• Sidewalk cafes: Silver bullets for walkable places

    When someone walks along a street, they’re gone in a moment. But when they sit down to a meal, they might be there for an hour or more. Because of this, the sidewalk cafe is the most powerful tool to enhance people’s desire to walk in a place.
    The most important thing about building a place with high Walk Appeal isn’t anything we build, nor is it about walking. Of all the factors that entice us to walk in a place, the strongest one is likely the presence of other people. When someone walks along a street, they’re there for a moment, and...Read more

  • Local innovation makes Main Street a town square

    The Storefront Theater is a unique and creative use of a vacant space in a small-town Main Street.
    Main Street in Lyons, Nebraska, has suffered like the heart of many small towns across America as shops have closed—losing customers to declining population and replaced by distant big-box stores. With the ingenuity of a conceptual artist and built by local craftspeople in 2015, The Storefront...Read more

  • Postwar neighborhoods are revitalization opportunities

    The nation has a large supply of mid-century neighborhoods that are ripe for changes that will make them more walkable and appealing to new generations of residents.
    World War II has long been considered the watershed for automobile-oriented development. Suburbs were built prior to the war, but largely were mixed-use, walkable towns and neighborhoods of the “streetcar suburb” variety. After 1945, development shifted radically — to automobile-oriented housing...Read more

  • This seems like good news: Why are economists anxious?

    Prices for real estate in many cities have recently stalled, The New York Times reports, yet the development boom continues.
    The New York Times recently reported some surprisingly good news for cities in its real estate section, and naturally this makes economists worried. They don't call economics "the dismal science" for nothing. The prices for urban real estate seem to be stalling, but developers continue to build and...Read more