New Urbanism Library

[Just the facts]

I just wanted to put this here so I can find it later. Thanks for posting it CaptDave.

Why Crumbling Urban Freeways Should be Torn Down And No New Ones Should be Built - Firefly Living

[CaptDave]

You are quite welcome. Here is a collection of pretty good blog posts that may be interesting:

Our blogs | Better! Cities & Towns Online

[CaptDave]

On a related note - I am now a certified New Urbanist according to the University of Miami. I completed the New Urbanism course back in September and the final test grade was release today. I was planning on joining CNU at the Advocate level but it turns out I scored high enough on the final (not sure where the bar was set) to become accredited, so I guess I have to bump my membership up to the Urbanist level. In January I start real-estate school so I can start laying the ground for my next adventure.

Nice -congratulations. I was looking at that program but decided to wait until I finish grad school.

[Just the facts]

Thanks guys. The class was a lot more work that I thought it would be. It is a 3 month course but they allow a one-time transfer into the next session and since I was only doing it for myself I decided to take the extension which stretched it out to 7 months. There was so much information presented that even with the additional time I still couldn't get to all of it. I was on sensory over-load for several months.

If anyone is planning on taking the course here are a few tips.

1) Read Suburban Nation and the Charter for the New Urbanism now. Buy the Best Practice Guide as soon as you get your registration verification email (you get a substantial discount on the book if you include your registration email with the order).

2) Highlight like crazy. If someone's name or a study is mentioned - highlight it. If a list is presented (like the five B's or the eight keys to waterfront development) highlight it and know what each item means. If statistics are presented - highlight them.

3) Take everything you highlight and type it into a word document. This will make it very easy to search for answers during the final exam. Plus you end up with a handy quick reference guide.

4) The on-line course consist of a power point style presentation. At the beginning of each section there is a short list of learning objectives. I tried to answer each learning objective using the information from that section (things aren't always presented in the order of the learning objectives so you have to think about each item presented and which objective it goes to). Document all of this in the Word Document for quick reference later

5) Go through the on-line course from beginning to end the first time without taking any notes just to get an idea of what each section is about and to figure out how to budget your time. Some sections are much longer than others.

6) Get ready to watch hours and hours and hours of videos. I hooked my laptop to the TV so I could watch them in comfort. One of the videos is a 2 hour lecture by James Kunstler which isn't available anywhere else. That alone was worth the price of admission.

7) If you can - take the transfer but do it at the last day to do so because you lose access to the class as soon as you let them know you are transferring. I used the short time gap to get some of the reading done.

8) The final is around 100 questions (mine was 96 questions) and you are given 3.5 hours. I took just over 3 hours. Don't stay on one question too long. A blank answer is the same as a wrong answer, so just skip the question and come back to it at the end. That way if you have enough time you can do more research but if you are running low on time you can always guess.

9) The class material had a lot of hyperlinks to wide variety of website. I put them all in one folder so I can go through them on a cold winter day.

[CaptDave]

^ I need to remember where I read this! Great info - thanks. Maybe I will be able to start Summer 2015'ish.

[Just the facts]

Great find Sid. I am putting this here so I can find it later.

HUD and DOT launch housing and transportation cost calculator | Better! Cities & Towns Online

[LandRunOkie]

Just finished Long Emergency and Too Much Magic by Kunstler. They're both harder to read and more compelling than Walkable City. Of course Kunstler's Long Emergency is a vision of doom for the mega city, so these books may not be totally relevant to the thread. Still would encourage people to read them as he basically just regurgitates the message from his books in his lectures, at least the ones I've seen.

[Just the facts]

The Long Emergency is on my Wish List. From what I have seen, it is only doom for the mega city if we don't change our development patters. That ones the do will survive and the ones that don't will fall into ash heap of history.

[LandRunOkie]

Go ahead and pick it up! Once you get past his upper Atlantic homerism and the fact he was a theater major, its very stimulating. As far as the mega city, he credits New Urbanism for become the accepted standard for new development, but warns of the danger of technology dependent architecture, such as skyscrapers and high-rise residential.

[Just the facts]

I am about half way through the The End of the Suburbs and there is a passage that says El Paso, TX has passed a city ordinance that any design firm involved with any city project must have at least one member of the team certified in New Urbanism. On top of that they made all City Engineers and department heads also get certified. Maybe they are on to something.

I found this story today.

El Paso Teaches New Urbanism to Architects, Engineers

El Paso ended up offering a nine-week session on new urbanism to its department heads and engineers, and has since opened the course up to the private sector. The city has also started requiring that any design firm that wants to do capital work with the city has to have someone on the team accredited in new urbanism practices. According to McElroy, approximately 100 city staff and 100 private architects and engineers have taken the course and passed the accreditation exam.

[no1cub17]

JTF, is there a CNU chapter here? Just curious. Went to their website but it seems you can't really find any useful info until you pay to join. I'd love to get involved in some way. For now it's showing our local friends that yes, you can walk around in downtown OKC and do stuff, which is still a step forward for most OKC residents

[Just the facts]

OKC doesn't have a CNU chapter, but you can join CNU as an Advocate for $40 years and get access to their monthly newsletter and other info. Like you, I wish there was a way to be more active at a local level but nothing exists that I am aware of. I guess the best we can do right now is just share what we know with anyone who will listen.

[Just the facts]

I just finished The End of The Suburbs by Leigh Gallagher (Assistant Managing Editor of Fortune Magazine). It includes lots of good material from demographic data, to housing statistics/trends, to anecdotal evidence about the demise of the suburbs. The author pulls lots of quotes from well-known New Urbanist but also includes quotes from an interview she did with Douglas Yearley, CEO of Toll Brothers (the inventor of the suburban McMansion and now one of America's largest urban builders).

The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream Is Moving: Leigh Gallagher: 9781591845256: Amazon.com: Books

You know when one of America's best known suburban home builders goes urban that change is in the air.

Toll Brothers City Living | Home

[LakeEffect]

OKC doesn't have a CNU chapter, but you can join CNU as an Advocate for $40 years and get access to their monthly newsletter and other info. Like you, I wish there was a way to be more active at a local level but nothing exists that I am aware of. I guess the best we can do right now is just share what we know with anyone who will listen.

A Chapter organizing committee requires 20 local members, and a full chapter requires 40 or 50 members and requires the local committee to set up its own 501c(3). I've checked.

[no1cub17]

A Chapter organizing committee requires 20 local members, and a full chapter requires 40 or 50 members and requires the local committee to set up its own 501c(3). I've checked.

Certainly realistic here in the next few years, it seems? I get the feeling people here are even subconscious curious about this urban lifestyle, even if they don't take full advantage of it. Have a friend and his wife who live at Level - they've yet to try out Slims, WSKY, they don't shop at NR, but they still moved downtown. I wonder how many others there are like them who felt the pull downtown but have yet to take advantage. Imagine how much more they'd like it.

[CaptDave]

What should we do when "rugged individuals" do dumb things?

A (somewhat) small example of why planning and government matter | New Urbanism Blog

[Plutonic Panda]

Not sure if this belongs here, but just wanted to post it for the record of those who don't look at development going on in Edmond. Edmond really seems to be doing great things with their downtown.

Planners look at retail/urban housing mixes in downtown
James Coburn
The Edmond Sun

EDMOND — A presentation by Freese Nichols consultants of Fort Worth was made Wednesday to city staff and leaders regarding the Downtown Master Plan.

The Central Edmond Urban Development Board has revisited plans made in a 1998 Downtown Master Plan through public meetings and presentations to protect the future development of Broadway.

“Right now we are at the point of providing an assessment of not only the physical environment, but also the market conditions,” said Wendy Shabay, an associate urban planner with Freese Nichols. The next meeting in January will focus on recommendations.

The Central Business District area goes from Danforth to Ninth Street, to slightly west of the railroad tracks and then borders the University of Central Oklahoma and then to Ninth Street and Boulevard. This study will be limited in scope from Danforth to Fifth Street.

“You’ve got some challenges. Small blocks, fragmented land ownership, parking issues. We understand that. But that’s not a-typical,” said Paris Rutherford, principal at Catalyst Urban Development, located in Dallas.

The blocks define the real estate potential. Smaller plots generally push either lower density or higher development costs, Rutherford said.

Edmond is benefited by having a major university, Rutherford said. As a strategist, he partners with Freese Nichols in planning that is rooted in marketing realities.

“There is probably 40,000-50,000 square-feet of retail, primarily restaurant driven, and university driven retail that can occur within (a) 10-year period,” Rutherford said.

The area around downtown has about 56-acres of owner-occupied housing that can occur. There is 34-acres of renter occupied property, 15 acres for office and 3-5 acres retail programming, Rutherford said.

“So that says the retail is probably in a mixed use program that is combined with other uses,” he said.

One positive is that just about everything from the core of downtown to the University of Central Oklahoma is walkable. Most other cities are more spread out without the potential to connect, Rutherford said. There are areas between the core of downtown to Fifth Street with a lot of pavement and open spaces that do not hold together as a development pattern.

“We don’t disagree that there’s pressures of parking,” he said. “But there’s also another kind of parking problem that exists downtown. That is the impact that all these spaces that are parking lots have on what you experience.”

Structuring key linkage points of parking needs to be identified to generate activity for services and restaurants, Rutherford said. There is a need to identify development zones that are connected together.

“But it’s not necessarily that we’re going to take one block, tear it all down, put a building in here and have everything else be a parking lot,” he said.

There are ways to address the needs of churches while also addressing a community’s needs for economic development, he said.

The area lacks enough natural amenities such as Shannon Miller Park and Stephenson Park. Strategically located outdoor spaces will activate an urban environment, Rutherford said.

“It makes it easy to understand there is framework for investment,” he said.

- See more at: Planners look at retail/urban housing mixes in downtown » Local News » The Edmond Sun

[CaptDave]

The downtown area of Edmond has tons of potential and it looks like the city leadership is heading in the right direction.

[PhiAlpha]

Kerry, Just read this article about the suburban design/location of Apple's new HQ affecting it's future recruiting efforts. I figured you would appreciate it.

Why Apple's Suburban Spaceship Could Lose the War for Tech Talent | Wired Business | Wired.com

[AP]

I saw someone re-tweet this article and thought it would be good to post here.

Urbanist Buzzwords to Rethink in 2014 - Atlantic Cities Staff - The Atlantic Cities

[Just the facts]

Kerry, Just read this article about the suburban design/location of Apple's new HQ affecting it's future recruiting efforts. I figured you would appreciate it.

Why Apple's Suburban Spaceship Could Lose the War for Tech Talent | Wired Business | Wired.com

Here is the story within the story. This is the original story referenced in story you linked to. The writing is on the wall for anyone who choses to read it.

Companies Say Goodbye to the 'Burbs - Yahoo Finance

[Just the facts]

Jeff Speck: The Walkable City

[shawnw]

Did he lose weight, or is my memory from the OU placemaking conference that garbled?

[CaptDave]

Did he lose weight, or is my memory from the OU placemaking conference that garbled?

Well he does walk a LOT!

[zookeeper]

Those interested in this New Urbanism thread need to know about the film and discussion TONIGHT (Jan. 9) at the OKC Museum of Art - 7:30.
Film and Q&A session with OKC City Planner Russell Claus .

See this thread for the official trailer for the film and more information: http://www.okctalk.com/general-civic...09-2014-a.html