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Tag Archives: urban development

Creating Connections With ‘The Link’

I’ve mentioned the coming improvements to the Springfield bicycle route system that will be paid for with the CIP tax. The improvements include route number signs and sharrows. The City also has plans for a new project called The Link — an exciting plan to link existing and new greenway trails into a coherent transportation [...]

Posted 11 June 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § news § policy ‡ Comments (2) ° Also tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

Our Urban Challenge: Build It First

I swear I’m not making this up. The following is a snippet of conversation I heard at the Mudshouse. The interlocutors were high school kids: Kid 1: “There’s just too much sprawl here.” Kid 2: “Yeah, not enough density.” Kid 3: “It doesn’t matter. We’re not going to live here anyway.” How do we make [...]

Posted 16 May 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § policy ‡ Comments Off ° Also tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Our Vision

Yesterday’s transportation committee meeting for the new city/OTO strategic plan focused on writing a vision statement. I’ve done this kind of work before, and it is usually painful (partly because I’ve usually done vision writing stuff with fellow academics). But yesterday’s exercise was remarkably invigorating and productive. We enjoy a great deal of consensus on [...]

Posted 20 April 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § news § policy ‡ Comments Off ° Also tagged: , , , , , , ,

Springfield: Potential Blue Zone?

Much has been written about the health benefits of burning calories instead of carbon to transport ourselves. This also happens to be one of the important components to Blue Zones — areas of the world in which people live longer, healthier lives. The premise of Blue Zones is:  identify the optimal lifestyle of longevity and [...]

Posted 13 April 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § policy ‡ Comments Off ° Also tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Our Urban Challenge: The Good Life

Image via Wikipedia One of the participants at the last transportation committee meeting tried to patiently explain to me that the reason people want to move to southwest Missouri is to have that house-on-three-acres lifestyle. This is part of what explains why Christian County is growing so fast. The towns of Nixa and Ozark offer [...]

Posted 12 April 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology § news § policy ‡ Comments Off ° Also tagged: , , , , ,

World of Tomorrow

We spent much of our time in vision exercises during the strategic plan transportation committee meeting yesterday. Our goal was to imagine what role transportation should play in creating the kind of community we want to live in by 2035 (when I’ll be 78 years old). We did an overall visioning exercise and a series [...]

Posted 09 April 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology § news § policy ‡ Comments Off ° Also tagged: , , , , ,

Our Urban Challenge: Free Parking

Dr. Donald Shoup wrote a book called The High Cost of Free Parking in which he argued that too many American cities just give away their most valuable real estate in the form of free parking spaces. The usual cry from business owners in response is: “But we’ll drive away customers if we charge for [...]

Posted 03 April 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § policy ‡ Comments (3) ° Also tagged: , , , , ,

Our Urban Challenge: Barriers

Chestnut Expressway cuts east-west through the middle of Springfield’s urban core as I’m defining it. It is a 4-lane, 40-mph loop for I-44. It’s very well designed to move cars and trucks across Springfield giving these vehicles easy access to the urban core — especially downtown, OTC, MSU, and Drury. And that’s the problem with [...]

Posted 28 March 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § policy ‡ Comments (12) ° Also tagged: , , , ,

Our Urban Challenge: Green Density

I’ve just started reading an interesting book by David Owen entitled Green Metropolis. I discovered it on this list of the top ten urban planning/design books published in 2009. (Note that David Byrne’s book tops the list.) The premise of Owen’s book is that dense, urban living is greener living. A big part of the [...]

Posted 23 March 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § policy ‡ Comments Off ° Also tagged: , , , , ,

Google Springfield

I’m on board with the Google Springfield thing. Join the Facebook page! Technorati Tags: urban design, urban development

Posted 20 March 2010 † Andy Cline § announcement § news ‡ Comments Off ° Also tagged:

LaHood Addresses Nat’l Bike Summit

Found on (SF) Streets Blog: LaHood mentions “livable communities,” which I understand to include densely-populated urban areas with mixed-use development where walking, bicycling, and public transportation is the norm. See the beginning of my urban challenge series below. Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle politics, cycling, sustainability, urban design, urban development

Posted 14 March 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § news § policy ‡ Comments Off ° Also tagged: , , , ,

Our Urban Challenge: First in a Series

“What is striking about biking is not that it solves any particular problem but, instead, that is it part of the solution to several.” —  J. Harry Wray We have several problems in Springfield. You can begin to survey our problems — or challenges — by reading Springfield’s Competitive Assessment. Another snapshot of our community [...]

Posted 11 March 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § business § ecology § policy ‡ Comments (2) ° Also tagged: , , , , ,

Media Centers

Planetizen (one of my new favorite blogs) points to an interesting article about using library media centers to revitalize cities. While it isn’t housed in a fancy new building, we do have one of these media centers right in the heart of downtown Springfield on the Square — the Park Central Branch Library. Here’s a [...]

Posted 03 March 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology ‡ Comments Off ° Also tagged: ,

Square Renovations Continue

Renovations continue on the Square downtown. This morning I checked out the work at the most popular corner where the library and Coffee Ethic are located. There’s still much work to do. You’ll notice that the bicycle racks had to be removed to begin work. I’ve heard this morning from a member of the Sustainable [...]

Posted 01 July 2009 † Andy Cline § ecology ‡ Comments (5) ° Also tagged: , , , ,

Built To Last

Check out this video about new urbanism: Winner of The Congress for New Urbanism CNU 17 video contest. (via Copenhagenize) The bicycle can and should play an important role in new urbanism. Technorati Tags: 1-mile Solution, bicycle politics, cycling, green transportation, sustainability, urban design, urban development

Posted 13 May 2009 † Andy Cline § ecology ‡ Comments (2) ° Also tagged: , , , , ,