Aaron M. Renn

All Things Aaron

Grand Central Terminal And Penn Station: Will The Beauty and The Beast Ever Get Married?

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This post is part of a series by Robert Munson called North America’s Train Stations: What Makes Them Sustainable — or Not? See the series introduction for more. Photo by the author to celebrate GCT’s 100th anniversaryIn today’s tale, Grand Central Terminal is The Beauty. Admired also for her goodness, she touches souls in ways most civic buildings cannot. Many souls, such as this author, find her exquisite. So when our mid-Century trend of destroying beautiful buildings put GCT on the demolition list, the public’s stored-up admiration … [Read more...]

Highways, Casinos, and Bridges, Or the Insatiable Demand for Boondoggle Highways

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A friend of mine recently summed up the mindset of all too many when it comes to economic development: This bunch loves casinos and highways and bridges and hates mass transit. Highways and bridges and casinos are their answer to every problem: Tax base eroding? Build a casino. Urban congestion? Build a highway. Can't get to casinos? Built a bridge. Undeveloped backwoods counties? Build a highway AND a casino AND more bridges. Jobs recovery slow? Build a highway. This is on display yet again in Indiana. Politicians in southwest Indiana spent … [Read more...]

Using Placemaking to Serve the Needs of Industry

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[ Quality of place improvements tend to be targeted at high end demographics downtown and such. In this piece Rod Stevens and Gregory Tung talk about how the needs of industry for better quality places should not be overlooked - Aaron. ] In a recent posting on “The Promise and Peril of Rust Belt Chic” Aaron Renn contrasts the goals of self-affirmation with the Richard Florida approach of hipster havens. There is a division here between creating jobs and place-making, a gulf that has never been bridged between economic gardening and New … [Read more...]

Newark Penn Station

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This post is part of a series called North America’s Train Stations: What Makes Them Sustainable — or Not? See the series introduction for more. Photo from City of Newark websiteA visual pleasure inside and out, Newark’s Penn Station is more than a pretty face. An excellent workhorse, this station helped save one of America’s most troubled cities. Seemingly married to a special Destiny, this station was born in spite of the Great Depression and has endured as a leading Economic Engine; pulling its city through half a Century of … [Read more...]

Megabus – King of the Road

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This post originally appeared on August 18, 2011.   Source: Flickr/BudahblessIn recent years there's been a resurgence in intercity bus travel, driven by the rise of low cost, non-stop service linking tier one cities like New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC with other regional hubs in their surrounding areas. This is a lively and diverse market, particularly on the east coast, with providers like Megabus, Bolt Bus, Greyhound, and a host of so-called "Chinatown" buses [update: who find themselves on the regulatory run, probably at … [Read more...]

Chicago Union Station

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This post is part of a series called North America’s Train Stations: What Makes Them Sustainable — or Not? See the series introduction for more. The photo above is how I used to think of Union Station: the architecturally famous Great Hall. But as the nation’s third largest station, I always wondered why so few people were in it. Before I share the answer, please allow this summary background. Score: 61 (see full scorecard) Category: Inexcusable This series’ previous post analyzed Philadelphia’s Center City stations as representing … [Read more...]

Philadelphia Center City Stations

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Philadelphia Market East Station. Photo Credit: Flickr/acetonicThis post is part of a series called North America’s Train Stations: What Makes Them Sustainable — or Not? See the series introduction for more. In the series introduction, I divided America’s stations into four categories based on how they are evolving to sustainability. The first was “The Likely Sustainables.” While most cities have plans to reutilize their central station, these cities are doing it best. These stations serve compact cities and are using these economic … [Read more...]

North America’s Train Stations: What Makes Them Sustainable – or Not?

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[ Today and Tuesday I'm kicking off a series by Robert Munson that reviews North America's train stations. Entries will be posted periodically as Robert writes them. Today is the set up followed by Philadelphia, and many more analyses that should surely get people arguing - Aaron.] Before cities waste more time and money fumbling, let’s first describe how train stations should serve the 21st Century. Which of these encourages you to travel by train? New York’s former Penn Station was cathedral-like, an elegant concourse and … [Read more...]

Louisville Bridges Project Proceeds From Tragedy to Farce

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I've written a lot about the $2.6 billion boondoggle project to build two new bridges across the Ohio River in Louisville (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). A new East End river crossing is without a doubt necessary and adds regional value, but the rest of the project is basically bad news. But no matter how crazy this project is, it always manages to find ways to show that it's even more wacky than I thought. The latest installment comes from the so-called "investment grade toll study" that was conducted in order to set … [Read more...]

Making the Link Between Quality of Life and Economic Development

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A rather prosaic economic development announcement in Indianapolis provides an opportunity to hammer home in a concrete way the connection between quality of life investments and economic development. This is something I've long argued we urbanists do a poor job of. We tend to adopt a "build it and they will come" marketing approach to quality of life initiatives where the connection between cause and effect is tenuous. Additionally, these tend to focus almost entirely on and tell stories about "the best and brightest" which in a country dying … [Read more...]