Posts about Arizona

Studies say: The Arizona DOT found that denser, mixed-use areas have lower traffic, fewer cars per person, and shorter trips for errands. (Streetsblog) ... Walk Score correlates with higher housing prices. (Market Urbanism) (Comment)

Utah entitled to Arizona highways: I-15 connects UT and NV via a 30-mile route through a nearly uninhabited corner of Arizona. Arizona wants to toll the highway to fund repairs since it serves few Arizonans. Utah's governor is unhappy. (LA Times) (Comment)

And...: A new park is helping revive downtown Phoenix. (NAC) ... Are Amtrak's new locomotives a bad deal? (Streetsblog) ... A group beat the heat by touring the abandoned streetcar tunnels under Dupont. (via DCist) (Comment)

Development

Dinner links: urban lifestyle vs. bad transportation policy

by David Alpert • November 12, 2008 6:18 pm

Photo by M.V. Jantzen on Flickr.

We need 3 bedroom condos: All About Cities points out that we're going to start needing 3-bedroom condos in the future as more families want to stay in the city. Right now, almost all demand is for 2-bedrooms and smaller, but families need 3- and 4-bedrooms. Manhattan has them (at high prices of course) in its old buildings, but most other cities don't. Vancouver planners are recommending 2-bedrooms with attached studios that have separate entrances; families can use the 2-bedroom and rent out the studios until they need the third bedroom.

Connect to HowAboutAnEspresso? Freakonomics discovers a clever strategy by a Dutch coffee shop to encourage Wi-Fi-using patrons to keep spending money without actually forcing them: change the network name periodically to things like BuyaLargeLatteGetBrownieForFree.

What Should Obama Do? Activists have created a site to suggest priorities for Obama's to-be-created Office of Urban Policy.

No automaker bailout: Ryan Avent gives many reasons why bailing out automakers is a terrible idea. Our industry in Detroit could transition to green jobs, or making light rail and streetcar vehicles, or one of many other productive uses. Throwing money at them to keep cars rolling off the assembly line only slows that, while deepening our dependence on personal automobiles. Cato agrees.

The depressing West: Arnold Schwarzenegger is dodging the state's Smart Growth law and exempting large sprawl-inducing "stimulus" projects from review; Arizona has no ideas at all about how to pay for any transportation projects.