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Rethinking Streets for Successful Communities

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Started 11 months ago by Walker
Latest reply from johnwirtz

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Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Rethinking Streets for Successful Communities

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A 10-minute video on "Rethinking Streets for Successful Communities." This video features commentary from leaders in their fields, including: Terry Foegler of OSU, Jack Lucks of Continental Real Estate, Yaromir Steiner of Steiner + Associates, Ken Danter of The Danter Company, Keith Myers of MSI Design, and Carol Coletta of Coletta & Associates (formerly CEOs for Cities). This video helps explain why we need to rethink the way our streets are designed and used, keeping in mind that the type of redevelopment depends on the context and land use of the area. We want our communities in Central Ohio to continue to be successful, and implementing Complete Streets elements can play a key role in that.

Posted 11 months ago #
alexs
Limestone bluffs of the Scioto
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If you're breaking this into a separate thread, I'll copy over my Richmond post as it would fit better here:

Here's the text of an email I just sent, it fits in this thread. The context is that I recently told the 5XNW people and a city planner about a stretch of street in Richmond, Indiana.

I realized that I could track it down via Google Maps. This is in the old brick-storefront downtown, and it looks like they had less room to work with than we have along Fifth.

Enter this address, zoom in, go to street view, and do a 360-degree sweep. Try it at a few points along that block; for some reason it always says 875. For contrast, put the view in the middle of the intersection with 27 and compare the perspectives of each street.

875 east main street richmond, indiana

Note a few things -

traffic calming by using bump-outs to create chicanes, no more barreling along in a straight line

the bump-outs serve as pedestrian refuge (only 2 lanes to cross, too) and as garden area

many curbside gardens

plentiful parking on alternate sides of the street

trees create shade

benches invite people to linger

...try a street view along Fifth in Columbus and it's sun on concrete, with phone poles.

Posted 11 months ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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alexs wrote >>
If you're breaking this into a separate thread, I'll copy over my Richmond post as it would fit better here...

Sorry. Posted the wrong video (roundabouts) by mistake in the original thread and figured since that's where that conversation went I'd just change that one to roundabouts and start a new one about this video (which was my original intention).

Posted 11 months ago #
alexs
Limestone bluffs of the Scioto
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I might look around a bit and find other street projects in other cities, and try those street views. There are many examples of what we could be doing here.

I still want to find the thread with the before-and-after pics of High Street in the Short North. Fifth Avenue today mostly looks like the Before pics from the 80s, open and bare and uninviting.

Posted 11 months ago #
rus

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alexs wrote >>
Fifth Avenue today mostly looks like the Before pics from the 80s, open and bare and uninviting.

Which section of 5th do you mean?

Got the impression you meant that "5XNW" thing. Lots of shops, people, parking... not so open and bare as, say, stretches of dublin, hilliard, etc.

Posted 11 months ago #
alexs
Limestone bluffs of the Scioto
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Yep, 5XNW. You can tell when various parts were developed, anything within 10 - 15 years has trees designed into it somehow, while older sections are just bare. I suppose a lot of those storefronts used to have grass or gardens in front, but it was more economical to just pave it and not have to maintain anything.

Posted 11 months ago #
rus

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alexs wrote >>
Yep, 5XNW. You can tell when various parts were developed, anything within 10 - 15 years has trees designed into it somehow, while older sections are just bare. I suppose a lot of those storefronts used to have grass or gardens in front, but it was more economical to just pave it and not have to maintain anything.

Oh, so your definition of "bare" is "no trees"?

Posted 11 months ago #
alexs
Limestone bluffs of the Scioto
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Bare as in nothing but some form of pavement from the curb to the front wall of whatever building.

Posted 11 months ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Trees can make quite a bit of difference for the aesthetics of a neighborhood:

http://xingcolumbus.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/two-cities-differing-approaches-to-one-main-street/

Posted 11 months ago #
alexs
Limestone bluffs of the Scioto
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You have to pitch the economics, such as shade reducing air-conditioning costs.

Posted 11 months ago #
rus

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alexs wrote >>
Bare as in nothing but some form of pavement from the curb to the front wall of whatever building.

So... sidewalks and parking lots would count as "bare", but trees, patios and benches would not, yes?

Posted 11 months ago #
rus

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alexs wrote >>
You have to pitch the economics, such as shade reducing air-conditioning costs.

That's a much better argument than aesthetics, certainly. Tastes vary, after all.

Posted 11 months ago #
johnwirtz
Evanston, IL
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Walker wrote >>
Trees can make quite a bit of difference for the aesthetics of a neighborhood:
http://xingcolumbus.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/two-cities-differing-approaches-to-one-main-street/

And more importantly the property values.

Posted 11 months ago #
alexs
Limestone bluffs of the Scioto
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My angle is water. If there's already a project to plant trees, what could be done easily and inexpensively to capture stormwater and reduce the incidence of street and basement flooding?

Meanwhile off in the background there's less warm dirty water flowing into the river but I don't expect many people to care much about that.

Posted 11 months ago #
rus

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alexs wrote >>
My angle is water. If there's already a project to plant trees, what could be done easily and inexpensively to capture stormwater and reduce the incidence of street and basement flooding?
Meanwhile off in the background there's less warm dirty water flowing into the river but I don't expect many people to care much about that.

You have any numbers on reduced flooding? Like area X did Y, resulting in Z fewer flooding problems?

Posted 11 months ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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I have no idea what the impact of trees on subsurface water flow is in urban areas with lots of pavement, but I'm willing to take it on faith that it's positive, based on my experience in rural Ohio. (In more exposed areas, they also have the salutary effect of breaking the wind--at least until the wind, in turn, breaks the trees, which is why you want them a short distance away from your home, but not too far.)

Granted, trees are no substitute for a good stormwater system, but the two are not mutually exclusive.

Back on the main point of the Rethinking Streets video, though: The point that they make about the changing demographics affecting the residential real estate market (and getting lost in the story about the mortgage lending market meltdown in 2008) is well taken. The woman's point about how expectations of future resale value affect current value is sound economics and often overlooked as well. Likewise, the point about how many suburban building codes affirmatively prohibit mixed-use and high-density development has been a longstanding concern--if developers think that single-use residential developments won't sell well and you won't even *let* them build mixed-use developments, or you make the "default" single, segregated uses and make people jump through massive amounts of hoops to get permission for dense, mixed-use development, then the developers will simply go elsewhere. Mixed-use developments, high density developments, and flush frontage in particular should be simply designated as OK to build.

I also note that the speakers had real praise for Easton there, giving it credit as a mixed-use development (even though it's obviously autocentric). That attitude isn't often seen in urbanist proselytization videos.

Posted 11 months ago #
alexs
Limestone bluffs of the Scioto
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rus wrote >>

alexs wrote >>
My angle is water. If there's already a project to plant trees, what could be done easily and inexpensively to capture stormwater and reduce the incidence of street and basement flooding?
Meanwhile off in the background there's less warm dirty water flowing into the river but I don't expect many people to care much about that.

You have any numbers on reduced flooding? Like area X did Y, resulting in Z fewer flooding problems?

Street flooding is a known problem on 5th but AFAIK no one has any firm records of how often it happens, or how much rain it takes in a certain amount of time. The CSO on the Olentangy at 5th has discharged twice while most have not discharged at all, so if that stops it could be a measure of success.

Posted 11 months ago #
AMEEKER
Weinland Park
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The 5xnw Area Commission is working on getting more trees in the neighborhood - particularly on Fifth. You can follow details about meetings re: greening up 5xnw on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Fifth-by-Northwest-Area-Commission/95215673487

Posted 11 months ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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johnwirtz wrote >>

Walker wrote >>
Trees can make quite a bit of difference for the aesthetics of a neighborhood:
http://xingcolumbus.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/two-cities-differing-approaches-to-one-main-street/

And more importantly the property values.

And...

Urban Trees Researched As Pollution Filters
By BEN GELBER
Published: June 30, 2011

A project funded by Ohio State's Agricultrual Research and Development Center, with help from ODOT, and labor and maintenance assistance from the city of Gahanna, is based on monitoring saplings growing in a corridor along Hamilton Road near Interstate 270.

READ MORE: http://www2.nbc4i.com/weather/2011/jun/30/urban-trees-pollution-filters-ar-577673/

Posted 11 months ago #
Red Sun Rising

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This was one of the best planned US suburban cities I've ever been to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valencia,_Santa_Clarita,_California

http://relocation.santaclaritamoves.com/files/2010/05/paseo_map11.pdf

Beyond a safe way for families and children to get to everything they needed on paths, they even had a metro into LA.

Posted 11 months ago #