older neighborhood did but, according to a cousin who lived in the neighborhood at the time, the organization was cliquish and slightly discriminatory. Once the clique moved away, the organization died, along with the neighborhood pool the fees maintained. Despite these circumstances, we need to restart this group, with my end of the neighborhood included.

I also believe that neighborhood association funds can be better spent. Take this  example of  neighborhood association fees collected as a giving circle. In this giving circle the minimum payment is agreed upon and put in a hat and saved up, to be redeemed once a quarter for a specific community project. An example quarterly project schedule is below:

  • Winter: Snow and Ice Removal- (If the climate is warm, then dedicate this money to a spring time community garden or holiday decorations)
  • Spring: Community Garden setup
  • Summer: Clean-up of common areas such as parks, pools and neighborhood welcome signs
  • Fall: Fall Festival

Your four projects can be more tailored to your individual community’s needs. Also, consider having a fund set aside to pay for lawn care or other emergencies that happen to neighbors.  Even better if the four activities above can be done with sweat equity and all money collected can start a community foundation.

In my neighborhood, I would like for us to re-open the pool, clean up and build a few new neighborhood signs and have an official National Night Out event. We could also partner with the nearby shopping mall, three churches and elementary school for events. Also, we should go past preventing crime and keeping strange children off the streets. We also have a few bus stops that can be adopted through a program our city offers. All need benches and regular upkeep, as they are used by a number of neighbors throughout the day.

So you are now thinking, do I still need to be giving $300 a month to my association. Yes and no. If your association is engaged in greater community building activities such as those mentioned above, yes. You also can reduce that number and still have a good impact. Below are the effects of spending a $1 a month, $5 a month and $300 a month on a community. These numbers are based on a community of 50 homes with fees docked from property taxes and sent back to a neighborhood 501c3.

$1 month/$12 per year per neighbor= $600– While a bit small for an emergency fund, this can be split into three $200 parts to give towards a neighborhood boy or girl to clean up the common areas throughout the summer, seeds for a community garden and/or paying the same kids to shovel snow or dedicated to one big national night out party so that neighbors can meet each other and work on building bartering and trusting relationships. Also, if your neighborhood association is brand new, you can dedicate some of this funding to becoming a tax exempt organization.

$5 month/$60 per year=$3000– As you can see, we already have a nice increased sum here. You can pay for tax exemption, put $1500 away for a neighbor in need and then use the other $1500 to work on the community initiatives mentioned above.

$300month/3600 per year=$180,000– So this is the net gain for a $300 month neighborhood association fee. If you only use $1500 for the small community initiatives, you have a nice sized fund to start a community foundation fund for scholarships, medical bills, even small business ventures. This also covers legal fees, but my hope is that you are moving away from litigious activities.

No matter what, your neighborhood needs an association. Cities with less formally defined neighborhoods could start with census tracks. Neighborhoods could merge if there are not enough households to obtain a certain funding level. Even if no money is collected at first, a neighborhood watch will keep neighbors informed of basic needs. Those concerned with privacy should have the option of opting out of the neighborhood association. Renters should also be informed of meeting times and projects and invited to participate, especially if they have resided in the neighborhood longer than some homeowners.

I have mentioned to a few neighbors that I would like to implement the $5 a month model, so we can clean up our neighborhood signs and maybe look into adopting the bus stop.

So community developers and neighborhood leaders, what am I missing? What are some solutions in practice to the issues surrounding neighborhood associations? Are you a community who is putting similar practices at work with success?

Issues and Ideas

Making Big Box Stores Part of the Urban Fabric

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Urban Target Store in Minneapolis (Photo Credit: Wikimedia)

Ahh, the urbanist’s dreaded big box. No one wants the thing in their neighborhood, but oh do we love having Trader Joes and Whole Foods nearby. Never mind that the Trader Joes moved into the old Wal-Mart space and the Whole Foods was built next door to a massive Petsmart, Babies R’ Us, and Target.

We need to be careful when we condemn the big box. You can keep talking if you are living completely off the land: making your own food, sewing your own clothes, even educating your children on site.How are these box stores any different from department stores, which have been around since the 1800s. Shopping plazas have been around for far longer than that and did not originate in the United States .Yet, why is it when it’s Wal-Mart or Costco and not Target or Barnes and Noble do we have the problems? Maybe it is because these stores were built and are continuing to be built to be car dependent? The stores take up too much room in the ‘burbs, therefore they must eat up the whole urban landscape? Also, there’s always the air of cheap or over-sized products. Also, there are the employee treatment issues and the “people” that shop there. However, we need to get over all these issues.

Having the boxes around has also allowed  us to possess more than we ever thought. Thanks to the supermarket, we can now have eggs or beer at any time of night in any metro(unless you are dry on Sunday mornings like we were even in NC metros for years). We don’t have to make our clothes, we can get all of them already made and cheap at Target.

I don’t mean for this post to be a slander or witch-hunt, however, I do want all of us to think about we manage our commerce. What stores could we really live without? Are there ways to make these stores better, such as pushing for them paying living wages and being taller and having less land mass around their stores?

Here’s what I think it will take for all box stores to succeed in the urban fabric:

Be Green: Seriously, have a LEED certification or some sort of historic redevelopment certification on the building. Consider having a green roof instead of a parking roof. Use natural light. Suburban Wal-Marts built in recent years have done a great job incorporating skylights. In an urban setting, the windows of the stores would be preserved and used as forms of light into upper floors. Use compact florescent if you must light the store via electronic means. Continue the work with suppliers to bring in local produce and reduce package sizes.

Reconfigure the store: All big box stores should take the IKEA approach to selling their goods. Items that are difficult to carry down stairs or even on a Vermaport SC (a cart escalator commonly seen in urban stores), should be displayed in a special showroom area which can utilize higher floors and then be picked up at a special merchandise pick up area that is car friendly. Grocery should always be bottom floor, as it’s the most routine need in my opinion. Clothing, small appliances, electronics, music and books in their tangible forms and other objects that are not conventionally sold at grocery stores could occupy higher levels.

Free Delivery and A Prominent Package Pick-Up area: Stores would not need parking if they offered these two options efficiently and carefully. The package pick-up area would be directly connected to a much smaller parking lot that also housed delivery trucks. Delivery trucks would have a bay and there would also be a lane for private vehicles.Sears does great with providing package pick-up areas. Many other stores have ship to store or ship home options now that are free or minimal cost.

Pay a Living Wage to Workers: Wal-Mart was the main offender of this rule, but has taken steps to rectify issues with compensating and rewarding employees. With the revenue streams these stores produce being public, upping wages of employees is a goodwill measure to the public, as well as a stabilizer of the economy.

Be a good neighbor: Be willing to be the only anchor or locate yourself a few blocks away from the competition. Provide seed money to smaller businesses, that although are direct competitors in your category, offer a slightly different in-store experience that customers can alternate between. Be known for being the clean, but low price point and buy off the shelf store. Let the small store host the events, display the products and order the out of print or custom made products. Through it’s subsidiary Sam’s Club’s  small business loans, Wal-Mart could be financing lots of potential small-scale competitors. The loans will be targeted to firms led by women and minority groups, increasing the diversity of these ventures.Also, efforts to help schools, hospitals and other mission driven organizations and businesses to fund their causes and provide volunteers for their projects should continue.

These measures are not easy, nor cheap. A downtown Target store cost the chain 16 million to build. However, Chicago, New York, DC, Baltimore and countless other municipalities are figuring out ways to build big boxes in a urbanist manner.

So what did I miss? What else can we do to reconcile the price point and convenience of box stores with the need to maintain the traditional Main Streets and vibrant dense urban downtowns?

Issues and Ideas

The Walkability Paradox

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North Hills (via Tripwolf.com)

In November 2008, I was considering moving into the neighborhood in Raleigh I’d been working and playing in, North Hills (Midtown) Raleigh. North Hills is one of the many examples of successful classical new urbanism in North Carolina. It took a shopping mall that was emptying due to competition from nearby Crabtree Valley Mall and flipped it into something short of paradise, at least for me. All but one of my favorite stores, my office at the time, the best hairstylist I’d ever had and practically all my favorite restaurants were within walking distance. I only needed to spend gas money on getting back and forth from my apartment 25 minutes away. Even better if I could negate that 25 minutes and move closer. I was interviewing for a different job outside of the complex, but only five minutes away. I would have a nice entry-level professional salary. However, $900 in rent to live in something that was smaller than my $750 place out in the burbs just to say I was green and walkable wasn’t going to cut it for my pocketbook or common sense.

And here we have part one of what I call the walkability paradox. Part two was highlighted by Kristen Carney on Plannovation. She pulls Census and Walk Score data together to determine that first most Blacks and Hispanics don’t live in what are now considered “walkable” communities (i.e. clones of North Hills). Yet, I drive through my old majority-minority neighborhood and see lots of walking, albeit to the suburban style strip center on the corner, but still, walking none the less. Along with another study she was able to do showing higher vacancies in 18 of 20 cities’ “walkable” communities than the city as a whole, there’s evidence that there are issues with selling our classical new urbanist(and some old urbanist) communities not just to Blacks and Hispanics, but maybe the population as a whole.
Not only do these numbers provide evidence of the paradox, there are other things I think make “walkable” communities undesirable still for many:

Price Points Too High

As stated before, we are expected to pay a premium to stay in some walkable neighborhoods. I was hoping to save the money I was not spending at the gas tank, not turn it over into my rent check. With my Honda Accord, I was spending about $40 a week in gas. With those high  prices back now, there’s no real cost savings, only a green living benefit. For people with gas guzzlers, they may see about a $20-$40 discount, but certainly not the $150-$200 I expected to see. At the end of the day, people are going for the cheapest items. Some people do it for bragging rights, others do for survival. Plus, it’s way cheaper in some cases to put in sidewalks in areas that have grids, but missing one side of the street. People are walking, but infrastructure in all but the new urbanist areas is not reflective of actual travel patterns.

Poor Floor Plans
Unfortunately, many of these neighborhoods are built to maximize profits instead of provide adequate space and appealing layouts. The proximity to the Chic-fil-A and the Target doesn’t make up for the fact that I can barely turn around in the bathroom, my dining room table is thisclose to my stove, and in a case I saw here in Greensboro, there’s no need to have a bathtub, just a shower. Apparently, this is both what builders and designers think young professionals will settle for or they are just making something up to try and sell. Also, I’ve never understood the three-story townhome either. I like the idea of exercise, but some of those staircases look steeper than DC Metro escalators. Granted, it’s a waste of time I’m sure to get feedback from people who may only live in a place three months. Still, I’m not one hundred percent  sure that people are renting because they love the interior or the exterior outweighs all. If I’m going to pay a premium, at least let there be enough space and reasonable features to justify the expense.

Lack of Grass and Separate Walls
There are people who will always want a separate wall and a bit of grass. Count my mom as one of them. These people also  include DJ’s, musicians and dog owners who don’t want to always have to take Fluffy outside themselves or get yelled at by the neighbors for noise.  Thankfully, some of the new urbanist developments have began to incorporate a bit more privacy and a bit more green space, in the style of the bungalow neighborhoods of the early 20th Century. This allows sidewalks, bike lanes, and the location of neighborhood scale retail, all while allowing some room to breathe. In my childhood neighborhood, the homes are close by, but I still had ample room to run and proximity to the corner store.

Buildings are Too Tall
Research and practice are beginning to rally around mid-rise development. Many other sites and studies have shown just small amounts of density can improve walkability and repair sprawl. As much as I like dense areas, I also like to see the sun rise and set and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Plus, so many of these glass box condos were built, yet no one is living in them. So much for developer profits. One local developer ended up buying back his whole building and looking into other options to fill up the condos.

Amenities are Too Upscale
North Hills does has a good balance of amenities. There’s a Target and JCPenney, along with upscale boutiques. I can eat at Chick-fil-A one day and Ruth’s Chris if I really had the means to eat a nice meal. The stylist I mentioned was at the JCPenney, but there were more expensive places for that too. Harris Teeter does have a decent private label brand. Yet, some new urbanist communities fail to have anything besides pricey bars and spas to entice people to come downstairs. You still have to drive to Wal-Mart or even the green grocer co-op. What about working and professional class folks who need more than a liquor store or a fancy steakhouse downstairs? As much as people hate them, I like the urban big-boxes. People are going to these stores anyway, let’s make them bow down to our design sensibilities.

Some Places Make it Unbelievably Hard to Not Have a Car

With the advent of the suburban office park, the 3-5 year job placement, poor bus infrastructure and lack of bike lanes, car dependent areas are almost avoidable. As we continue to advocate and see results reversing these trends, we still need to understand that many people will not come over the bridge until there are bike lanes.

The biggest solution for the paradox? Ask people what they really want.  Don’t settle for who comes to the design charette or model home. Don’t stick to the marketing research you bought from the PR firm. Second solution, flip all these problems over. Lower prices and price points in your residential and retail offerings. Complete the streets. Provide more privacy barriers. Help ease people into a more ambulatory lifestyle.

So folks, what else should we do to get people walking again?