Finding Love in the Urban Realm
This Valentine’s Day season the internet world will be flooded with stories like “The top 10 cities for single people to find love” or “The best cities for a romantic getaway.” These stories are all based on the same premise – that finding a great match and maintaining a strong relationship is much easier in the city. It’s easy to write off such stories as media hype or just plain silliness, but there are reasons that … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Neighborhoods
Videos on Urban Issues
Sometimes it’s nice to sit back and let someone else do the thinking. TED videos are about “ideas worth spreading”, and you can see them all for free at this link. If anyone has some downtime and wants some food for thought, I recommend the following TED talks that are all relevant to urbanism: Jaime Lerner: A discussion of the promise of cities from the former Mayor of Curitibia, most famous for his BRT system. Emily Pilloton: … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Neighborhoods
The Privatization of Indianapolis
The people who run our cities … think nothing has the right to exist unless it makes a profit, which makes their opinion worthless. The people who truly deface our neighborhoods are the companies that scrawl giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff. -Banksy, Wall and Piece, 2005 It is a common idea these days for politicians to speak of running a city like a company. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Neighborhoods
The Power of Natural Places
Natural places have a role to play in our neighborhoods. The best urban sites share space with nature so well that you can not tell when the bricks stop and the trees begin. Whether it is a chestnut tree in a courtyard or an old street lined with elms, nature has to be present or our cityscape is unsatisfactory. The ability to incorporate natural spaces into our neighborhood is often limited by our choices in infrastructure. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Neighborhoods
IndyConnect has Limited Vision
Public investment in transportation infrastructure is what Indianapolis is all about, and is still known as the “Crossroads of America” because of it. The investment in transportation infrastructure started early with the canals, picked up speed with rail (including the first ever Union Station), and continued when Indy became a key part of the National Road, our first federal highway. More recently the best new airport terminal in the US was … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Neighborhoods, Pedestrian, Transit
IndyConnect Unveiling: Reaction
Here at Urban Indy we wanted to give our reactions to the big IndyConnect unveiling and let our readers do the same. An in-depth review of the plan from Urban Indy will be coming later, but here is a collection of our responses after the initial press release. The plan is online at IndyConnect.org and represents the 25 year vision of the Indy MPO responsible for regional transportation planning. Curt Ailes I will be the first person … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Neighborhoods
Efroymson Conservation Center
The Efroymson Conservation Center is one of the best new buildings in Indianapolis. It has several innovative features that make it a great fit for The Nature Conservancy. I encourage everyone to go explore it and see what it can teach us about conservation in the urban age. It’s hard to explain why this building is so important, but it all comes down to holistic design. Every piece works towards the greater goal, establishing a synergy … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Neighborhoods, New Development
Zoned Out Indy
The city of Indianapolis uses a comprehensive plan and zoning ordinances as their main tool of city planning (see current zoning codes; or see Indy’s zoning synopsis). The purpose of our zoning code is to resolve conflicts between land uses by separating them (Euclidean style). Obviously, there are some land uses that don’t fit well together. A quick example would be an adult entertainment venue next to an elementary school. Nobody thinks that these activities … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Neighborhoods
Fixing Ugly Buildings
Recently the question has been raised how to fix an ugly building, mostly in regards to the Di Rimini (and here and here and especially here). It is a hard question to answer without first discussing what “ugly” means. While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, there are obvious problems with treating a building purely as sculpture and ignoring its contribution to the urban environment beyond aesthetics. Buildings can be ugly in many ways. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Neighborhoods
Induced Economic Activity is not Progress
I’m not always happy with Cost/Benefit Analyses to justify infrastructure investments. Induced economic activity has especially frustrated me because I don’t believe that an extra highway exchange can be justified just because it spawns a Wal-Mart. Too often we see these studies that proclaim a net benefit when in reality the private sector gains a new source of profit while shifting cost and risk to the public (similar to the privatization of Parking Programs). An interesting … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Neighborhoods
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