Year: 2012
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How Robots in Parking Garages Can Advance New Urbanism
Robotics and information technology are migrating off the factory floor and appearing in the most remarkable places. Boomerang Systems, an exhibitor at the Congress for the New Urbanism conference last week, outfits garages with automated parking systems. In projects where construction costs are high or land is valuable, it can make economic sense for property…
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McDonnell Still Plugging Port Development Subsidies
Governor Bob McDonnell is campaigning hard for an amendment to the 2013-2014 budget that would provide grants to companies locating in the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Development Zone. A press release from the Governor’s Office lists more than 30 local governments, Chambers of Commerce and other groups, from the Virginia Manufacturers Association to…
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Cville Bypass Bids Come in Under $244 Million Estimate… Or Maybe Not
The low bid for the Charlottesville Bypass, submitted by Virginia Beach Skanska- Branch/JMT, came in below cost estimates, says the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), as reported by Charlottesville Tomorrow Friday. “Based on the apparent low bids all project costs are within the allocated amount in the Six-Year Improvement Program,” said Lou Hatter, spokesman for…
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Americans Need to Drive Less, Walk More
by James A. Bacon WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.–Something is very wrong with America’s health, Dr. Richard Jackson, professor of environmental health sciences at the University of California-Los Angeles, told the Congress for the New Urbanism today. Rates of depression, obesity and diabetes are soaring. “We’re looking at the first generation in American history that will have a…
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Krier Decries Kitsch, Inhuman Scale of Modernist Architecture
WEST PALM BEACH, FLA–Leon Krier, one of the world’s leading neo-traditional architects and urban planners, finds a lot to be unhappy about what planners, architects and developers are building these days. He dislikes high-rises and skyscrapers, which he views as affronts to human scale. He detests modernist architecture, which, by sacrificing traditional forms and proportions,…
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The Creative Class Meets New Urbanism
by James A. Bacon WEST PALM BEACH, FLA–Richard Florida, the author of the “Rise of the Creative Class,” has long remarked upon the creative class’ penchant for living in certain cities rather than others. He has devoted much of his energy over the past 10 years to illuminating the importance of a community’s tolerance for…
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What the New Retail Revolution Means for Building Vibrant Communities
by James A. Bacon WEST PALM BEACH, FLA–Americans between the ages of 16 and 34, known collectively as the Millennial Generation, are exerting a powerful influence upon the economics of the retail industry and thus, indirectly, upon real estate development and community revitalization. That was the message I got from a presentation by Kennedy Smith,…
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New Urbanism Needs a Re-Boot
by James A. Bacon WEST PALM BEACH, FLA–Since its genesis three decades or so ago, the New Urbanism movement looked to the 1920s as the golden era of urban development in the United States. City builders had adapted to the rise of the automobile as dominant transportation mode while retaining continuity with previous urban forms…
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West Palm Beach, Ho!
Blogging will be spotty the next few days. I’m off to another conference, this time the Congress for the New Urbanism. I’ll participate in a panel discussion, “Understanding the Role of Sustainable Urbanism in the Conservative Agenda,” making the case that the phrase “conservative smart growth” is not an oxymoron. I’ll also bone up on…
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NoVa Prosperity Under Pressure
Northern Virginia remains the economic engine of the state but it faces major challenges. Job creation isn’t keeping up with population growth and income inequality is growing, concludes the Commonwealth Institute in a new report, “Under Pressure: The State of Working Northern Virginia.” Employment grew at a strong pace in 2011: The region added 25,000…
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New EPA Regs and the Virginia Economy
Six coal-fired power plants in Virginia accounting for 35% of the state’s coal-generated electricity could be forced to shut down prematurely by new and proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulations, according to a report, “Economy Derailed,” published recently by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). In a state-by-state breakdown, the ALEC report stated that Virginians could…
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The Agenda 21 Hobgoblin
by William O’Keefe The late H.L. Mencken once observed that the “whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed… by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of which are imaginary.” The volume of blogs and other communications from Tea Party members over the U.N. Agenda 21 make me think that…
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Virginia Tobacco Bonds in Technical Default. Is Anyone Paying Attention?
by James A. Bacon Alarming news about Virginia bonds. The NYT reported last week that Virginia is one of three states that have tapped special tobacco-bond reserves to pay their bond holders — “something analysts consider a technical default because it effectively means the bondholders are being paid with their own money.” The underlying problem…
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Clarity Amid Blather on Dulles Rail
By Peter Galuszka It has always been supremely puzzling to me why this blog has taken such a strident and shrill anti-union attitude. The shining example is the smear campaign against project labor agreements (PLAs) and Phase Two of the Silver Line of Metro to Dulles airport. The attacks extend to attempts to liquidate personally…
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Walkable Places Where Glitz Is King
Image source: Wikipedia by James A. Bacon Pound for pound, square foot for square foot, Las Vegas packs in more glitz than any other location on earth — more than Hollywood, more than the Ginza, more than Broadway, more than Dubai. Where else can you find a world-class tourist destination built around replicas of the…