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CNU Salons
From The Department of Worst Practices: Two-lane stroads
Submitted by MLewyn on Wed, 01/14/2015 - 10:37pmOne phrase that has become common in transportation planning circles is "stroad"- a street that is oriented towards cars (like a major road) but is full of intersections (like a traditional, more pedestrian-oriented street) and thus doesn't function well as either a street or a road. When I think of a stroad, I think of six-to-eight lane streets like San Jose Boulevard in Jacksonville, or Queens Boulevard in Queens.
Best Practices In Publicizing Data : Pittsburgh Shows How
Submitted by MLewyn on Tue, 01/13/2015 - 4:43pmIt is fairly common for city planning departments to publish demographic data about city neighborhoods - usually containing basic demographic information such as age, income and poverty. But Pittsburgh's planning department has created an unusually impressive set of data tables. It has created a set of six online spreadsheets (available at
Best Practices In Publicizing Data : Pittsburgh Shows How
Submitted by MLewyn on Tue, 01/13/2015 - 4:41pmIt is fairly common for city planning departments to publish demographic data about city neighborhoods - usually containing basic demographic information such as age, income and poverty. But Pittsburgh's planning department has created an unusually impressive set of data tables. It has created a set of six online spreadsheets (available at
Seniors And Walkable Neighborhoods
Submitted by MLewyn on Thu, 01/08/2015 - 11:34amI occasionally read that seniors are likely to be a strong constituency for walkable, public-transit oriented neighborhoods. This argument runs as follows: seniors gradually lose the ability to drive as they get older. Thus, they are eventually going to need more transit and more walkable neighborhoods, and designers of walkable neighborhoods should be especially focused on the needs of seniors.
Learning from London's Comeback
Submitted by MLewyn on Wed, 01/07/2015 - 11:40amA recent post on Citymetric.com suggests that after losing population for decades, London will soon reach its pre-World War II peak of 8.6 million people. London last achieved this population level in 1939, and lost nearly two million people after World War II, bottoming out at 6.7 million in 1988. Can we learn anything from this? Why, yes we can. To name a few things:
Rents CAN go down, even in high-cost markets
Submitted by MLewyn on Tue, 01/06/2015 - 9:59amOne common argument often used to frustrate infill development is that in high-cost markets, the law of supply and demand simply does not apply, and that new housing will somehow fail to increase rents.
Utilities, Schools and Induced Demand
Submitted by MLewyn on Thu, 11/27/2014 - 9:48pmNumerous commentators have questioned the view that increased highway spending reduces congestion, pointing out that highways may increase demand for driving, thus leading to more traffic. In a recent newsletter, Robert Poole responds to the “induced demand” concept by writing:
Not A "War on Suburbia" Election
Submitted by MLewyn on Tue, 11/18/2014 - 11:42amAccording to Joel Kotkin, this month's elections were really about the "progressives' war on suburbia." According to Kotkin, the Democrats lost because they are "aggressively anti-suburban." Since I didn't vote for President Obama, I leave it to his supporters to defend him.
Transit Riding: Its NOT All About New York
Submitted by MLewyn on Tue, 11/11/2014 - 5:05pmCommentators who seek to minimize the importance of recent growth in public transit ridership argue that this increase is predominantly a result of New York's rising ridership. There is a grain of truth to this argument: New York is so big that rising ridership in that city alone can affect national ridership trends. On the other hand, New York is hardly the only city experiencing rising ridership.
One (Or Maybe Two) Cheers for Cincinnati
Submitted by MLewyn on Mon, 11/03/2014 - 10:04pmA recent article in New Geography points out that some of his friends who feel priced out of San Francisco have moved to Rust Belt cities like Cincinnati. Given all the wonderful historic neighborhoods of Cincinnati or Kansas City or similar cities, why would anyone live in New York or San Francisco instead?