Where have I been

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted. Sorry, things have been crazy for the last few months. I finally made the leap into planning, now studing for an MCP at Penn. More news to follow.

Rebuilding Mississippi’s Gulf Coast – Getting Started

In Gulfport Mississippi three highways essentially define the city – Interstate 10 forms the northern boundary, Highway 49 running north-south bisects the city, and Highway 90 runs east-west along the Gulf Coast forming the city’s southern border. Of the Mississippi coast communities ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, Gulfport seems to have suffered the least amount of damage. That’s not to say it escaped unscathed – everything along the coast to roughly three blocks inland was ruined or completely washed away down to the foundation. All trees along the coast, literally thousands of trees including hundreds of heritage elms, were killed by the saltwater. Damage inland from that point is more sporadic – a destroyed restaurant amid undamaged strip malls and houses with damaged roofs miles inland. The vast majority of Gulfport residents are fortunate in that their homes are intact and habitable. Typical of Southern cities, the bulk of Gulfport’s retail stores, restaurants and other services are located not downtown, but along a strip, in this case Highway 49. Except for a closed Barnes & Noble bookstore, all big box stores and almost all small businesses along this corridor suffered little if any damage and are open for business. From a macro perspective Gulfport is generally intact.

The coastal region of Gulfport which encompasses Gulfport’s downtown, (12 blocks, 4 streets by 3 streets wide) is a much different story. Most buildings downtown are generally standing although all have been gutted from storm surges, winds, flood water, and the resulting rot, mildew, and mold. Since the storm, Gulfport has been defining a vision for its future as part of Mississippi’s rebuilding plan. Some of the plan’s components are more easily executable than others – but each requires funding and the combined efforts of residents, developers, local government, and in some cases rail owners, casino operators, the state’s department of transportation, and other regional, state, and federal agencies. An overall vision for Gulfport and each of the cities along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast will result in great places, improvements over pre-Katrina conditions. What this overall vision does not do is force action. Without action, the vision for Gulfport’s redevelopment will remain forever a dream on paper.

Five months after Katrina, Gulfport’s coast continues to look like it was bombed. In addition to the proposed city vision, local actions are more essential to the immediate recovery effort. Residents and business owners need to see redevelopment progress not only to feel better about their city, but so they also begin to reinvest in their own downtown.

Today, Gulfport’s city government along with newly expanded city departments, namely the planning department, permitting, and code enforcement are all located in temporary trailers next to city hall. The region’s redevelopment office is located miles inland among the sprawl of Highway 49. To show the people of Gulfport that the city is committed to rebuilding, city government and redevelopment agencies should be operating out of permanent downtown buildings. A number of building owners are waiting for insurance settlements before deciding what to do with existing properties. The city (with state and federal aid as available) needs to offer incentives to building owners and developers to begin reconstruction now.

Hope in Gulfport

Already nine local businesses have re-opened downtown – Ye Old Sandwich Shoppe, along with a lunch restaurant, a bagel café, a drugstore with a lunch counter, two law firms, two banks, and an auto service center. These businesses did not wait to reopen their businesses, and their services are so critical to the downtown area that they are all busy from opening until close. These individual businesses serve not only to provide essential services but like a lone sunflower in a field of debris, provide hope to the broader community and serve as catalysts in attracting more businesses back downtown. While these businesses exemplify the redevelopment that needs to occur, a more rapid and more significant return to a vibrant downtown will require the city to play a more active role.

The challenge faced by Gulfport’s downtown seem at this point, no more significant than that facing any underutilized downtown pending redevelopment. The vast majority of Gulfport residents have not been displaced, residents are working, people are shopping, and a sufficient worker base is available for reconstruction and to work in the businesses. Buildings are physically intact and essential infrastructure from water to power to streetlights is all operational. Given these conditions, the solution to rebuilding Gulfport’s downtown should be similar to other downtown redevelopment efforts. A strong redevelopment agency in conjunction with the chamber of commerce should immediately spearhead redevelopment efforts. The redevelopment of Gulfport’s downtown will indeed benefit from several elements atypical of other redevelopment efforts. As part of broad Katrina aid legislation, committed state and federal loans and grants are available to the city, along with insurance settlements for most of the downtown properties. The continued national focus on the Gulf Coast continues to yield volunteers who can help with recovery and redevelopment efforts, continues to increase the available labor force, and continues to raise awareness among potential visitors. Each of these factors will in the long term benefit the Gulf Coast, and it is incumbent upon the city of Gulfport to begin redevelopment efforts now, while residents are hungry for revitalization and resources are available to the city.

Gulfport, MS - post-Katrina

The Abstract Building and Steeple from First Baptist Church

Unscathed Federal Courthouse and Destruction along Hwy 90

Street destruction along Hwy 90 and Reconstruction in progress

Gulfport Library and heritage trees all dead from saltwater

Typical house along Hwy 90 and the First Baptist Church

Dead trees and typical home

21 January 2006 Mississippi Gulf Coast status: Before getting to the Gulf, we (crew from Tufts Volunteer Vacations) were informed that there was total devastation along the coast. We were essentially prepared for war-time deployment with gallons of water per person, sufficient rations for a week (x100 people is a lot of food), tents, sleeping bags, water treatment equipment, lights, and biohazard masks + gloves. Well, turns out there is destruction along the coast, but the physical scope is much more limited than we were expecting. Don't get me wrong -- Mississippi's Gulf Coast is gone -- but that disappearance only extends three blocks inland (x whatever MS' coastline is: ~30 miles?). Yes there are indeed towns that have been completely wiped off the map -- Pass Christian, Waveland (God strikes the ironically named towns first), and Bay Saint Louis. I have yet to see these towns, but word is that there are only tent cabins serving as downtowns, providing housing, and serving as government offices. Other towns along the Gulf have damage, but are in much better shape than those three -- think of the detestation in the other towns on the scale of a multi-block fire (probably similar to Berkeley Hills fire)-- yes it's very bad for some people, but the cities are all intact, there are no shortages, nor any life-safety issues at this point.

We were based in Gulfport, which was the least impacted of the Gulf towns. Inland from the Gulf to about four blocks inland, there was significant destruction (buildings gone with just foundations visible or gutted buildings due to mildew, mold, flooding).

Destroyed area goes from Hwy 80, north four blocks. Majority of businesses are along the strip, Hwy 49/25th Ave, which extends 5 miles from Hwy 80 north to I10, so you can get a sense from that. Businesses along 49 are all open (excepting Barnes & Noble which closed and one of 3 Taco Bells), so business impact to the city of Gulfport seems minimal. Walmart + all other stores are open + providing services. No need to truck in water, food, or other items.

What we did during the week:
For the week, bulk of our efforts were focused on: debris removal from private homes, assisting with interior home renovations, debris removal from yards/properties, assisting homeowners sort through debris in their homes, and given the size of our team -- supporting our own team of 100 volunteers. Tufts teams worked in the following cities: Gulfport, Biloxi, Gautier, Pascagoula, and D'Iberville. Very fulfilling week even though we weren't fully occupied throughout the week (due to various logistical challenges), and almost all of us wanted additional projects + more assignments.

Future volunteer work:
There is no universal coordinator of volunteers. On the ground, it's local churches and other charitable organizations who are coordinating volunteer teams. Teams of volunteers as well as individual volunteers, while welcome, need to coordinate on their own with a group in MS. Current work for unskilled manual labor is not clear. There is a tremendous need for roofers, drywallers, and debris removal, but at this point, this is generally skilled/paid work and/or requires heavy equipment (debris removal).

Observations: Those who were better off before the storm are are generally doing sufficiently well after the storm. Insurance, friends, and knowing how to move forward are allowing those with resources to quickly rebuild and move on. The biggest challenge facing most of these folks is dealing with insurers who are challenging payments. Those who were less well off before the storm often have confounding issues -- lack of family support, no work, and all the problems often associated with being poor in Mississippi. They were just scraping by before the storm and are borderline after the storm.

It's like a tradeshow, but people are actually working:
Every single room at every single hotel in Mississippi from the coast, inland to Jackson from Mobile Alabama to Louisiana is sold out.
Every single campsite at every single campground is full.
Contractors, roofers, and other construction types are here from across the country. There are thousands of pickup trucks, SUVs, and church vans from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin, and Illinois. I-10 and all state highways are filled with 18-wheelers hauling: sheetrock, roofing material, trailers, and mobile homes.

To be clear --- nobody is building anything new just yet. Insurance payments haven't been made, plans haven't been solidified, people who've evacuate from destroyed homes haven't moved back yet -- nobody is building anything new yet. Every single resource from across the country is here working on repairs to intact structures. Home Depot + Lowes is maintaining 0 available inventory on drywall + roofing material -- everything is pre-ordered by contractors + an entire project's worth of material is dropped off and stored at the job site, irrespective of when labor is available. There is not enough labor simply to do the roofing and drywalling. It's a gold rush here for construction crews. Can you imagine the scope of work once construction on new buildings begins!

Elements of Vibrant Downtowns

Note: As of January 2006, this study is a work in progress and data compilation has not yet been completed. The observations made in this essay are based on the author’s observations and are not the result of concluded data analysis. A list of the 200 observed cities and initial data compilation my be obtained by contacting the author: a_reback@usa.net

Many a resident has been heard proposing brick sidewalks in attempt to revitalize a downtown. Or alternatively, has proposed a movie theater to draw patrons. The supposition is that if you build it, they will come. But is this indeed the case? Empirical observation of the downtowns of some 200 small cities (populations 2,000 to 100,000) across the United States reveals important considerations. Among the tools used to revitalize a downtown, there does not appear to be any single magic bullet which alone can drive the revitalization of a downtown. A desolate downtown with the addition of improved sidewalks and street lighting will still in all likelihood be a desolate downtown, with improved sidewalks and enhanced street lighting. Even a major new restaurant or a movie theater cannot alone revitalize a downtown. What does appear to be necessary for a downtown to be vibrant is a core set of components. Without a critical mass of these core elements, a downtown will fail.

Pedestrian alley in Asheville, NC and Downtown Park City, Utah

Deserted city in Wyoming and Mixed-use in Buffalo New York

Defining vibrancy
For the purposes of this essay, the term “vibrant downtown” will be narrowly defined as a walk-able (and therefore size constrained) area with at least moderate pedestrian traffic and high perceived safety for at least several hours during the day on weekdays and weekends. Locales which may contain large populations for some portion of the day but have no pedestrian traffic or any mix of activities, such as Houston’s downtown, are not for the purpose of this essay considered to be vibrant downtowns.

From nothing
Struggling and deserted downtowns are defined here by a lack of people and businesses. Looking at these abandoned places in absence of their surrounding or without considering their history provides no clues as to why they have failed. They often have many of the elements of successful downtown, including brick sidewalks, movie theaters, restaurants, bookstores, and beautiful buildings – although most of these buildings are obviously vacant. For these failed downtowns would development of some set of core elements lead to the revitalization of these places? As a core set of elements is required, the first few businesses to open in an otherwise desolate area need to be able to survive for an extended period of time ranging from months to potentially years without significant traffic and significant revenue. Here, the capabilities of chain businesses and independent businesses need to be considered. Nationally supported chains can be sustained for many years before the single store needs to realize significant revenue. Chains however, may be reluctant to open in an area that is not yet vibrant, unless a major project is scheduled for the area – for instance the planned opening of a multiplex movie theater may attract chain restaurants, coffee houses, and retailers to a particular area. Conversely, independent owners may see the potential in a downtown but not be able to remain in business without significant near term cash flow. Converging on both sets of considerations, businesses with relatively low startup costs or owners with high cash reserves may be good initial businesses – coffee houses, artist galleries, unimproved restaurants, small bookstores – may all be viable from the outset.

New housing in Redwood City, CA and Theater in Flagstaff Arizona

Observation of some 200 small downtowns showed that vibrant downtowns all have:
- a mix of restaurants
- either a coffee house or a bookstore
- a movie theater or other location providing evening entertainment
- attractions for various ages from teens to adults
- housing either downtown or within walking distance of downtown
- 7-day/week businesses


Summary of Data

Element | % of downtown districts containing named element | Core element required for vibrancy
Brick sidewalk pavers (at least primary street) 50%
Wide sidewalks (>7’) (at least primary streets) 40%
2-way vehicle traffic on “main” street 75%
Bar or other drinking establishment 80% YES
Restaurant – chain or nonchain 100% YES
Coffee house 80% YES
Bookstore 70% YES
“Eclectic” store or service (non-traditional merchant selling something other than food, clothing, hardware, and the like) 60%
Independently-owned store (non-chain) 70%
Chain store 35%
Sidewalk seating for restaurants 30%
Sidewalk seating – benches for pedestrians 20%
Movie or other theater or performance venue 40%
Mixed-use retail/housing 20%
Housing proximate (within 10 minutes walking and without requiring crossing of 4+ lanes of traffic) 75%
Mixed-use retail/office 25%
Free parking (>1 hour) 60%
Fee-based parking only 40%
Existence of sufficient parking (no cars circling for parking) 90%
Public art (may include privately painted murals or any art visible to the public from the street) 25%
Evening activity options 60% YES
Public plaza 25%
Transit: light rail 5%
Transit: bus 30%
Transit: train 8%
Signage/demarcation of district 25%
Hospital in district 15%

Other elements under consideration, but not yet categorized:
- Regionality
- Weather considerations (extreme heat or cold, rain, snow)
- Special location or demographic considerations (beach location, ski location, college location)
- Engagement of residents and businesses
- Active chamber of commerce or redevelopment agency

Downtown Mobile, AL and Streetlife in Pasadena, CA

Appendix
This essay doesn’t consider timing or phasing of elements. That is, it may be important to first have restaurants before any other elements, or for an engaged population to exist before a mixed of businesses can succeed. Additionally, limited information was collected on the level of participation by residents, business owners, and city governments. Observations are purely empirical and no quantitative factors or observations are made beyond the author’s own observations. Finally, the essay simply categorizes cities as vibrant or not, without consideration for whether the town is growing, shrinking, is only recently successful, or how its success has changed as a result of the identified elements. Nor is this study sufficiently controlled – no consideration in this essay for driving factors contributing to failure of downtowns and propagation of auto-centric big box stores and strip mall sprawl.

Effectively Messaging Good Planning – A Case Study in Burlingame, California

You hear residents talk about it all the time – they want a more vibrant downtown, they want homes that fit with the character of their town, or they want to attract a mix of people and businesses to town. But when the tools necessary to achieve these outcomes are mentioned, opposition is immediately encountered. Higher-density projects, defined floor-to-are a rations, and diversity of housing types all provoke a response and frequently the response can stagnate any opportunity to grow a city. Clearly a gap exists between what residents believe they want and what planners are communicating.

With thirteen year in high-tech product management, I built my career talking with customers and prospective customers – whether small business owners, musicians, managers of telephone infrastructure, or home Internet users to name a few – understanding their needs, translating those needs into products, and then messaging these products to customers.

It was my job to understand what people wanted and how to market to these same people, and I become very good at it. Understanding the communication gap that existed between what residents wanted and how planners, developers, and even planning commissioners and city council members, I soon entered the fray as the campaign director for a planning commissioner running for city council.

As campaign director, my communication strategy sought to achieve the following goals:
- clearly communicate the candidate’s vision and plan for the city
- allow for dialogue around the city’s future without hitting roadblocks associated with baggage-laden terms
- differentiate candidate from other candidates with specific plans versus other candidates’ rhetoric

Ordinarily I would start by understanding what was important to our potential customers (in this case, city residents and voters). With years of dialogue between residents, planning commissioners, city council members, and developers, I knew what residents wanted – at a high level they wanted a more vibrant downtown with entertainment options in the city – a small movie theater or playhouse for instsance, they wanted to bring back independent merchants who had been driven away by skyrocketing rents, and they also wanted to do all this while maintaining the unique character of Burlingame.

The next step then was to define how we were going to address what residents were seeking. So we began by articulating a specific vision for Burlingame – one that extended retail one street beyond the existing downtown, providing blocks of available retail space, and thereby enabling a broader mix of merchants to exist. We began talking about mixed use projects downtown with ground floor retail and office space and housing above.

Our ideas and clear articulation of plans were so compelling and began to resonate with residents. Unfortunately for our campaign, something occurred that I had never before experienced. Other candidates (competitors) were taking our messaging and using it verbatim in their own campaigns. Now I’m not saying I haven’t seen competitors take ideas and enhance their own messaging based on the original ideas, but here candidates were simply taking our messaging and putting it as-is into their campaign literature, websites, and using it in their speeches. What was most confounding was that none of the other candidates were building off of our messaging, they were simply duplicating it. With a field of nine candidates, I was confounded as to why none of the other candidates were trying to differentiate themselves, and after a few candidate forums it became increasingly clear that the other candidates didn’t have any specific vision for the city and indeed didn’t have any specific thoughts on how to address the desires of residents, so all they could do was copy our messaging.

While I believed we had the best chance of winning the election based on my candidate’s extensive experience on the Planning Commission and her specific plans for the city’s future, I wasn’t about to let eight other candidates take credit for our ideas.

Excerpt from Ann Keighran campaign piece showing city today and potential for future

Knowing that the other candidates were simply winging-it on strategy and plans for the city, I took our vision for the city deeper, defined specific actions the candidate would take on council, branded components of the candidate’s plan so they couldn’t be copied, and engaged two architects to help with elements of our campaign.

High level messaging was supported by full-page briefs made available online (link to smarvoter paper) as well as 2-page in-depth position papers we made available to voters.

Where once we talked about mixed-use projects, we now had the “ANN” Plan, a plan for Active Nearby Neighborhoods, our specific take on a vibrant downtown plan. This branded plan raised the visibility of Ann’s ideas, resonated as a catchphrase associated with the candidate, enabled dialogue around Ann’s plan for the city, and couldn’t be copied by the other candidates.

Our campaign literature incorporated pictures of the city’s deserted streets to emphasize the opportunity for city growth. We also used architectural renderings to envision for voters wwhat the city could look like with Ann providing leadership on City Council.

Excerpt from Ann Keighran campaign piece showing city today and potential for future

Where I had seen discussions get hung up on topics of high density, low income housing, and specific numbers around building heights, setbacks, and floor-area rations, we instead focused on illustrations of what we wanted our city to look like. It’s not that the aforementioned concepts are too complex to understand, it’s simply that they’re too hard to visualize either alone or in the broader context of the city. Wokring from drawings instantly allowed people to say “yes that’s what we want,” or “no, here’s what we want to change.”

On the topic of city growth we faced similar challenges in messaging. All residents sought a more diverse retail mix and more entertainment options, but many argued that the city didn’t need to grow and that growth would hurt the city’s charm. Here the architects/urban planners helped us understand and illustrated various growth options. For those residents who originally preferred no growth for our city, we showed the growth that was occurring in surrounding cities and that no growth for Burlingame actually meant that we as a city were falling behind – losing businesses, realizing lower city revenues, and resulting diminished city services. Other concepts showed the effects of unconstrained growth in absence of any specific plan. Only with this portfolio of options could we effectively and more cohesively more forward with a plan for our city.

After years of working with the community and nine months specifically developing strategy and refining messaging, we had clearly been able to convey our vision for Burlingame to residents, and because these residents were involved in its creation, were bought into our vision and plans for the future. With a well-defined vision for the city combined with clear communications about our vision for the city, we won the election with the largest number of votes in the city’s history with nearly two thirds of voters voting for us, despite an unprecedented nine candidate field.

On New Orleans

With the profound devastation that has hit New Orleans, the question now is what's next for the residents and the city itself. Should the levees just be rebuilt, new pumps be installed, and the city be rebuilt just as it was? Or would people be better served with a New New Orleans? For this discussion, let's just call this improved city New NOLA.

Street in Greenwood

Abandoned cities of the South

"Downtown" Greenwood, Mississippi

Downtown Greenwood Mississippi, similar to other towns I've been driving through in the South is well laid out, with beautiful brick streets and sidewalks, a mix of single- and multi-story buildings, trees, and a strong character unique to its place in Mississippi. The Yazoo river flows through the edge of downtown, providing with it a grassy park along its banks and a welcome respite from Mississippi's summer sun.

Unfortunately, the original downtown is all but deserted. The beautiful brick streets have been mostly paved over with asphalt, on every block at least one or two empty lots serves as a parking lot, replacing the original building that used to exist on the site. And where have all the people and stores gone? Two miles down the road to a generic, sprawling 5 line highway of strip malls. The question then is why did this happen and why do we keep building this way even today?

One lifelong resident of Greenwood said that the new strip malls were important because people liked their cars, and the downtown didn't have sufficient parking. Okay, so makybe the problem is parking. Currently the entire 15 block downtown has one or two operating businesses per block and only 1 parking space in 20 is used. In this scenario, perhaps some uses, such as grocery stores are best suited to be on the edge of town. There are plenty of uses however that are more amenable to pedestrian traffic and help to create a sense of vibrancy and livelihood - restaurants, bars, small retail shops, barber shops, professional services. Unfortunately, it's not clear that anybody truly misses their downtown or that anyone minds their community experience being driving up and down the highway to get from one generic strip mall to the next. Clearly, the role of the pragmatic urban planner is to first understand if locals even want a vibrant downtown, or if they prefer their lives driving from home to work to stores, which certainly may be the case.

Sprawl in Greenwood with an option to build on new greenfield

A turnaround?
Viking range company, founded by a hometown resident founded its headquarters in the historic downtown. The company is becoming a vibrant part of the city, building 3 plants on the outskirts of town, converting a former car dealership into its cooking school, converting a nother property into its showroom, converting a historic building into the state's only 5-star hotel, and attempting singlehandedly to bring life back to the city's center.

New Mixed-Use Housing in Oakland

New mixed use housing in Oakland located close to train tracks

Land Use - The San Francisco Bay's Coastline

Some 7 million residents in nine counties, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, Marin, Contra Costa, Alameda, Solano, and Sonoma counties surround either the San Francisco Bay or San Pablo Bay. Additional details on the Bay Area on Wikipedia.

Some of the cities within these counties have coastal land uses that take advantage of the coast, while others have coastal land uses that are coincidental to the coast. Mountain View in the South Bay has extensive parklands and the Shoreline concert venue built on coastal landfill. San Mateo in the mid Peninsula is enhancing parklands. Other cities however haven't been viewing the Bay as an asset. Take the city of Redwood City - a new 12 building complex of 5 story office buildings provides good views to the people in the offices, but offers no benefit for any other city residents or visitors.

More to come...

The sameness of new urbanism

As you look on this site at the pictures of revitalized downtowns and new mixed-use products, or walk through modern Bay Area communities, you begin to notice a certain sameness to these cities -- curbside parking sure, wide sidewalks, and other attributes of pedestrian-friendly cities. But at the same time, the commonality seems to be extending to the design of the buildings and streetscapes - brick sidewalks, tree planters at crosswalks, stucco buildings with street-level retail and offices or residential on subsequent floors, never exceeding 3 or 4 stories. One can't help but wonder if in a few years we'll all be tired by the sameness of design between each of the towns. Given that we're only a few years into the "new urbanism movement," it's scary to think the cities embrassing new urbanism are already feeling common. Perhaps what we need is more diversity not only in product design, but equally in the land use and regional considerations.

Cities and towns with water features should look to their water features as integral parts of the town both in design and use -- boat launches, waterfront parks, beaches. Suburbs of large cities could offer services and amenities not necessarily available in a more dense environment - automobile dealerships, antique and furniture stores. The size, shape, and feel of the products within cities must be different from one another or within only a few years the template suburban shopping malls of today will only be replaced by template "new urbanist" shopping malls which will each feel the same as one another. Diversity in city design must be embraced on every aspect. Every small city in the Bay Area shouldn't look and feel the same as the next, and equally a small city in California's mild climate shouldn't look and feel the same as a small city in New England with more extreme temperatures and a different population with different expectations and needs.

The purpose of open space cannot be predefined

Last night I saw a presentation by Fred Kent, president of Project for Public Spaces, during which he talked about good and bad designs for parks and open spaces. Interestingly, the characteristics of what we as residents consider a great park is often at odds with those parks that win design awards by landscape architects who judge these things. Importantly, what makes a park or more generally open space great is that people use it. What people will use a space for cannot be known ahead of time.

While in Madrid in March 2004, a few weeks following the horrible terrorist bombing of the Madrid train station, a wide sidewalk became a spontaneous memorial to those who lost their lives in the attack. No planner could have planned for this area to be used as a memorial, but the existance of space allows people to make use of it as their needs change. This memorial affected not only the people who lit candles, but hundreds of thousands of people who passed by every day. It is the unanticipated uses of open space that makes it so necessary, and equally why design is less important in the creation of space, than ensuring that a space can be used for multiple purposes.



In Santa Cruz, California, wide sidewalks in the downtown provide space for outdoor eating, musicians, strolling, and a wealth of sidewalk entertainment. On any particular day, you never know who or what you're going to see and experience on the streets of Santa Cruz, and it's this aspect that brings energy to the downtown.

Well designed projects in otherwise strange locations

(left) South San Francisco high density housing and (right) San Bruno mixed use

In several towns along the SF Peninsula there are some very nice high-density housing projects and mid-density mixed-use projects. What's striking about some of these projects is the environments in which they're being built. A South San Francisco high density housing project is situated next to a Costco parking lot. In San Bruno, a mixed use retail, housing, office project is situated between an elevated highway (I-380), the intersection of two major thoroughfares (I-380 and El-Camino), and is a safe easy walk to nothing. So the question is -- will these projects succeed on their own, will they lead to pedestrian-centric projects nearby, or are they doomed to failure because they are great projects, but islands unto themselves?

Transit-centric development

A 2003 extension of the Bay Area's rapid transit system, BART, south from Daly City approximately 7 miles to San Francisco Airport and terminating in Millbrae affords Peninsula cities the chance to develop the "right" solutions for these areas. With transit, high density proximate housing provides residents with the opportunity to reduce car trips and develop housing for people who don't have cars, don't want to drive, or anyone wishing to take advantage of proximate public transportation. Colma is building just this kind of solution.

Millbrae has a mixed-use retail/housing project being developed less than a quarter mile from its new station. Other cities however are seeing big BART parking lots intended for distant commuters and exploring how to optimize facilities for these drivers. These towns are missing the mark. Car-oriented services already pervade the Bay Area and indeed most of the country. Public transportation hubs are a rare commodity and where one exists, planners and developers need to define solutions that best address the needs of pedestrians. Where a transit hub exits -- high density housing and retail are ideal solutions, allow people to walk to the train from their homes, allowing people to commute to jobs near the train, and enabling business and housing growth within at least a one half mile radius (typical maximum distance people find acceptable before switching to driving) of the transit hub, while vehicular focus doesn't leverage the transit hub for the greater benefit of the community.

Urban revitalization - San Mateo

It's amazing to see what a town can do. The city of San Mateo (on the Peninsula, 20 miles south of San Francisco) with a population of some 100,000 had a relatively quiet (read - low pedistrian traffic, little vibrant retail, few entertainment options) downtown. Around 2002 a multi-theater movie theater opened downtown and with increased traffic downtown, rents increased, slow retailers moved out, failing restaurants closed, and a lot of businesses that had been around for decades were gone. While this might seem like a sad story about gentrification, this is all good news. National retailers didn't move in and take over the city, rather new restaurants have opened, new retail stores have gone in, and the city is vibrant as it hadn't been for decades previously.

Planning Commissions - Challenges

The interesting thing about city planning commissions is how much time and effort they need to spend on individual residential inquiries -- understanding the impact on a neighbor's view, determining if the specified trees are compliant with the city's expectations, providing guidance on fence setbacks. Over the course of 2 hours, 90 minutes or more could be spent on these items. How then does a planning commission get to focus on the larger scale issues that impact the quality of life for hundreds if not thousands of residents, business owners, and visitors? Some municipalities are using "visual" planning codes which do away with most of the text of existing codes and literally have pictures and illustrations to communicate what is acceptable and what is unacceptable to the municipality. Compliance by an architect/builder to the guidelines generally means auto-approval, speeding the development process. A proposal not adhering to the specification must go through a "significant" review justifying why the plan needs to be out of specification. Given that the visual plan represents the desires of the municipality and the community as a whole, approval to violate the code is an unlikely event.

The good news is that this model addresses the needs of the community by clearly communicating to architects/builders what they're looking for. Equally architects/builders benefit by more rapid design approval. The biggest challenge is moving from "traditional" planning ordinances to a visual model. City council, planning commissions, and the residents as a whole need sufficient vision to understand the benefits.

A Challenge to urban planners

Many people in the urban planning field are idealists continually striving for optimal designs. Sometimes this relentless pursuit of the ideal hinders wider adoption by cities, builders, and citizens of good planning principles. The result? We as Americans have some really great cities and living places, but 90% of what is still being built is ugly sprawl. So - how do we fix that? The solution is not to exclusively focus on refining good design priciples. Rather, we need to significantly increase the number of builders, contractors, city planners, planning commissions, citizens who understand, want, and build to good design practices and have aligned objectives.

Downtown Merced Revitalization

Merced, in California's Central Valley, is currently undergoing a revitalization of sorts. Here you can see the streetscape has been designed to be more pedestrian-friendly, and indeed, some new retailers are moving in -- you can see in the picture Starbucks as an early downtown tenant.

Housing is situated nearby, certainly within a few minutes drive, but there is no housing immediately downtown just yet. A single mixed-use building with ground floor retail with lofts above, an interesting concept for the Central Valley, is nearing completion. For the time being though, what's critically lacking are people.

Time will tell if this neigborhood succeeds or if the new University of California campus being built several miles away is going to be the center of activity. Merced clearly has the right ideas in mind, and a key challenge will be to draw people associated with the U.C., both faculty, students, staff, and visitors alike to this neighborhood, or face a quiet future.

Public Space - A Necessary Component for Democracy

Martin Dreiling of CSS Architects in Burlingame, CA and Dan Ionescu of DIAP Architects in San Mateo, CA are proponents of public gathering spaces in cities and towns to provide citizens space for entertainment, public meetings, and enable a variety of social interactions. On a recent trip to Puerto Vallerta Mexico I took some pictures of just such a space and just such a gathering. On a Sunday night local families were sitting, talking, and dancing to a band playing. Interestingly at the moment we were, we saw the other intended use of open space - a group of protesters came fighting of all causes, the proposed elimination of these squares. More to come...

Pragmatic Urban Planning

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