Pre-Conflict: An American in Libya
Posted by Greg.Meckstroth in Neighborhoods on Mar 30th, 2011 | 3 comments
Considering the current events surrounding the political instability in Libya, I thought I would repost my piece on Tripoli, Libya, a place I had the opportunity to travel to for business in 2010.
I recently had the opportunity to travel to Tripoli, Libya for a business trip. I went because I am working on a project to build an entirely new city of 120,000 people on the Mediterranean Sea just outside Tripoli. I went into the experience with certain expectations and understandings of urban life in this part of the world but had to see it firsthand if I am going to be designing a new city here. So I...
Comparing the Indy commute to other New Heartland cities
Posted by Curt Ailes in Neighborhoods, Transit on Dec 22nd, 2010 | 9 comments
A recent study by Bundle & The Street, lends some credibility to the notion that purchasing a home in the suburbs based upon the premise that it’s “cheaper” may not really be that true at all. The study focused on a number of major and minor metro regions across the nation and pitted their daily commute times, distances and also added the metric averaging what a household might spend on transportation per month. The numbers paint a striking picture. A couple of infographics were released with the report that displayed some of the maximum and minimum commutes. You can peruse...
Why investment in transit is important for Indianapolis
Posted by Curt Ailes in Transit on Dec 8th, 2010 | 14 comments
If you are a regular visitor to this site, then you are undoubtedly familiar with our complete and undivided support for improvements to our region’s transit system. Sure, we all have specific talking points that we feel would represent SMARTER choices, but at the heart is this unifying vision of improved transit options. As advocates, we can lose sight of how obvious this is to us from time to time; and conversely, how oblivious others may be to it. So how do we address this? A simple education at the basic level is needed. So here are a few reasons why supporting Indyconnect is important to...
Indianapolis + Columbus: Similar Surfaces, Opposite (Urban) Cores
Posted by Greg.Meckstroth in Neighborhoods, Pedestrian on Dec 6th, 2010 | 34 comments
This article originally appeared on urbanOut in May 2010 and gained  a lot of attention in the Columbus blogosphere so I figured it should be shared on Indy’s prominent urban blog as well.
People love to compare cities and pit them against each other in an attempt to understand strengths and weaknesses of places, analyze overall regional urban patterns, and try to learn from other place’s successes and failures. One comparison I always hear, see, and read is between Indianapolis and Columbus, two cities that often get a ‘twin cities of the eastern Midwest’ tag. I...
Pedestrianizing Downtown Indianapolis
Posted by Greg.Meckstroth in Pedestrian on Nov 18th, 2010 | 16 comments
It’s no secret that Ray LaHood and the current Department of Transportation believe that cities ought to be for people instead of cars. In late October, the Department’s $600 million Tiger II grants drove home this point, as 55% of the funds are going towards mass transit or pedestrian oriented transportation improvements across the country (16% went to ports and 29% went to road projects). Perhaps the most interesting project that received funding is Downtown Crossings in New Haven, Connecticut, which is getting $16 million to remove the limited-access Route 34. As New Haven...
