Cooltown Studios

Developers favoring walkable over car-oriented 3 to 1

2010-08-31T13:54:18Z

We know the demand for walkable communities is there, but what about the supply? Looks like it’s finally catching up, at least as far as surveys go.

A survey of 1000 builders and developers in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic area, conducted by The Strategic Alliance real estate group, found that 60% of them are shifting away from bigger traditional home designs to pedestrian-oriented mixed-use neighborhoods. Not surprisingly, 61.4% of them feel multi-family residential holds the greatest potential for growth, with only 19.2% for single-family. 63.1% are re-evaluating their already planned projects to reflect this.

There are also indications that opportunities for crowdsourced placemaking are growing:

- Nearly half of the respondents answered yes to the question, “Since the recession, do you see large development firms changing the way they do business in an effort to share financial risk?“ With crowdsourced placemaking, homes/businesses are pre-sold/pre-leased, thus effectively sharing in the financial risk.

- Nearly half also stated that ‘demand‘ is the most pressing challenges in developing residential real estate today, followed by a third who pointed to financing. Crowdsourced placemaking is essentially demand-driven development, unlike the vast majority of real estate today, which is supply driven.

Walking health benefits - illustrated

2010-08-25T19:16:54Z

In case any public or private institution asks just what’s so great about walking and transit when it comes to your health, here’s a number of hard hitting facts visually communicated. These graphics can be found in the very readable 25-page Evaluating Public Transportation Health Benefits report published by the American Public Transportation Association.

Daily Walking Trips And Transit Travel (above) - It doesn’t matter what your income is, if you don’t use transit, you’re hardly walking, and that leads to…

Mode Split Versus National Obesity Rates (below) - The less you take transit, walk or bike, the more likely you’ll be obese. Mind you, this is common sense, but the sense is made even more common when presented visually.

The following two charts:

Public Transportation Health Impacts - Shows how the health concerns of traffic safety, pollution reduction, physical fitness, mental health, affordability and basic mobility are positively affected by transit, and often ignored by conventional city planning.

Public Transportation Health Impacts - For all you decision-makers out there, this shows the financial impact of ignoring health issues and health-oriented planning and development. It gets pretty expensive very quickly.

Public Transportation Health Impacts

Estimated Public Transit Health Benefits

‘Small Cool Apartment 2010’ winners

2010-08-11T16:56:01Z

Moving into smaller homes hasn’t only become a financial necessity, it’s fast becoming a desirability.

If you’re looking for inspiration for big living in a small apartment, there are few better resources than the annual Small, Cool Apartment Contest presented by Apartment Therapy, which by the way, is one of the best blogs on the very same topic.

This year’s U.S. and international winners provide complementary examples for whether you have a more contemporary open floor plan like Chris’s ‘Furniture Tetris’ in Houston, Texas (above), or got stuck with (as she put it) a compartmentalized unit like Maria (floor plan below) in Barcelona, Texas, which she transformed into ‘Maria’s Pockets’.

Why is Chris’s small home so livable? The open floor plan that makes his 450 s.f. place seem a lot larger. How’d he make it more livable? The sheer divider curtaining off the sleeping area from the living room also serves as a projector screen without making the place seem smaller, as well as playing ‘tetris’ with the furniture pieces to maximize his ability to entertain guests comfortably.

Why is Maria’s chopped up 699 s.f. apartment so livable? High ceilings and a balcony, and close to nightlife and the beach. How’d she make it more livable? Curtained-off sleeping area doubles as a living room, very comfortable furniture, and lots of artistic touches via lamps, paintings and plants.

Businesses come to love Copenhagen’s people-only streets

2010-08-09T18:51:09Z

Businesses drive much of the economy in the U.S., and as a result, much of our culture as a result. In Copenhagen, Denmark, the people often drive its economy and culture, and businesses follow. When Copenhagen decided to go pedestrian-only in the 1960s, businesses went along kicking and screaming fearing the loss of their customers. Little did they know then that that’s a primary reason they’re thriving today.

Illustrating this story is yet another amazing video (above) from the folks at Streetfilms, Copenhagen’s Car-Free Streets & Slow-Speed Zones.

A brief history:
- 1950s. Copenhagen experienced what they call their ‘car invasion’ as the auto industry hit the affordability tipping point.
- Early 1960s. The downtown was congested with cars.
- 1962. The City decided to take cars out of its 1 km main street (at the protest of businesses).

Today. As you can see in the video, the car-free program was such a success that it’s continuously expanding, with the support of businesses. This includes the transformation of 18 pedestrian-only squares that used to be parking lots, and the presence of 7500 cafe seats that are out for 10 months of the year. The latter stat is pretty remarkable considering Denmark is closer to Alaska in latitude.

Economic development gets sustainable

2010-08-06T12:45:46Z

Economic development was defined in the industrial age as the increase in the amount of people in a nation’s population with sustained growth from a simple, low-income economy to a modern, high-income economy. [Someone needs to change this on Wikipedia]

It’s definition in the knowledge age is more in line with sustainable development, universally known as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Its second definition in Wikipedia is more in line with this, the process and policies by which a nation improves the economic, political, and social well-being of its people. Almost, but not quite, a triple bottom line approach.

Until it is universally defined as such, economic development on this site will be referred to as sustainable economic development.

The point is, the evidence shows we’re rapidly evolving toward sustainable economic development as the norm…

In ABC News, Smart Money in Real Estate Is on Smart Growth, Alexander von Hoffman of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies states, “People are increasingly pushing for policy that supports an urban lifestyle, and leaders from the White House to town halls are listening…“

- “This year, President Barack Obama created the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities to coordinate federal housing and transportation funding with local development. The president is helping to coordinate and reinforce a movement that was already gaining momentum. He’s helping those local and state leaders.

- “In California, for example, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 375 in 2008, requiring each region to adopt a “sustainable communities strategy“ to reduce greenhouse gases and give transportation projects top priority for funding.“ ...such as The Railyards urban village in Sacramento, pictured above.

- Public and private entities did a 60-40 split on the $132 million development costs for a smashingly successful Rockville Town Square in Maryland.

- Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce spokesman Marty Carpenter added that two-thirds of the residents in the region surrounding Salt Lake City voted to raise $2.5 billion for more commuter and light rail lines through sales tax.

- Operations for a new streetcar system in St. Louis will be covered by a transportation tax residents in the surrounding area approved by 97%, which many say gained such support for sustainable economic development reasons than mobility reasons (ie sustainable urban development follows new transit stops).

- If neither government funded nor locally funded sustainable economic development is for you, then how about locally tasked? Those Oak Cliff residents are at it again (see Better Block and ‘Better Plaza‘ projects), saving their City a chunk of their own money by volunteering to paint streetlights that a private company was overcharging for.

Oak Cliff continues to prove that it’s amazing what can get done when people work together rather than complain alone.

Crowdsourcing a healthy town in the UK

2010-08-04T19:02:39Z

How you set a healthy standard for an entire town? How about crowdsourcing an entire town meal from food grown right in the neighborhood?

On September 26, 2009, the town of Middlesbrough, England did just that at their Town Meal festival, where 8000 people enjoyed a meal made from fruits and vegetables grown by 1000 of the town’s residents. The primary purpose? To provide awareness of food miles and improve the health of the town’s residents as part of its Healthy Town campaign. It’s not just for healthy reasons, but economic ones too. Reports show the highest ever recorded rise in the price of food, while the cost of vegetables has risen more than 6% in 12 months.

Demonstration projects (which are all the rage with downtown street closures) are making it easier for both cities and its residents to accept progressive change. Over eight months prior to the Town Meal, the Middlesbrough city council provided locals with parkland, urban planters and other sites for urban farm growing. This year the City is stepping it up, suppying seeds, containers and 280 growing sites to 2000 individuals and groups (and counting), including 31 out of 51 schools, with 280 growing sites. Housing authorities and schools are adding their own growing sites. There’s even a plan to open a restaurant supplied by community-run food co-ops.

Check out the town meal video here.

Now, imagine this campaign with a pedestrian plaza program like this one...

Crowdsource Placemaking Lab opens

2010-08-02T20:31:41Z

This is a site for defining, talking about and providing examples of crowdsourced placemaking, but what about actually doing crowdsourced placemaking? That’s what the Crowdsource Placemaking Lab is for.

The purpose of the Crowdsource Placemaking Lab is to assist people who are committed to crowdsourcing a place that they feel should exist in their neighborhood or city, but doesn’t… yet. It’s a place for you to answer the question, What place would you be passionate about creating with others in your neighborhood?

Create a new Group to define the kind of place you’d like to crowdsource in your neighborhood… A coffeehouse? A coworking site? A car-free neighborhood? You define the vision, then start attracting people to build up a crowd. It’s very important to note that the Lab team will even provide assistance (only through the site) for free. Why? Because this is a new field, and people need all the help they can get.

What’s next? Once you build up a sizable crowd of at least a hundred people; a beta community, the Lab team will help you find a ‘sponsor’, that is, an investor willing to work with your group to implement your collective vision. Think of it as the crowdsourced placemaking challenge.

Pop-up bicycle coffee stand

2010-07-30T13:14:17Z

Now that you’ve now been introduced to Bicycle City, when it comes to getting your coffee fix, a few innovative minds in Brooklyn, New York, are providing a preview of the kinds of amenities you could expect to see in such a place. One that perhaps complements a bicycle cafe.

Kickstand Coffee, in a nutshell, is a 9-foot long portable coffee bar that folds up and is transported via two bicycles. Founders Aaron, Neal and Peter even crafted a system to offer both hot and cold coffee which you can learn more about here.

They’re looking for ways to be zero energy, so if you have ideas to replace their propane camping stove, let them know. They’re currently working on a bicycle powered bean grinder.

City leaders, looking for revenue? Go urban!

2010-07-28T15:25:47Z

Or at least go two to three stories.

What more precisely is a main street worth compared to big box/strip mall development to a city’s revenue? Peter Katz, Director of Smart Growth/Urban Planning for Sarasota County, Florida with data compiled by Public Interest Projects provides a compelling look.

Above is a chart showing county property tax revenue per acre for Sarasota, Florida (click on it for a larger image).

The county’s big box stores (Walmart, Sam’s Club) generate $150-$200/acre a year, about the same as city residential (which not surprisingly is much higher than low-density residential).

In the same category as Walmart, the county’s highest retail-only is its regional mall, at almost $22,000 per acre, aided by high end department stores.

However, two to three story mixed-use (retail and residential) at over $70,000/acre produces more than three times that of the Walmart, while three to seven story mixed-use at $560,000/acre generates twenty five times as much. Naturally, the higher you go, the higher the revenue.

The important lesson here is that perhaps two to three story mixed-use development/main street development is a sweet spot for the kind of development a city can prosper with, and its residents can enjoy that walkable small town character in.

For more local analysis of this and other information presented, check out the Citistates Group article, Mixed-Use Downtown Development Puts Standard Malls’ Tax Yield to Shame, and for a copy of the entire report that the graph is from, you can download it here.

Car-free community proposed in South Carolina

2010-07-26T12:17:57Z

If you’re passionate about walking, biking and living outside of the city, then you might want to check out what may be the very first new car-free community to break ground in the U.S. Modeled after remote pedestrian-only towns like Zermatt, Switzerland (see photo above and aerial of town here), it’s called Bicycle City, and its founders would like the initial development 15 miles south of Columbia, South Carolina to be the first of many.

It will be very similar to the Vauban neighborhood in Germany where residents crowdsourced its development and placed all parking on the periphery, leaving the neighborhood pedestrian only.

Lead founder Joe Mellett, an internet pioneer who sold his business to fund the pre-development, and his group spent $1 million on 140 acres, with the first phase including 10 homes ranging from 800 to 1600 s.f. - starting in the $100,000s - near the periphery parking lots, if the county approves construction for this fall. It doesn’t score points for being a greenfield development, and the team does recognize that with an intent to identify urban sites in the future.

Bicycle City is going to need some help from the crowd to see it through, with the biggest hurdle proving that there really is a market for something like this, that the U.S. (at least those willing to live near Columbia, SC) is ready for this. Stay connected via @cooltown on Twitter see if Bicycle City decides in the very near future to apply crowdsourced placemaking and lets you all in on it.

Read more in the Charleston City Paper, Car-free community cropping up in rural Columbia suburb.

Photo of Zermatt, Switzerland courtesy of Matt.

Developer announces crowdsourced placemaking program

2010-07-23T13:49:41Z

One would be hard pressed to find any real estate development firms firmly committed to investing in crowdsourced placemaking yet… except one. See Renaissance Downtowns’ recent press release below:

July 20, 2010

Renaissance Downtowns is a real estate development firm based in Long Island, NY that is applying a triple bottom line approach (social, economic and environmental responsibility) to comprehensive downtown redevelopment in several small to medium-sized cities across New England.

Renaissance is well aware of the over 50 million cultural and workforce creatives redefining the American Dream in the U.S., and the company is pioneering an innovative crowdsourced placemaking program to allow them to have a direct role in developing and investing in the very places they want to live, work and play.

Rather than develop what they think the market wants, Renaissance will establish a crowdsourced placemaking open survey website to let the local crowd determine what their priorities are when it comes to housing, retail and recreation. Renaissance will then work with the crowds representing the most valued ideas to customize and develop many of the buildings and public spaces within the community to reflect what the eventual residents wish to see in the final built environment.

This program is currently being prepared for the city of Nashua, NH with the intent to employ the methodology in Waterbury, CT and Bristol, CT as well. These three municipalities have all designated Renaissance as master developer and are in the early stages of the planning and development process, a process that intends to meet the wants and needs of the market by listening to the individuals who comprise that market through the crowdsourced placemaking program.

London’s new highway system… for bikes

2010-07-21T11:38:30Z

Looks like your typical highway map doesn’t it? Except this isn’t for cars, this is the map for London’s new bicycle superhighway system. Check out the full size map with legend here.

From London Mayor Boris Johnson, “These radial routes are set to transform our great city into one where cycling is the first choice for many thousands of Londoners. As well as being good for your health and wallet, encouraging more people to commute to work by bike will in turn help us improve air quality, cut carbon emissions and reduce congestion on the transport network.”

Here are some of the notables:

- The first two of twelve routes (in red on the map) opened on July 19, 2010.
- It’s partially paid for and sponsored by Barclays bank, branded the Barclays Cycle Superhighway (think corporate-named stadiums).
- The City of London plans to invest £116M (~$177M U.S.) on cycling in 2010, £23M of it on the cycle superhighway.
- Around 5000 cycle journeys are currently made everyday on the two routes, with plans to increase to 27,000 by 2013.
- The majority of superhighway lanes will be at 1.5m (~5 ft) wide, textured and painted blue.
- 5000 new cycle parking spaces for the first two routes, with 66,000 new parking spaces overall by 2012.
- The next two routes will open is summer 2011, and the rest by 2015.

An important note is that this is just a start. The first two routes are considered pilots, which you can see in the promotional video below. Many Londoners are already saying the lanes need further distinction from auto traffic, which you can read about in a BBC report, How super? What cyclists make of superhighways. Let’s see what the crowd can do about it. They could also use some branding help from these guys. Stay tuned.

Biking moving into the U.S. mainstream

2010-07-19T12:11:55Z

You know what it was like with commuting by bike in the 20th century… you may as well wear a tie-dye as well.

When bicycle advertising campaigns are featured in business magazines, you know the times are a changin’. Check out the logos, gear, posters and website behind People for Bikes: Uniting a Million Voices to Improve the Future of Biking at the Fast Company article, Finally, Bike Branding Moves Beyond Hipster Ghetto. People may even want to choose their bike from the icons above and make it their avatar.

It’s a biking campaign presented as lifestyle branding, complete with Lance Armstrong as spokesperson. The message is essentially, ‘I bike, therefore I’m cool’. There’s even an opportunity for the crowd to effect change, by being one of a million pledgers to enact legislative change. It’s something America as a whole wasn’t quite ready for a decade ago…

In a new century of consciousness, where big homes, big cars and big credit card limits are no longer a staple of the American Dream, the bike commuter is starting to gain an equal amount of status as the car commuter. Or at the very least, the average American probably now sees the Hummer owner to be as much of a dork as the bike owner, if not more so. In other words, bikes are becoming cool.

...though not quite as hip as they are in Amsterdam, where bicyclists have their own streets, traffic lights and parking garages. Give it another decade. In the meantime, you can read the stories leading up to that here.

SF’s ‘parklets’ trade parking for people

2010-07-16T08:55:54Z

If all continues to go well, San Francisco’s business and resident groups (ie the crowd) will be able to trade parking spaces for revenue and quality-of-life generating spaces instead. The City’s Pavement to Parks trial program is experimenting with repurposing underutilized street space into pedestrian-only parks and plazas. Their first project, the 17th Street Plaza has already become a favorite local destination.

The positive reception has lead to its ‘Parklet‘ program, where a pedestrian platform replaces streetside parking spaces. The first trial parklet opened March 18, 2010 on Divisadero Street, and if it’s an economic and social success (it’s already an environmental one), the City will look to establish a permit system allowing any business to apply for a permit and do this on their own. Indications look pretty good if Parklet beneficiary John McDonald, co-founder of Mojo Bicycle Cafe has anything to say about it, interviewed in the Streetflims video above…

As far as I know, we are the first full operation restaurant, beer, wine, sandwiches, food, breakfast, lunch, dinner that also is attached directly, all one business, to a full service and sales bicycle shop, and now has a patio courtesy of the City and County of San Francisco.

The space is working amazing well. We’ve been packed every day since it opened. We’ve had probably a 30% increase in business already. We’ve had to hire more people.

If I had a business somewhere else and was witnessing what’s happening arouund here, I would be on the phone to the city trying to make my spot the next location.“

The City also likes to add that it’s had more ‘road diets’ (lane removals to add ped and bike facilities) than any other city in North America. Approximately 35 with more to come in the next year.

So, what’s stopping you from getting a parklet demonstration going with your city?

Next up for Better Block in TX: A plaza

2010-07-14T04:59:03Z

It just keeps getting better in Oak Cliff, Texas for its Better Block project. First their two-day demonstration of a pedestrian-oriented destination on 7th Street spurred city council action to work on making it permanent, now the team is ready to tackle something bigger… a three-month demonstration of a pedestrian-only plaza.

Less than three months after the 7th Street demonstration, Dallas’ city council, led by council member Delia Jasso, told Better Block founder Jason Roberts that he and nonprofit Go Oak Cliff will have three months to prove the plaza is successful enough to make it permanent. The program is directly modeled after New York City and San Francisco’s plaza programs.

Here’s a photo of the existing intersection. It’s a challenging site because it’s currently surrounded by parking lots and roads, unlike the buildings fronting 7th Street. What will the team think of? What’s the budget? Does the site eventually allow for new buildings? The details will come when they start in September (after the dog days of August), though Jason did say they’ll have mobile food vendors bringing in revenue.

Keep track of both Better Block projects on 7th Street and the plaza at the Crowdsource Placemaking Lab. Even better, start your own plaza demonstration-to-transformation program!