Sprawl Should Pay It's Fair Share

Kaid Benfield on how sprawl’s extra costs are rarely fairly distributed:

This is because it costs more per unit to build and maintain linear infrastructure such as roads and sewer lines when that the lines have to extend farther per unit. Common sense. Nelson and his co-authors say that total initial municipal costs per person can be as high as $13,426 in sprawl.

The same logic also applies to police and emergency services, which must travel longer routes per unit in low-density areas, and it can be extended to private services as well, such as postal and package delivery, and power, telephone, and cable TV lines. On the other side, studies have shown that there is less use and less wear and tear on streets and roads in high-density areas that are near good public transit service.

Kaid makes the case that these additional per capita costs should be fairly reflected in the fees collected during the development process. It makes sense to me. A frequent argument is that the market wants sprawl. I think that’s not entirely true but even if it were perhaps the market would adjust if the real costs of sprawl were apparent and accounted for. Let’s stop subsidizing sprawl and then we can talk about what the market wants.

Reducing Parking

Josie Garthwaite, writing for National Geographic, on the growing trend of cities reducing parking:

Bit by bit, for the past 40 years, the city of Copenhagen has done something revolutionary: The Danish capital has reduced its parking supply. Cutting the total number of parking spaces by a small percentage each year stands in stark contrast to the more common pattern of cities adding more and more parking to accommodate private cars.

But in a few pockets around the world, momentum is growing behind efforts to bump out large parking lots, curbside parking, and garages in favor of services and infrastructure for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transportation.

“There’s no demand for parking, per se,” said parking policy expert Rachel Weinberger, assistant professor of city and regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania. “There’s demand for access to a location.” If a private car is the only way to access a given restaurant, shopping center, workplace, or neighborhood, she argued, then “that translates to demand for parking.”

There is more than one way to provide access. Parking individual cars happens to be one of the least efficient methods so it’s a great idea for cities to explore other options.

The Rio Font

Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan, writing for Fast Company, reports that the official typeface for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games has been chosen:

The dust has only just settled on London, but the Rio ‘16 committee has already finalized the typography of the next summer games. Designed by Dalton Maag, the office of venerable Swiss typographer Bruno Maag, the font represents an about-face for Olympic type design. Maag’s 5,448 character brush script is organic where London’s was jagged, joyful where London’s was “dissonant,” and expressive where London’s was tightly wound.

I like it. I think it fits the character of the host city and exudes a friendliness and energy that is good for the games. Here’s a video introducing the font:

Sprawl is too Costly

William Fulton, in an excellent article for Citiwire regarding the dwindling state and federal resources available to cities, makes an important point about finding financially viable and sustainable patterns of growth:

Conventional suburban communities, by contrast, are much more expensive to build and serve. In North Carolina, a study by the City of Charlotte found that a fire station in a low-density neighborhood with disconnected streets serves one-quarter the number of households and at four times the cost of an otherwise identical fire station in a less spread-out and more connected neighborhood. Another study in Champaign, Ill., by the respected consulting firm TischlerBise, found that growing within the city’s current urban service area would generate a tax surplus of $33 million, while sprawling beyond it would put a $20 million hole in the city’s budget.

It isn’t just infrastructure that costs more per capita in sprawl but also services. There are both long term and short term obligations associated with outward expansion. Growing communities need to ensure that the resources coming in can cover the additional obligations to remain solvent. If the inefficiency of sprawl proves too costly the only prudent choice is to develop more efficient and compact pattern of growth.

Rising Costs

CivSource reports on the relative rising costs of housing and transportation:

The combined costs of housing and transportation in the nation’s largest 25 metro areas have swelled by 44 percent since 2000 while incomes have remained stagnant and in some cases fallen. In the 25 largest metro areas, the report finds that moderate-income households spend an average of 59% of their income on housing and transportation. […] For every dollar household incomes have gone up, housing and transportation costs have risen about $1.75, cutting into wealth, savings and even budgets for essentials.

[…]

A recent Brookings Institute report on transportation issues across the US notes that a broad based lack of access to lower cost public transportation options in many states is not only adding to the cost burden for many Americans but may be effectively keeping them from ever advancing. Limited mobility also has limiting effects on access to higher paying jobs or job training programs that may not be located immediately near where someone lives. In states with suburban growth patterns walking to work may simply be impossible. Data from that report showed that while access to some form of public transportation is available to 70% of Americans, only 30% of them can actually use it to get anywhere in a timely manner.

We have developed an expensive way of life with high overhead. When you consider that a popular concept for personal finance is to limit spending on necessities to 60% of income to enable long and short term savings, that 59% just for housing and transportation starts to feel extremely high.

Working from Home

CarInsurance.org has made this interesting infographic on working from home:

Working from home, at least some of the time, is a good way to mitigate a long commute. But wouldn’t it be better if commutes were shorter and the benefits of working cooperatively could still be enjoyed?

Glass for the Birds

NPR has a two part series written by Maggie Starbard and Christopher Joyce on how glass kills birds:

Modern architecture loves glass. Glass makes interiors brighter and adds sparkle to cityscapes. But glass also kills millions of birds every year when they collide with windows. Biologists say as more glass buildings go up, more birds are dying.

It’s an interesting read but I was disappointed that almost the entirety of both articles dealt with the question of finding a glass that would turn birds away before they hit. That’s a good thing to explore but it seems to be an unnecessarily technological solution. I would have liked to see more discussion on the role of exterior design and what effect the percentage of glazing has on bird deaths.

This issue of dying birds, when coupled with the energy concerns, really brings up the question of how green can a glass tower really be?

Fringe Benefits

Matt Richtel, reporting for the New York Times:

Phil Libin, chief executive of Evernote, turned to his wife last year and asked if she had suggestions for how the software company might improve the lives of its employees and their families. His wife, who also works at Evernote, didn’t miss a beat: housecleaning.

[…]

These kinds of benefits are a departure from the upscale cafeteria meals, massages and other services intended to keep employees happy and productive while at work. And the goal is not just to reduce stress for employees, but for their families, too. If the companies succeed, the thinking goes, they will minimize distractions and sources of tension that can inhibit focus and creativity.

It’s an interesting idea. The mundane hassles of life can certainly inhibit focus and creativity. I wonder though, is this a symptom of a harried and frazzled culture - a bandaid solution for a systemic failure?

Kicking Legos

Molly Cotter, reporting for Architizer:

Can Bjarke Ingels do no wrong? The “It Boy” has won numerous awards, gotten a big profile in The New Yorker, and wowed spectators around the world with his impeccable design and fun personal touches. (He’s also an A+ Awards juror!) Ingels continues to astonish with his latest project, the Marina Lofts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida—a 1,072-unit condo complex with two 36-story buildings that resemble a giant assemblage of LEGOs torn down the center. Aimed to be situated on the town’s New River (no, it’s not “new,” that’s just the name), the project is just short $250 million in funding. But for now we can sit and dream.

Really? A building my two year old could design with his Legos and a frustrated kick deserves that kind of breathless praise? Right, everybody loves buildings that look as if some unknown force has violently attacked.

The Ghosts of Place

Michael Zhang, reporting for PetaPixel:

Teeuwisse began shooting her then-and-now photos after finding 300 old WWII photographs on negatives at a flea market in her hometown. After having the images digitized, she visited the various locations shown in the photos (figuring that out is a feat in its own right) and re-photographed them from the same location and with the same framing. The two versions are then combined with careful blending in Photoshop.

The intriguing images are a haunting reminder of the role place plays in the course of history. Check out the rest of the images in Jo Teeuwisse’s Flickr set.