Jim Meredith over at Archizoo bemoans the state of retail overbuilding in America and looks at ways to prevent it. These range from "certificates of need" as some states require for hospital expansion to new zoning standards. Take a look for yourself. This reminds me that I've been remiss in following up on my "Buildings Suburbs That Last" series. So look for more installments of that shortly. This post isn't per se about that, but does talk about how we discourage overbuilding. In some states - and I don't have a full list, but know it … [Read more...]
Cleveland: What’s Wrong?
Along with Detroit, Cleveland is the poster child for major Midwestern urban decline and a favorite punching bag for the national and international media. But Detroit's travails are easy to understand. Anyone can look at and attribute them to the auto industry and poor race relations. The reality is more complex, but at least Detroit lends itself to a narrative. Cleveland is a different story. What happened in Cleveland to cause this? Even I cannot come up with a "grand unified theory" of Cleveland, which those of you who read this blog know is … [Read more...]
Building Suburbs That Last #2 – New Urbanism and Parcelization
This is the latest installment in my series on "Building Suburbs That Last". Essential background reading is in my review of Retrofitting Suburbia. To reprise, the trouble facing America's aging suburbs is likely to be one America's top urban challenges of coming years. As suburbs age and fall into decay, they are abandoned for rejuvenated center cities or newer edge suburbs. As I previously asked, who is going to buy a beat up used car when you can get new car with a warranty for cheaper on the fringe? Nobody, which is why we see older … [Read more...]
Chicago: Reconnecting the Hinterland, Part 2B – On Innovation
"When I am weak, then I am strong." - II Corinthians 12:10"A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house." - Mark 6:4 The is the last in my series on reconnecting Chicago with its natural city-region in the greater Midwest. But it really has nothing to do specifically with Chicago, or even the Midwest. It deals, rather, with innovation generally. I discussed how companies were outsourcing offshore, with a big driver being labor arbitrage. But as with all trends, labor arbitrage … [Read more...]
Chicago: Reconnecting the Hinterland 2A – Onshore Outsourcing
This the third installment of my four part series about ideas to create competitive advantage through reconnecting Chicago with its traditional greater Midwestern city-region. (Essential background reading is in Chicago: A Declaration of Independence. Part 1a is on Metropolitan Connections. Part 1b is on High Speed Rail). To refresh, in my kickoff of the year of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Burnham Plan in Chicago, I argued that while Chicago was performing well in a globalized world, it was only riding the wave of globalization … [Read more...]
Chicago: Reconnecting the Hinterland, Part 1B – High Speed Rail
The first installment in my series on ideas for reconnecting Chicago with its natural expanded region in the Midwest focused on what could be enabled by linking Milwaukee and Indianapolis to Chicago via high speed rail. This makes it a good time to talk about Midwest high speed rail generally. There's been a lot of talk in recent years about the idea of creating a Midwest high speed rail network. The federal government has already designated a system of Midwest rail corridors. There's a lobbying organization pushing it called the Midwest … [Read more...]
Chicago: Reconnecting the Hinterland, Part 1A – Metropolitan Linkages
In my kickoff of the year of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Burnham Plan in Chicago, I argued that while Chicago was performing well in a globalized world, it was only riding the wave of globalization and wasn't defining its own uniquely successful future, one where it first and most fully grasped the implications of our new world. I also promised ideas on where to look to do that, starting with re-embracing its own unique culture and identity, resisting homogenization. Today I start a four part mini-series looking at another … [Read more...]
Building Suburbs That Last #1 – Strategy
The problem of the suburbs is one of the great challenges facing urban America today. Older suburbs across America are struggling with population declines, decaying commercial areas, and increasing poverty. As ever more suburbs start to fall into the aging category, this problem seems likely only to grow more severe over time. Even the currently shiny new suburbs on the edge seem unlikely to hold their allure when they too are full and old, with even newer edge burbs just down the road. Enormous amounts of time, money, intellectual … [Read more...]
Chicago: A Declaration of Independence
"One might fear the degree to which the city had declared its independence from nature, but at the same time one could hardly help feeling wonder at its audacity.""Other cities soon had railroads and elevators and refrigerator cars as well, but it was Chicago that first revealed the importance of such things to the West." - William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis As promised, I commence my year of looking back at the Burnham Plan of Chicago on the occasion of its 100th anniversary. To set the stage, let us first take a look at Chicago - its … [Read more...]
Retrofitting Suburbia
What to do about the suburbs? This will be the great urban development challenge in coming decades. As growth radiates out ever further from the central city, older suburban areas lose their allure. They are selling an obsolete version of the same basic auto-oriented development style as newer suburbs, but with higher taxes, more crime, and worse schools. This puts them in a strategic rough spot. Inner ring suburbs across America are starting to decay. The first sign of trouble seems to be decayed, abandoned strip malls and commercial … [Read more...]