• A walkable urban retail primer

    Nuture unique historic character in walkable formats and don’t build leasable space that you can’t lease. For downtown to have a critical mass, the goal is to capture 20 percent of the retail market share.
    A couple weeks ago, I had the great pleasure of working with Bob Gibbs in Las Cruces, New Mexico , looking at ways to help downtown outperform the suburbs, helping Main Street be more profitable than strip malls. The top lessons were to nurture unique historic character in walkable formats and don’...Read more

  • A small Michigan city embraces walkable urbanism

    Detroit has captivated the nation in its decline, bankruptcy, and booming downtown rebirth, but there is more to urbanism in Southeastern Michigan than the Motor City.
    When CNU meets at its annual Congress in Detroit this coming June, participants will also examine places like Birmingham, located four miles to the north of the primary city. After three decades of 20th century population loss and commercial decline, Birmingham, Michigan, committed to building a...Read more

  • The rise and fall of Gay Urbanism in West Hollywood

    The LGBT community created a sense of place out of the vast suburban landscape of LA and had a lasting impact on walkability.
    The civil rights protests of the 1960s-70s – from the marches of Martin Luther King to the walkouts of the Chicano movement – were powerful forces for social change across America. They also transformed the very urban fabric of American cities. I’ve devoted much of my career to researching and...Read more

  • A slow revolution in zoning

    Commercial strip arterials in the Nutmeg State are beginning to transform as land-use regulations shift focus from use to the shape and siting of buildings.
    Dixwell Avenue in Hamden, Connecticut, is an inelegant and jumbled commercial strip, a paean to post-World War II planning, a hurried venue for cars where pedestrians or bike riders venture at considerable risk. For example, at the 1950s-era Hamden Plaza, diners leaving Panera Bread on one side of...Read more