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Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0227.009 1996-1998 - " RECENED Appendix Table of Contents n~----------- ~ - County Council /„Q- 1~C I, Chart of Partnerships II. Cheap & Skinny Street Program Endorsements III. Copy of Resolution No 35360 IV. Copy of'°The Oregonian" Editorial • V, Picture of targeted street VI. Copy of "IS Ways to Fix the Suburbs" ~xw 227.v nt. Sv~3 iet Prosented P C. n„~, JUL 2 9 1997 CHART OF PARTNERSHIPS Infrastructure Im rovement Partner Contribution Association Property owners, citizens of $1,700, equal to 3090 of street Citizens Brentwood Darlington improvement cost Neighborhood Bureau of Transportation Cost Guarantee., Engineeting, Earl Blumenauer, Engineering & Development Design and Marketing Commissioner Bureau of Housing & 7090 subsidy of infrastructure Gretchen Kafoury, Community Development improvements. Commissioner Bureau of Environmental Shared project cost, increased Mike Lindberg, Commissioner Services -Mid County Sewer synergy savings from larger Project quantity. Private Construction Lower bid prices Private industry Contractor Housin Enhancement Partner Contribution/ Result Association Property Owners & Renter Home rehab, lower debt Citizens payments, increased ability to purchase homes. Bureau of Transportation Marketing & coordnating Earl Blumenauer, Engineering & Development services Commissioner First Interstate Bank Loan products for property Janice Frater, V.P. owners Community Reinvestment Officer NW Natural Gas Low cost heating products Robert Dunn, Market Services Division Portland Development Low interest loans & Loan Jennifer Gardner, Project Commision (PDC) adminstration Manger Bureau of Housing & Loan funds for PDC Gretchen Kafoury, Community Development Commissioner (BHCD) PGE Low cost heating and lighting Dean Funk, Community products Development a .I? , RESOLUTION No. 3 Endorse the Cheap and Skinny Streets Program and direct implementation of a pilot project in Brentwood-Darlington and expansion to other neighborhoods. (Resolution) WHEREAS, the Portland Metropolitan Area is anticipating in-migration of 500,000 new residents over the next twenty years; and WHEREAS, the City Council adopted the goal of attracting 100,000 of these ne~v residents as part cf the Livable City initiative; and WHEREAS, investments are being made to complete new neighborhoods in the Central City, such as River District, North Macadam, and Lloyd District; and WHEREAS, the City is equally challenged to reinforce and strengthen the livability of our existing neighborhoods in the face of significant population growth; and WHEREAS, outer southeast and northeast neighborhoods represent a significant portion of the Cit}~s affordable housing stock; and WT~REAS, a major challenge and top livability priority of the Brentwood-Darlington ICeighborhood Play (BDNP) is the provision of urban streets; and WF~REAS, the BDNP envisions affordable street improvements to complement existing livability initiatives ranging from elimination of drug houses to annual neighborhood clean- ups; and :'PE~REAS, 'T`ransportation Engineering & Development, Environmental Services, and Community Development have identified a unique partnership opportunity to provide truly affordable urban street improvements; and WHEREAS, this partnership is made possible by coordinating full street improvements with sewer construction thus enabling the City to capture Environmental Services's expenditures for replacement pavement and integrate these funds into the street construction. This coordination will result in one-time construction disruption for both sewer and street improvements; and WHEREAS, Transportation Engineering & Development, in conjunction with the Bureau of Environmental Services, and Community Development, has initiated the Cheap and Skinny. Streets Program to provide fiill urban street improvements including drainage, 20' wide streets, parking strips with street trees, street lights, and sidewalks on both sides for a fixed price in the range of $1,700 per R-5 lot (standard SO' x 100' lot); and WHEREAS, the provision of streets, sidewalks and street lights will address a top neighborhood priority of increasing public safeiy by providing for adequate emergency vehicle access, pedestrian facilities, and night-time illumination; and 1 353® WHEREAS, the Brentwood-Darlington Executive Board on January 9, 1995 strongly endorsed the Cheap and Skinny Streets Program; and WHEREAS, the Council desires to establish a pilot program to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Cheap and Skinny Streets Program and its applicability to other eastside neighborhoods. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City of Portland, a municipal corporation of the State of Oregon, that the Council supports and endorses the Cheap and Skinny Streets Program as described in Exhibit "A", and directs Transportation Engineering do Development to begin immediate implementation; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Transportation Engineering & Development, Environmental Services, and Community Development to continue the partnership effort to deliver street improvements in Brentwood-Darlington; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Council directs the bureau to continue to explore lpplicability of this pilot program in other HCD eligible neighborhoods. BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that Transportation Engineering 3c Development report back to the Council on progress made on the pilot project and applicability to other neighborhoods in Fall, 1995. Adopted by the Council, JAN 2 5 1995 BARBARA CLARK ~ • Commissioner Esrl Blumenauer AUD[2'OR ~ 'THE CITY OF PORTI.A.`ID Vic Rhodes:Andre' Baugh:tab By c _ , January 20, 1995 ~~`'~-'~r ~•X~~p(1'('y I•IRT1R.~ e i t D4 ~ --s - i e ~e Founded Oec 1, 1850. Established as a daily tsh. 1, 1861. The Sunday Oregonian estadished _ Dec. 1881. Published daly and SuMay by Ne Oregonian PuWishlnq Co., r ~ ~ 1320 S. W. Broadway; Portland, Oregon 9)201 ' - ~ 'FRED A. ST1CKEt, Publisher °„;F. 7. . _PAiRICKif. ST1CKEl, President ~ . • SANOM M. ROWS, Editor OENNIS G~AiI(IN, Advertising Director. - PETER K. BHATI~ Manap(np Editor ~-~PATRICKLMARLTON, CIriuWlFOri Olrepor.., .y_j.: _ ROBERT M.fAHOAUER; EdBorlal Pape Editor l . SATURDAY, JANUARY 28 1995 Year up -streets just once Taxpayers and ratepayers ought to applaud Portland's `Cheap and Shinny Streets' ortland Commissioner Earl ments down -the improvements Blumenauer won City Council would increase the property value approval Wednesday of an in• backing their investments. novative plan to install sew• Blumenauer hopes to test the idea ers, gas lines, streets, sidewalks and in the Brentwood•Darlington neigh- dciveways in one swoop through a boyhood in outer Southeast Portland. _ neighborhood. It's what the public has Sewell must be installed in the area, - dreamed about for years when facing by state order. For up to 51,700 snore, - • - the common and infuriating practice the city would provide a 55,000 add-ot1 of tearing up neighborhoods once Cor benefit. The package would include sewers, another time fot• another utili• street lights and trees. Other utilities ty, still again for street work.t The label, "Cheap and Skinny should join the public-works project. Streets" refers to anticipated savings Residents of areas where urban from doing all the work at once and to amenities are short -streets, side- - - the 20-(oot width of the streets. Stan- walks and the like -deserve them at dard neighborhood streets are 26 or 32 the lowest possible cast. The region - ~ Ceet wide. needs more close-in neighborhoods - Unlike conventional city streets that are attractive to avoid sprawl with parking on both sides, skinny onto Carm and forest lands. streets will accommodate parking on Blumenauer says he doesn't want [o just one side. They're wide enough Cor force the program on neighborhoods. fire equipment, but cars must slow to That's wise. Brentwood-Darlin on permit passing - a tralTic-calming will give the idea the reality check it j feature many neiKhhorllood residents needs. It's a program, though. that I find attractive should be refined and offered to other The council OK'd some subsidy for the pilot cf(ort, and residents also nehhhorhoods whether it pasr•s or would he able to take advantage of Iltinks the first test. government-backed law interest lllilitics working together in order loans. Mortgage cumpanics ought lu lu lessen disruption end saee name>• be queried,loo,about extending loans for ratepayer; and taxpayers lh.rt s ` I in order to kcrp total nuarthtq pay a ~•ision the region must pur,;n• u.Uae~ ,(au r Cheap & Skinny Street Program Endorsements Portland City Council Brentwood Darling Neighborhood Executive Board Southeast Uplift Neighborhood Program Inc. Rose Development Corporation Foster Business Association 0 V1 CD CD 7J~ ,A~ , . ~ ~ y 'fit T ~ ~.r ~1'. Y `i ~1y1h~Pir K V 7. rs v~ . ; - ~ ~ + ~i ~ : R, C/1 CD ~ . v • ~ • ~ ~ fir,. t. ~ 1. a • y n wA~ .r~~~~ ~ ~ irv~:~~ fir., , i F 'RJR' F--r rr • e-uurs Most of us actually know what we want in a neighborhood-we just don't know how to get it, because developers: have been buildingtthe wrong thing for 50 years. Here's how to get our communities back on track. M at iCentlandr, the neotmditional suburb in Ma 'aw auw.~ ovtng day ryiand where,Muses are dose to the sued and to eadt other ~ OR DEGDFS, ANTDN NQFSSON OF Rlrr'OFAS tW0 )aaCi W1dG At the es oCthe ~ Universi has been ui the took of sdena ¦ "With two ~ vdlage they leave open space." ry mg woridng spouses, [smaller lots] make • lot more to puatx that most elusive and subjective sense You don t want to mow that big laws" quality. Irappiness_ When a developer mores ¦ `people Gave a fundamental, psyehologinl, spiritual into a community, humbly seeking permission response to nature. If you show them recently built multi- - to re-scare andent Pompeii on the site of as family housing or office parks, they go negative. A small, m- old Co [Bart trarJc, the town s planners com- ditional neighborhood is what purple want. They don t know how mission Nelesson to survey the populace and to get iC" determine if that's what thud actually like Well. of course they don t: most of them havens even seen a there, Using photographs, models and questionnaires, Nelesson "small, traditional neighborhood" in yews, if eves But they in- bas survryed people all over the Country, and these are some of the stuxtively choose it anyway. The premise oC the new urbanism is things he's found: that people can have the kinds of neighborhoods they say Ihry like ¦ "Everybody will ull for a green open space in the middle- Arrlritecls know how to design them, developers can build tbera. that's automatic They will put the major community buildings banks can make money on them. All it takes is a meuvre of around the plan, then group the horses on relatively narrow politinl will to overcome the inertia of 5Oyears o(doing things the streets. Ninety-nine percent don't war eels that are more than wrong way ...and ~pplintion of a few simple Hiles. ¦ 4G NEwsw EE" MAY ~S. X995 a f 's ~ . m GIVE UP BIG LAWNS ~f , ONE USEFUL WAY TO DEFINER SV BURB T - 1 is "a place shat grows lawns.' The gnat _ rr ¦ postwar disillusionment began for - ~..v;.-,, many Americans when they leh the dty in ~ ~ ; search oCa simpler life and discovered that T --;r:. ~ ~ ~ .:==~Rti.;, watering, CerriliziDg, weeding and mowing ~ ' ~ the measliest yard takes more time over a t ~ ' year than the average New Yotica spends looking for parking. Md the expanses oC - 6ontlawn themxlves xrve no purpox but , theirowner~ vanity-except that most sub- i~((J urban communities require them, on the theory that large xtbacks help preserve the ' I I l' ~ I l'I bucolic clrarader of a community. That may have been true in the 1920s, _ when suburbs were being settled $0 houses t at a time. But when highways opened up r huge areas oC countryside after the war, largrlot zoning had the opposite effect: by po ~ er a larger area, it wisp nIrtgboardswenent so fearful of "density,' they could require ' developers to luster houses and set aside Lwd nearby for open space attd rieueation. This is also a more e~dent nay to bu4d a aommuntry: Houses that are 100 feet aput, obviously, hive 100 feet ofumtsed toad and utility lines between them. School bases have that murk farther to travel Al/d the goal Of making a walkable mm- pan NuMSUr munity is defeated when houses are sprrzd This w(destreet inTemedefq Calif., fr finejorcan but not jorkidsand other pedestrians out on huge lots. Even the depth oCthe front yard ttuns `D make a avant psyrhalogi- MAKE THE STREETS SKINNY cal differenm When 6ousu are set back behind SO feet of lawn, the streetsape be- comesoppressivelydesolate; yourpenpeo- Modern subdivisions are designed to be driven, not five changes so slowly you don't feel you're reaching a destination. Probably no single wallced. Even little-used streets are 36 feet or 40 feet draagewouldimprovethequalityotsnbur wide, with bi swee iri curves at the corners. It's great ban life as moth as shrinking the size of g P g l°~-ana it wDUld ad„aur ?rouses for cars: traffic barely needs to slow down. But for those ~ea~r~ on foot, the distance is daunting, Narrow streets-as BRING BACK THE little as 26 feet wide-and tight, right-angled corners are CORNER STORE a lot easier for wallcers, and probably safer as well, rrte SUBURBAN CONDmON, swn because they force drivers to slow down. One objection: 2arrhitea peter cahhDipe, -u a Lana- fire departments worry about getting trucks through. sage of absolute segregation not just in terms ofineome,ageoretlurilry,but But that hasn't been a big problem in old nabes in cities simple [rrndiortal uses." This is so obvious like New York and Boston. Uut most people no longer see the absurdi- ty olmaldng a frvrmile round trip for a loaf of bread. That is, as long u they have a ar, for anyone not so highways, while the awing streets o(suburbia wormed their way blessed-children, the elderly or handiapped, people svho can't ever deeper into the countryside. afford a ar (or every member of the family-it's nuts. Obviously, malls and supermarkets, with their vast xledions Again, this is a function oCgood intentions undone by the explo- and economies of scale, will never be supplanted by neighborhood Sion oC suburbia. What worked in a compad neighborhood in a shopping streetsand cornergroceries. But it still should be possible city-a dry leaner. a drugstore, a corner grocery-beanie gro- to provide some o(the necessities of life within walking distance of tesque when blown up a hundredfold and applied to whole coon- manypeople. Thenyou could sendyour kid out for that bread-and ties. Shopping strips stretched for dozens of miles along the a newspaper while he's at it. n~ €v:v~:-~£f. a „ ~••'~;Ft'~4, • ski..-.~'.-~ _ . ~~ISCOUI'.7~C(j:)~v~'n4d~ng;Y,eets~and ~v1driic u~efbate a~fiie ' p~ranst stop MAimeri • Comm ~ ~ rater DRAW BOUNDARIES IN AN ABSOLUTE SENSE. THERE IS NO REAL SHORTAGE OF ~ land in the United Stales; if the entire population lived on an acre oCland per household, it would occupy less than 8 of the contiguous 48 states (plus all of Canada and MwOomCor par{dng). But in the regions where Americans actually want to live, they are swarming into the countryside, covering whole oowuies with "edge dries" Clung outward tom the bclttvays as if by oeatrifu- gal force. New York City's suburbs rnch across the whole state of New Jersey into eutern Pwuylvattia, nearly 100 miles from Times Square. Tonew-urbanist tbeoretidans, this is the disastrous molt oCshortsighted government pnlides, such as the bias is the o Cederal mortgage~uarantee program toward detached houses on ' large plots of land. To Iree-nurket econoousts. it reprexnts the J I sum of millions of choices by informed individuals who have e e ' 'I dxided that, on balance, getting up before dawn io Bucks Couary Maln brats a Cull night's sleep in Brooklyn Sut sprawl is n« a neoessaq tsamponeat oCatIluence. In ~Pe and Japa4 governments have proclaimed 'luban~xmveh bound- e cries," beyond which devdopmmt is more or lea prohibited. Even in a democratic Doan wrL as Hol- lead, abusinessman sx~ang to live on a 1 farm acrd drive into the dry to wocit would have to request Irom ® the govetvmeat-and he might not get t it TIy telling that to Lee Iaoomi Coo- nary to popular Amtrican ptrlitical the- ary. these mgulations baveat notioe- ably affected the of Western Eaope-nor of to ~maja Ameri- can dry that hu instituted tts own ur bao-growth boundary: PottLnd, Ore. Tn p~oa naturally, ao Doe would prewt the hypothetinl busintssman from living on a Finn; be just eoulda't sell it off for a wbdivision vvhea be te- DROP THE CUIrDE-SAC titca to Papa springs. More lhan 20 years ago, phumers for the p4rtland 4The col-de-sac, a fancy terns for "dead s~ p°Bt'° "r' are"" li"~'r°""a square miles-covering 2l munid- end,"has emerged as the street plan of panties ana ~ aC three ~e~- choice for modern suburbs. Its tad- a°d aesignatea i"° `~'"°..;rtratuy all grea pOpu)uion growth. Along the way they vantage-the elimination of through traf- baavvee tYan~d el;< .,,rage I« :Qe t°r aetadred hearer tram is,ooo stpure fie=is also its wealmess, because it com- reeCcoanaverageer8,sooaquare[«t- eLs eve one in a ven subdivision to `°"~'ly between putting p T}' gl three acrd Svc units on an acre. The use the same few roads, often at the salae i t;atne ~ u an even s, ,~t„:z r«t. Servant n°wata eh~ times. Anyone attempting to travel on yt~so4o, Pnrtlana•s planaea expect foot or by bicycle will eventually windup populati°° t° grow some "per ant. but they arc committed to an irr- on the shoulder of a busy highway-and Quae of midential land use ofooly 8 , peroent.InstndoEphtntingmore"edge probably give up. But streets don t have dtie:- a the arb;trary points where to be like that: they can follow predictable ~""a~ intersect. Portland has mn- oentrated job growth in its dovnaown routes and interconnect. This gives mo- The urban,-growth boundary hu been torists a choice of routes SO the don't all :o successful that even a wnsavative ' y Actium, en prises t~l1e m Oregonians in pile up every morning waiting to make a "°`p` taitliou~' mpo it argues y.~y some details). boagine left turn at the Same IT1terS(:CtlOn. L~ MBeles would look today if it had done this 7A years ago. NAT ~5. X995 NEWSW EER 49 r' - - I . I ' will the county Ict me build?" or"What will the banks (ounce?"but HIDE THE GARAGE °.vhat king orpla« d° People want to live in?'• The result was Harbor Town, intended to be "a slice oC the 6MOSt suburban houses give the ap' "'orld-the more complete and varied the beuer" There are houses ranging in price from EI14,000 to E425,000, which contrasts pearance that they are first of all places with a typical subdivision in Phoenix, Atiz, (or ezample, where the ' ! seven basic models run the gamut Crum E271,990 to E316,990. There i t0 park, turlurlg t0 the world the blank aze town houses and apartments, and shops being pLuured. Devel- I and desolate face ofa garage door. Neigh- °pershadtr;edm;x;stgh°usingtype~;n~,°"Plan"eaE°mmuni~u° - , oEthe 19T1h, but N those each use was isolated in its own thousand- borhoods look more pleasant When ga- aae quadranC in Harbor Town they are all within a few blocks oC ra es are ut behind the houses aCC8SS1- other. Turley seems to have deaeed that instead oCgolf, the g p ~ leading reaeational activity would be chatting with neighbors 618 6y SldB yards Or Uy a118yS. while watrhirtg the sun set over the river, so he set the 6otsses close together and built rory village squares. The houses themselves are att eYe'P°PP~g collection oCstyles, including Chazlestown provin- cial, Cape Cod and Bauhaus modern, but they have an underlying amity based oo materials (mostly clapboard or wgod siding) and the ubiquitous new-urbanist amenity, porches.'Iltrley~xpects to make money on the project, when it's completed in 1997, but 6e also has a q 'higher aim. "Demotaxy assumes-demands-that we kaow, tm- t - , - de:stand amd.resped our fellow dtireos," he says. "Flow ran we a . appreciate them if we never see them?" I ~ ~ PLAN'r.TREES CURBSIDE I' t ~ Nothing h»mani~ps a street more than V a row..of trees shading the sidewalk. But they 'must be broad-leafed shade trees such as sycamores tic chestnuts, not the dinky globular things like flowering - - pears that developers favor in parking ,oxaawnt Multicar garages turn an unwelcoming face to tfie street lots. And they should be planted out al the curbline, where they will grow out tc MIX HOUSING T~'PES form a .canopy over the roadway. OF ALL THE WArs ro IMPROVE THE SOCIAL wtro P}ITSICAr. Why .don't more ~ places ,have such ar 7 organiratiom oC the suburbs, none would be as subversive as obvious ameni ahead Y Because traffic brealang the monopoly oC sioglrfamily detached homes: that ~s }r endless alternation of "Qrstwoods" and 'Auroras" intended to engineers worry that people might drivE foster the illusion of preterenee in buyer' dtoosimg between Cour bedrooms and three bedrooms plus a dea Homogeneity is the very mt0 them. essence oC the suburbs. AttacLed houses. rsatal units, shops or businesses-anything that mlglrt attract trasie and lts attendant evil, • decline in property •.-1ues-am banned. J 1 This is • fairly new phtmomesnrt in huaan history. Fa most of ~ the last 9,000 years, most people hdabited villages, where by t[nt. deCutition nothing was very far Crom anything else. As ]ate u the 1940s, for that matter, Memphis, Tenn-, developer Healy 1Ldey grew up in the kind oC haphaaud dry meigitborhood that b' the despair of sensible phuvsers: a)'umble ofstores, shxks, Oats, walk- : ups and denying mansions, all suffused with the vivid street life neighbors made Cor themselves in the era before air conditioning lured them indoors. It is, ofcourse, beyond the power of :Wring to bring bark those days. even if we wanted them back but it may be possible to renpture some oC the energy and spirit that dander ized American civic life before television damped its morapoly on public discourse and entertainment So in 1887. whey 'Ilydey bought • 195-aae vaant plot on an islud in the Mississippi Crn minutes from downtown Memphis, he embarked on a ndieally pAMLOD01U12MIrNih ~di/fferent kind of development, which began nol by asking "What Strolling under a canopy o~spring blossoms ° NEWSSV EEA Mn} 15• X995 PUT NEW LIFE INTO ~ LD 1VIALLS P THEYVE GOi ~FOUNTA1NS, t{ANCINC ferns and i« rinks, and iCyou stay in 1 one long enough you may eventually hear'Widtita Lineman" rescoted Cor 140 violins, but most shopping malls ate, er sentially, lust vast sheds that oottsttmers trudge through until, with nothing left to . a , spend, they are spit out Into the parking lot. No wonder people are so quids to desert s. them when a bigger one opens up down the - road. Chost malls are no longer a iar+e sight in Ameritx. Phoenix has at least two, in- cluding one right across the street from several oC its largest offi« buildings. Sut the land they occupy can, with some ingr nuity and a lot of money, bcoome the molt to of a teal neighborhood, an architectural adornment rather than a Milking blight, The pro«ss is happening first with snip shopping centers, which are usuany older than enclosed malls and less complex archi- tectrrrally. The first step is to transcend the i definition of a `shopping ceatet^ os a group- ing of unrelated cores in the middle of a parking lot. That pretty mudr desalted the New Seabury Shopping Center. a dreary alwwsoooRnnrtnaKn 1960s-era strip mall on a bury highway In , In Portland, Ore,''these commuters are choosing to ride the mils Cape Cod, Mass., about 70 miles from lios- t°R a aeeade ag°, the awnet~ deaaea t° PAN FOR MASS TRANSIT redevelop it on a radically diSerent scheme, ~ modeled on a New England town New streets were la;a out ~ what has been the ~ 0 Is there any way to get Americans out of their parking lot; new shops were built in the negletted am behind the existing apes. w cars and into buses and trains? In Los Angeles, 25-year development plan was drawn up, nOt even an eartll llake sug7ced• oIll a1JOllt 2 er- envisioning a substantial community, oC- ~I ' y P fi«s, a hbruy, a church and a seniardti- cent of .drivers switched to mass transit after their zees home have already bcen built. ~ - - Parking waz redistributed slang tb~ freeways fell down last year, and most of them ctnbs aC the new internal streets. This . went right back to driving as soon as the roads were makes for some congestion acrd ineffiden= cy, brat ksseas the frustration oC trudging atCht<d u ~ . down fang aisles oC parked rats toward a . P P distant man entrance. Devdaper noug>az . -The problem is that transit seems to need a critical scars say= thu ahapper fins me strength mass to work, and many metropolitan areas (Los Ange- to walk az much az half * mile down the sidewalks of what is now called Mazbpee les among them) are just too spread out. Many commut- Commons, passing shop windows,ben~e: err seem to think that if ou have to drive to the trawl and planters. The same people teach the threshold of exasperation when they have station anyway, you might as well just keep going to to park more than 400 feet Crom the door to an ordinay mall. - the office. ` 'Ibere are other examples, including Hence Caltho e's idea for the " edestrian pocket": a Miner Park, in Boca Ragan. Fla.. where a rP P failing shopping «nterwu replaced vritha relatively dense settlement within aquarter-mile walk 28acre mixed-use development organized around a new public park To be sure, not of a transit stop. In Portland, Ore., they're building the all developer will be this ambitious with transit line first- uttin stn s literall in the middle of lhe'u properties. But.az a fast step, hiding P g P y the ugly conedion of Dumpsters and land- empty fields-IIl the expectation that the development ing dodos oo the backsides oC strip malls , mold eliminate n lot of suburban blight. will follow. MAY 15. 1095 rvf M'SW EEK 51 , i i r ~ the same development you work in," he LINK WORK TO HOME -there are a lot oC esiteria for where you ch your house. But J people can walk to a ari i ~ SU6URB5 ARE NO [ANGER NST BEDROOM midday shopping, resUUrants and day care better Cor the people working therg," communities; the dispersal oC employ- ] ~1 ~ went out oC the central dries has been ` going on for a generation. (As the writer William SHRINK PARKING LO`. ~ I H. Whyte demonstrated two decades ago, b' corporations leaving the dty tend to relocate with PARKING [S ONE OF SVBURBIAT H[Ch in a few miles of the chief executive's house) But yin the United Sc I .13 adlievemenfs. Oral i the result-the oxymoronic "office parks" consist- does the humblest m -sho or ing of indistinguishable glass cubes amid a token PY P P~ boast az much space Cor cars as the average dty t fizz of gnus and a giant parking. lot-is just a But it is also a curse; the vazt acreage given ove higher class nC sprawl than the gas stations and azphalt is useless Cor any other purpose, and g filed-chicken .places that would have been built n m unused more than half the time anyway Most there instead. pl If companies don't want to be downtown, e g nets regvd Farling az a prerequisite for econo: the should at leazt attem t to irate do ~0"'~ w"+ter. But downtown Portland, O Y p grate their of- o oes t e wb;~ sainly regulates parking has bcen Ihriv 5ces-or factories,'for that matter-into coataru- with essentially the same space for cars az it had atu~nII obod ~ ~ is to live next to a steel mill, ~ ~ years ago. Developers often build more 0 Y guns West, outside Satnmen- is they actually need; a halfcmpty lot h pig to, people ate 1iaPPY to live within a grrarter~mile nmm ott reassure prospective tenants that they'p never r of an Apple Computerplant which provides 1,200' Or 0 ~ out ofspaa for theircars. Yet a bank, a movie rhea wlilte-collar and assembly-linejolx. Apple agreed eD ~ n andadmrrhareallfiillatditCerenttimes.Onesim; to locate there after the community was already ewman. s e improvement towns can make is to look for ways planned; developer Phil. Angelides says the com- .fie share and pool parking space among diHereat use parry liked the idea that exealtves and workers . o The {deal-although expensive-solution to t could aSord to live in the same community. Playa Vista, a new•vrbanist t»mmuaity being Planned W1 ~g~Probleal is for cars to vanish undergrwt for I.os Angeles, has been mentioned as a possible ? where they're going A shopping teat home for the DieamWorks SKC mtiltimedu com- eo e t bY>~es of StriP~ azphalt. wbethrr; empty or full, might as well put up a moat parry. It could lx an updated-and very upscale- PedKtrians. Large parking lots should be s version of the company town, which is this case behind buildings wbenever possble-somethi F. will comprise 18,000 houses and aparmrents, shops, a parks most suburban zoning nodes don'[ currently allow-and divided 1 tplredenades and jogging trails along the last.tidal marsh in streets,sidewallaorstructuresintosmallersegmentsoCaroundthr h'• aces or less. Oa-street parkag in trsideatial neighborhoods is co Calthotpe believes that more businesses will move to new- lroversial Some plarmers favor i4 because it orates a "tulle urbanist projects az they grow'disillusioned with the traf5c and between pedestrians and tra~4 but others coruider it a danger isolation of their oflrce parks.'"Itle idea is not necessarily to Ifve in children naming out between the tars. MAKE A TOWN CENTER Every town needs a center a plaza, 1 ~ st; ;are or green that is a geographi- cal reference point and a focus of .civic life-even if that just means a place to push a stroller or throw a ~'isbee. Shop- in malls ar ~ p g e a ,poor substitute; the area they serve is too diffuse, and in any rase ~ ' their civic function is incidental to their _ n ~ real purpose-malting money. Develop- ~ ' ers often provide some parkland in their subdivisions, but it's usually on leRover pazcels that wouldn't be built tin anyway, by the edge of the highway or adjoining ' annother subdivision. 52 MaWa Walk MA715. 1995 l~ f ' ~ THINK GREEN Orrr BEYOND THE BELTIVAY, _ ~ ~ where the roads are narrow and blacktop, past the point at which the dwindling ttalfic is too sparse ~ to warrant plucking by even the mingi- esl motor court, there's a beautiful Lind. Theie are pale gmn corn plants poking through the brown soil, lakes glimpsed ~'v ~ ; ~ l"e through trees. cholla iaelus among the - tumbled red rocks. It's not wilderness, but countryside, the unCutished carrvu oCAmerin. It tells us wbere we are-in Illinois, Maine or Texas-and it lontes ;,.:re.;~'.'t%%"• `ck " ^ - us in time: summer. fall, winter, spring. There's nothing to buy there, aowhere ro«««u«.uE to park; it dcesn t lure us with golden Agarish sheet lamp in Maryvale, a neighborhood in Phceniz arches or (ree 0°fCee mugs with afill-up. h's just there. TURN DOWN THE LIGHTS Ar'dbythesai°e`°ken'i`i=°`",a,d"g anyone rich,' yeL~There is a gradient of .slue that nms .from the dry to It is probably true that illuminating a suburban the country, and it keeps moving Dut_ ward; pick any spot and it's just a matter street to the level of the infield at Comiskey Park of time before it makes the magical tran- reduces accidents, especially for people who leave their sit;oa Cram " `countryside" .to "real estate-" T'he process seems inevitable, regular glasses at home and have to .drive in sunglasses. bat it ;5r;t, really u•s the prodact For.everyone else, though, towering, garish sodium-vapor oC convete.decisions made in an age when roads were still viewed as the street lamps intrude on the peacefulness of the night with harbingers Dr dvilintiDn rather than distmmt mu@lu outlets. And as surely the insistence of a stuck horn. Where safety is not a big as our society nude.those decisions, issue, why not use several smaller lamps that cast a it m drange tbeay before Lnvn meets lawn and asphalt meets asphalt cover- gender glow and let you see the stars ing the Jana ;n a seaadess carpet - _ of sprawl. a n - t' . ' a , ! [ I = r F. t -