• Road diet creates people-oriented corridor for suburb

    The city of Oak Park has the density—it needs placemaking, and that is why an automobile-oriented corridor is being transformed with a linear greenway and complete street.
    A quintessential first-ring suburb, Oak Park, Michigan, was the nation’s fastest-growing city in the 1950s. The city bordering on Detroit has nearly 30,000 residents—at 5,700 people per square mile it is substantially denser than Portland, Oregon. Yet Oak Park has no walkable downtown or even a...Read more

  • How brick-and-mortar stores can benefit from e-commerce

    The impact of e-commerce on physical stores is not as negative as many believe—downtown merchants can thrive in this environment through omni-channel marketing and creating unique experiences.
    This is one of a series of ongoing Public Square articles on the market, technological, and cultural transformation of the $5 trillion retail industry—and how it relates to a continued shift toward walkable, urban living. It is quite popular to blame the “retail apocalypse” myth on the growth of e-...Read more

  • To fix suburbs, first define them

    Suburbs may be defined in many ways, and a focus on walkability yields robust data aimed toward making better communities and sustainable regions.
    What’s the best way to define suburbia? The answer depends on who is asking the question and what biases they bring to the table. A Harvard paper by Whitney Airgood-Obrycki and Shannon Rieger describes three methods currently in vogue in academia. Each of the methods yields different definitions...Read more

  • A new view for Buffalo

    With the governor’s endorsement, CNU’s long-time recommendation to transform Buffalo’s Skyway is closer to reality. The city and state have an opportunity to implement the best ideas from the top proposals.
    The Buffalo Skyway may live up to its name at last. Standing on the stage at One West this week, overlooking the old elevated highway, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced to an enthusiastic gathering that it was time for the Skyway to come down. He posed two questions: Should we do it? C an we do it?...Read more