“Sex and the City” Urbanism: Human Scale the Key to Sustainable Development
Posted by Greg.Meckstroth in New Development on Feb 16th, 2011 | 3 comments
If you’ve ever watched Sex and the City, you can’t help but take note of the moments when Carrie is walking to and from her Upper East Side apartment. If you’re like me you might think ‘now that is a neighborhood I would love to live in.’ The intimate narrow streets, beautiful human scaled buildings, and fully developed tree canopies scream ‘sense of place’ in ways that make you want to pack up your bags and move to New York yesterday. Well the truth of the matter is Carrie’s neighborhood was actually shot on Perry Street...
It’s Time to Fight for Midwest Rail Transit
Posted by Greg.Meckstroth in Transit on Feb 10th, 2011 | 7 comments
By early spring, construction on the fully funded Cincinnati Streetcar will officially begin, starting an exciting chapter in that City’s urban core and charting a new course for urbanism in the Midwest. You would think this would be a time of celebration for Cincinnati as they have been fighting the good fight to bring rail transit to their urban core for quite some time now. But unfortunately, the City is once again in a fight for its life to save the Cincinnati Streetcar – and they needs all the help they can get.
In 2009, Cincinnatians successfully fought back against special...
Monument Circle Going Car Free For 2012 Super Bowl
Posted by Greg.Meckstroth in Pedestrian on Feb 8th, 2011 | 27 comments
In a fitting turn of events, the decision to pedestrianize Monument Circle has come full circle with the announcement that Indianapolis’s premiere public space will be closed off to auto travel during the week-long run-up to the Super Bowl next February. According to Super Bowl Host Committee CEO Allison Melangton, the Committee is trying to raise money for a major entertainment endeavor on Monument Circle prior to the Super Bowl that would close the space to vehicular traffic, turning the Circle into a pedestrian mall. According to Melangton, the Circle would be used for music...
The Midwest’s 21st Century ‘Place Proximity’ Asset
Posted by Greg.Meckstroth in Transit on Jan 25th, 2011 | 2 comments
This article originally appeared on urbanOut.
Richard Longworth’s recent article A New Year for the Midwest is particularly interesting as he dissects what 2011 may bring for many of the Midwest’s rust belt cities and their ailing economies. While discussing the region’s antiquated manufacturing base and the need for cities to reinvent themselves around a modern economy, Longworth notes: “A history of heavy industry is a handicap in dealing with the modern global economy, but it’s not necessarily fatal. What is fatal, however, is sticking with that heavy...
Urban Design Lessons from Lucas Oil Stadium
Posted by Greg.Meckstroth in New Development, Pedestrian on Jan 17th, 2011 | 28 comments
A version of this story was originally published in Greater Greater Washington as part a two-part series on urban football stadiums. Visit the original story for more comments, thoughts and opinions about case studies, both good and bad, of other recently built urban football stadiums in America.
The Indianapolis Colts have played in an urban football stadium since the team’s founding in 1984 when the Hoosier Dome (later changed to the RCA Dome) was built in the heart of downtown. For the following 24 seasons, the Colts called this mega-structure home. The Dome was akin to the Metrodome...
