Great American Architecture Vol. 1

Apologies for slacking off over the course of the weekend, I was beginning to clean out closets to recycle old papers/boxes/electronics.

Tia and I also saw two more condo units since my last entry, one a more traditional townhouse layout on University Ave. (on the 18/19 Route) and the other part of a converted school between Gregory and Hickory Streets. After viewing the Gregory Park Condos, we took a walk through the heart of the South Wedge Neighborhood and ate at the Tap and Mallet, a neighborhood pub with solid food (recommend Pork with Goat's Cheese, Garlic, and Thyme and an extensive beer list.

Across Cayuga Street from the pub is Weider's Hall, an incredible urban restoration project and appropriately the subject of today's newslink. Built in 1885, Weider's Hall is...

South Wedge Building Still Center of Activity
by Larry Seil, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Article Key Points:

• Originally housed a grocery store on the first floor
• 2nd floor contained meeting room and apartments
• 3rd floor contained a popular early 20th century dance hall
• Developer J.T. Trickey purchased in 1996. Resisted conversion to non-original uses
• Over $100,000 invested so far with more to come

As an added bonus, the article includes a multimedia tour of Weider's Hall. I feel like this is an excellent spotlight on the slow reversion to city living that for the last ten years has attempted to combat over 50 years of counter-intuitive human behavior. Reading more of Kunstler's Home from Nowhere, I firmly believe that redensification, to coin a term first heard from The Third Coast, is inevitable when the suburban equation becomes too costly.

I think the telling line and also the most optimistic line in the article is Trickey's "I have a vision for the neighborhood, I'd like to make it a fun place for families to come to." What I will say from my urban waltz down Gregory, Hickory, and South Ave and our subsequent drive down Clinton, Goodman, and assorted side streets is that the Wedge is already becoming just that. Take for instance, our realtor, who was leaving us to go to Beale Street Cafe (excellent ribs at their Empire location!) on South at Gregory and then on later in the evening to the Historic German House for a Todd Rundgren concert. All of this on a Monday night in January!

As we walked, we noticed a new market getting ready to open across the street from Beale in the building which used to house the South Wedge Green Grocer (an organic food outlet). Another thing we noticed is that the mini marts on South don't have any retractable steel cages or iron work on windows. What this tells me is that the Wedge is already well on its way back.

Urban News Vol. 3

I had planned on covering a couple pieces of urban news today and still will, though in less detail. Having not brought a lunch with me to work, I decided to step out of the box a little and take RGRTA's 18/19 University Bus downtown for some Brooklyn style pizza. As a result this entry could be called Urban Experience Vol. 1.

Pizza Stop is one the holdouts still doing decent business in Midtown Plaza, one of my pet causes that will require its own lengthy entry. They serve up the best New York Style Pizza I've found since I used to eat Antonio's on high school lunch breaks. I work in the 1600 'block' of University Ave 2.66 miles from Midtown, too far to walk within a lunch hour, especially on a day with 11 degree wind chill. Bent on proving a car wouldn't be necessary to make this journey, I consulted the RGRTA website and found a bus leaving the corner of Blossom and University (.38 miles West, a 6-7 minute walk) at 11:50. I also noted return buses leaving Midtown at 12:25 and 1:05.

Deciding that I would check out the progress on the Manhattan Square Park ice skating rink while downtown, I made up my mind to deal with time constraints later. The ride was great and only cost $1.25 in each direction, good value if downtown is your final destination. I used to have a poor opinion of the city bus system until very recently when I spent some time doing the 'Circle Game' referenced in Divorce Your Car. Despite its hub and spoke design, it can be used to your advantage if you are diligent enough in researching the schedule. I now am planning a condensed guide to the Rochester bus system in a future post.

Along University is some very interesting architecture that you might miss if your eyes are glues to the road. Pictured to the right is the Memorial Art Gallery. Other neat buildings to keep an eye out for are the converted Fire and Police Stations near Merriman St. One is now an artist studio and the other a writing workshop where I took a screenplay writing class. Also the original portion of the City School District's School of the Arts (not the annex!) with its iron gated courtyard is a fine example of quality architecture from the early 1900's.

Arriving at Midtown a little after noon gave me enough time to get two slices of cheese pizza at a packed food court (despite suburbanites' claims that Midtown is dangerous and desolate) and a Vitamin Water from Midtown Tobacco. Forgetting momentarily that the most recognizable clock in town was right behind me, I wondered if I had already missed the 12:25 bus. When I figured out that it was 12:20, I decided to just get back to work rather than try to kill 40 minutes surveying an incomplete ice rink. The bus let me off within easy walking distance of work between 12:35 and 12:40 which was very reasonable. The other option would have been 1:15 which wouldn't be the end of the world either.

All in all I spent $6.05 on food and $2.50 on transit. I consider part of it a blog related expense. All kidding aside, I did manage to do something semi-interesting with my lunch hour and once the skating rink opens, I am likely to use the bus to get to that as well rather than worry about parking near Manhattan Square.

Onto the real news (nobody wants to digg personal experiences) in shortened form. The first story is uniquely appropriate for today and the second hits on the city from Wednesday's case study.

State Aid Decreases for RGRTA
by Mike Hedeen - rnews.com

Article Key Points:

• $3 Million decrease in State aid or 10%
• Buffalo to receive 13% INCREASE
• CEO Mark Aesch says our riders subsidizing Buffalo, Syracuse not acceptable
• RGRTA plans to lobby Albany before determining possible rate hike/route cut

Energy Crisis Looms in Maryland
by Mike Hellgren -WJZ-TV

Article Key Points:

• New electricity rate increases mark an 85% increase since deregulation
• Cost of energy not unique to Baltimore, a global problem. Few options other than conservation
• Demand increased 16 percent between 1999 and 2005

I'll end today with an update on the city condo search, we were able to see another property exactly one mile away from work on the same street. This went much better than 419 Broadway and we are scheduled to check out something in the South Wedge on Monday. And while I'm not sure Global Warming is completely in our control, here's a list of things that you can do to conserve if for no other reason than to make sure its there later on (though be aware that a big factor leading up to this impending recession is price of transportation of goods, economics says low demand lowers price, but hey, being able to drive your trash to the dumpster, which actually happens in my current townhouse development, is way more important than the health of the country).

Case Study - Baltimore, MD

This is the first in a series of city case studies. Without exception they will be of cities and more specifically downtown cores that I've been to more than once and have a good grasp of what they have to offer. All photography, maps not withstanding, will be our personal photography.

The first in this series is Baltimore, Maryland. Between November of 2005 and April of 2006, my wife and I spent three weekends in Baltimore for a variety of reasons, stayed in a variety of accomodations, and utilized a variety of transportation modes.

Getting to Baltimore

Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI) is a fairly major national airport. When traveling by air, I am predisposed to trying to get the best deal possible. As a result I only buy Southwest (out of Buffalo), AirTran, and JetBlue tickets. BWI is a secondary hub for AirTran (16 destinations) and a focus city for Southwest (38 destinations).

I would include drive times, but the one time we drove home from Baltimore was one of the most miserable experiences in my life and I slept for a good chunk of it! Instead, let's look into the various rail transportation options.

In 2005, Baltimore's Penn Station ranked 8th in the United States in total Amtrak ridership. The city is served by the Acela Express, Palmetto, Carolinian, Silver Star, Silver Meteor, Vermonter, Crescent, and Regional trains. Additionally, MARC trains connect Baltimore to Washington D.C.

Center City

Downtown Baltimore is centered around what's known as the Inner Harbor District. In 1980, Harborplace, an urban mall, replaced vacant warehouses followed by the National Aquarium. As a result, the inner harbor has spawned more business predicated on tourism. In the past, downtown North of the inner harbor was simply a business district, but its population has doubled since 2002 and 7,400 additional housing units are expected. Inner Harbor/Downtown is also home to the Lexington Market, Baltimore Convention Center, Sports Legends Museum of Baltimore, 1st Mariner Arena, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, M&T Bank Stadium, the Power Plant dining and entertainment re-development, the Maryland Science Center, and the Port Discovery Kids Museum.

Surrounding Neighborhoods

The peripheral neighborhoods that border downtown are well worth a trip for someone looking for something less touristy. The small yet steeped in history Ridgely's Delight neighborhood is full of many mid 19th century townhouses including the one that birthed the Great American baseball icon, Babe Ruth. His birthplace has been transformed into a museum of accomplishment which should not be missed on any trip to the city. The neighborhood is in the shadow of the home of the Baltimore Orioles and its unique synergy having been built on the site of Babe Ruth's father's tavern.

Washington Village to the west contains the B&O Railroad Museum while to the South, Federal Hill Park in the Federal Hill neighborhood offers up a stunning vista from which to view the activity in the inner harbor. This is a largely gentrified residential neighborhood that also includes the Cross Street Market.

A little bit north of downtown, the Mid-Town/Belvedere neighborhood lays claim to the cultural center of the city and possibly the entire state. At Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra scores bonus points for being the first U.S. Symphony to host the irreverent piano-rock star Ben Folds and perform multiple concerts of his work arranged for full orchestra. The Lyric Opera House, Baltimore Theatre Project, and Maryland Institute College of Art also call this neighborhood home. In addition foreign and independent films are screened at the Charles Theatre just north in Charles North along with the Everyman Theatre Company.

Sandwiched between Mid-Town and Downtown is the Mount Vernon neighborhood which could claim to be a cultural center as well. Host to the Peabody Institute, Center Stage, Spotlighters Theatre, the Walters Art Museum, and the Maryland Historical Society, Mount Vernon also reaches back in time to honor the founding fathers with the original Washington Monument in the United States.

Just east of downtown, but still within walking distance is Little Italy, home to Baltimore's best Italian Restaurants. Beyond that is Fell's Point, the true gem in the Baltimore experience. Founded in 1730, Fell's Point became a shipbuilding and commerical center and is still home to City Pier. Some of the first vessels commissioned by the U.S. Navy were built in Fell's Point yards. Today the area is home to the historic Broadway Market as well as over 120 pubs. No matter what your style is, you can have a great night out at Fell's Point.

Getting Around Baltimore

Baltimore has a decent public transportation system highlighted by a real subway as well as a light rail route operated by the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA). MTA's best bargain is a daypass for $3.50 that allows unlimited use of the bus, Light Rail, and Metro Subway on the day purchased. The Regional System Map and Downtown Baltimore System Map are a little unruly since they are flash driven but I'll link to them nevertheless. A more useful map showing a merge of only rail lines is co-opted from urbanrail.net below:

Rail Notes:

• An important thing to remember is that Lexington Market is the approximate junction of the Metro Subway and the Light Rail.
• The most useful aspect of this system for a traveler is the final stop at the south end of the Blue Line, a front door dropoff at the International Terminal of BWI.
• Shot Tower (where shot was actually produced through a gravity powered cooling process)/Market Place is the station in closest proximity to Fell's Point.
• All stops on the Metro northwest of Penn North have Park and Ride facilities.
• The Metro is above ground northwest of Mondawmin.
• The Light Rail has stops at each major sporting facility.

Another enjoyable option for getting around Baltimore, especially those areas closest to the water, is the Water Taxi. For $8 an adult can ride unlimited between 13 different landings (some seasonal like Fort McHenry, birthplace of the Star Spangled Banner) on the waterfront. Participating businesses offer discounts to Water Taxi customers which can offset the price of the ticket.

Water Taxi Landings:

• #1 - Aquarium
• #2 - Harborplace
• #3 - Science Center
• #4 - Rusty Scupper (Seafood Restaurant/Bar)
• #5 - Little Italy
• #7 - Harbor East
• #8 - Maritime Park (Fells Point)
• #9 - Harborview (Temporarily Closed)
• #10 - Tide Point
• #11 - Fell's Point (Transfer for Fort McHenry and Canton Landings)
• #14 - Captain James Landing (Fell's Point/Canton Boundary)
• #16 - Canton Waterfront Park
• #17 - Fort McHenry (April 1st thru September 30 before 5 PM)

Accomodations in Baltimore

Hotels in the inner harbor area are generally pretty expensive, but with some creativity you can find a place close to a rail route and save quite a bit of money. The following are Baltimore hotels we have stayed in, the general price range (for a 1/25/08 booking), and reasoning/transport tips behind each.

Hampton Inn Baltimore/Washington International Airport Hotel
829 Elkridge Landing Road, Linthicum, Maryland

We stayed at the Hampton the weekend that we flew in on Southwest from Buffalo for the Ben Folds/BSO concert on fairly short notice and no prior Baltimore experience. Room rates range from $89 to $129. A complimentary airport shuttle is necessary to pick you up from the airport as well as ferry you to the BWI Business District Light Rail station.

Howard Johnson Pikesville
407 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, Maryland

When we stayed here during an NFL weekend, it was an Econo Lodge with some marginally shady characters hanging around the lobby (one solicited me with an offer to earn some money). It would appear that since being taken over by Howard Johnson, a lot of that has been cleaned up and amenities like high speed internet have been added. This was the infamous driving weekend and it was chosen due to its proximity to the Metro's Milford Mill Park and Ride station. Room rates range from $60-$110.

Motel 6 Baltimore - BWI Airport
5179 Raynor Avenue, Linthicum Heights, Maryland

We stayed two nights here for a very reasonable price. It was across the street from a Hardee's and a KFC I believe. The Nursery Road Station on the Light Rail was within walking distance (exactly 1 mile). On the plus side, you got to really get a sense of what non-bourg suburban Maryland was like. Very modest houses in that neighborhood were selling for upwards of $350K at the time (April 2006). Another plus is the liquor/beer store close to the train station for picking up 12 packs of National Bohemian, a drinkable piece of Baltimore Culture to lug around in your backpack. The Click 6 Rate is $57

Days Inn Inner Harbor Hotel
100 Hopkins Place, Baltimore, Maryland

After spending two nights in economy class, we decided to splurge a little on a more central location for our last night in Baltimore. The hotel is extremely conveniently located just a block from the Convention Center Light Rail Station, perfect for getting to the airport. Standard short-notice rate is $149. Proximity to the ballpark is excellent for baseball fans.

I'm sure there are other options and if I were planning a spring Baltimore trip (late April is a pretty good time to go before the heat is oppressive), my first stop would be Orbitz to get a feel for rates around the area. I never book with orbitz anymore though, I go direct with each hotel, it generally is the best fixed rate.

So there you have it. My first urban case study. I know case study is an odd descriptor for what might otherwise be called a city guide since I don't delve into socioeconomics, but whats being studied here is the urban experience. I don't subscribe to the theory that a city without household name industrial employers can't be a great place to live. Use this guide to familiarize yourself with the urban core.

Urban Resources - Vol. 2

First off, apologies for not coming back yesterday as promised with the other book abstract. I come to you today from the Eastway Wegman's cafe (forgive my bourgness) with the second work acquired Saturday at the Central Library:

Divorce your Car!: Ending the Love Affair with the Automobile

by

Katie Alvord

It would appear that google has done it again, offering up a free preview of this entire book (I didn't check EVERY page, if you can find any missing, please let me know). Reading the customer reviews on Amazon, I was most interested in Part 3 of this book, offering up practical solutions for going car-free (car-free is a term used to describe someone who has completely cut the cord, car-lite desribes those who simply cannot bear to cut the car out of their lives, but is taking steps to use it less often).

Excitedly turning to Page 126 to get started, I was instead distracted by a significant portion of page 127 and the tabular listing it contained. It is a list of ways walking can benefit you from a health standpoint, noting a major issue in contemporary society is being sedentary. The key points:

• Reduce symptoms or slow progression of several diseases
• Keep off extra weight and tone up
• Reduce blood pressure, cut heart attack risk, and manage cholesterol
• Fend off adult-onset diabetes
• Increase bone density and slow osteoporosis
• Tune your immune system
• Maintain mental ability
• Reduce stress
• Relieve depression and anxiety and improve mood and self-confidence
• Live longer

Quite a list. Flipping over to page 128-129 yielded an even greater treasure, the impact that walking can have on a whole community. This five point holy grail will form the basis of my abstract.

Walking makes communities healthier

As touched on in the previous list, there are health benefits, but this deals with health of the community as an entity. A community consultant notes the key indicator of a community's health is the number of people who walk in it.

"Walkable towns help everyone to a better quality of life...One study comparing ten-year-olds in a suburb to those in a small, walkable town showed the town kids ranged farther and more often by themselves, while the suburban kids watched four times as much TV."

Walking can restore a sense of community

Many wax poetic about the corner store that succumbed to the pressures of the supermarket, but there is some validity to these urban planning concepts as seen in Jacobs. Alvord talks about a new trend with an example near Madison, Wisconsin of a neo-traditional community.

"Walker-friendly developments like these can provide more affordable housing, more open space for farming, wilderness, trails, or recreation, moer opportunity for neighbors to interact, and less need for a car. Developers like them too, since smaller lots cut their land costs."

Walking can mean safer communities

Many communities think they are being innovative by creating neighborhood foot patrols by local police, but in reality any sort of foot traffic is critical in deterring crime. Think of any metropolitan downtown during business hours. There is very little opportunity for crime and its not because of police presence.

"When Waikiki, Hawaii, put bike patrols on one main boulevard, cut its width from six lanes to four, and gave the extra space to pedestrians, crime dropped by at least half and inspired Waikiki to consider another reduction in the size of the boulevard, from four lanes to two."

Walking helps your community's environment

Short stretches of driving and cold starts are high polluters comparatively. Walking short distance trips improves air quality more than you'd think. The following quote is attributed to Joel Makower:

"If just one out of every ten commuters who now drive to work switched to walking, we'd save 2.4 billion gallons of gas a year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 25.4 million tons."

Walking helps your community's economy

Big box and deep discount stores seem like a good deal on their face. Their pricing is super competetive and selection is generally a cut above their urban counterparts. They also hold a large marketing advantage over locally owned and operated small businesses. Despite all this, small businesses can hang in there with the giants in areas more conducive to pedestrian traffic.

"An evaluation of Boston's Downtown Crossing...showed that after the district became primarily a pedestrian-only zone in 1978, store purchases went up."

Remember that shopping local keeps money in the local economy. When I bought my grandparents an upright freezer for christmas, I made sure to do so at an appliance store in their hometown of Bangor, PA rather than Best Buy. I called it being 'Bangor-neutral,' a spoof on the carbon-neutral movement which may or may not have any merit.

I was going to end with a pithy quote about the interstate highway system, but I need to get back to 'no negativity' as I've been stressing myself out about the pace and intricacies of a potential move. Instead I will paste in John Schubert's "Circle Game" sidebar. To me the Circle Game isn't a game at all, but an effective way to wean even the most skeptical car lover off the bottle. If followed as a set of rules, you can be car-lite in no time and car-free in not much more.

I realize I may come off as smug sometimes, but to me this isn't about combating american obesity or even reducing pollution. I see all of these as possible steps that one can take in moving back to our cities not only for their own good (personal efficiency), but the nation as a whole.

Urban Resources - Vol. 1

The weekend is off to a less than stellar start as I was fined $90 today for essentially minding my own business (seatbelt violation, yet another reason to avoid driving as soon as possible!). On a day that seems to be bringing the start of winter in earnest (most of the country is seeing teens and 20's, even Georgia), the only thing I am in a mood to comment on is books.

We stopped off at the Rundel Memorial Library today, also known as the central library of the Monroe County Library System. Ashamedly, I'd never been to central. I've taken books out at the Brighton, Webster, Penfield, Maplewood, and Monroe branches, but never the main library. This great American building is an early 30's monument to the sharing of knowledge with profound statements such as "The shadows will be behind you if you walk into the light" etched into the thick stone. There are more meaningful ones that I simply can't remember. Across the street and linked underground is the contemporary Basuch & Lomb Library Building. I added the Library System to the Rochester Resources sidebar earlier in the week. In fact, though often taken for granted, the library may be any American's most valuable resource.

While there, I acquired two works that my wife alerted me to on Friday. Both of these could be considered Urban Resources and will be added to the appropriate link list. The book that I'd like to comment on today is:

Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the 21st Century

by

James Howard Kunstler

Kunstler is a renowned social critic whose literary works center around predictions of an entire nation in major trouble on the eve of peak oil production. Kunstler was a theatre major at SUNY-Brockport not far from Rochester and does not work in urban planning as a vocation, but this is probably for the better as neither did Jane Jacobs. He maintains his own blog with some seemingly contradictory artwork at http://www.kunstler.com/. Click on the book cover image for a licensed excerpt.

The following is the Amazon.com editorial review: Through magazine articles and through his previous book, The Geography of Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler has become one of the foremost decriers of the blighted urban landscape of the United States. Now, in this new sequel to the earlier book, Kunstler moves from description to prescription. The villains, Kunstler says, are zoning laws, real estate taxes, modernist architecture, and, particularly, the automobile. The solutions include multi-use zoning districts, car-free urban cores, revised tax laws, Beaux-Arts design principles, and, in particular, the neo-traditionalist school of architecture and city planning known as "new urbanism." It's possible to disagree with some of Kunstler's conclusions--the hope that large numbers of commuters will give up their single-passenger vehicles for public transit downtown has been discredited in city after city--without abandoning his larger goal: a return to a saner urban geography and, with it, to a saner way of life.

I am not sure of the legality of printing large excerpts of books, so I will stick to quotes and short interpretations. On our way back from the library we did some looking around at Peebles in Midtown Plaza before stopping in Payless Shoes where my wife picked up a pair at a great value. While she tried them on, I cracked open the book to a random page in the middle and came across an urban critique of Cleveland, Ohio entitled Suburbia Invades the Central City (pp 160-163). Kunstler starts out with a story of the famous Cuyahoga River fire of 1969 before lightening things up with a zinger, "Cleveland is a city of many virtues, the main one being that it's not Detroit." He proceeds to describe the East side of the city and in doing so, reminds me of the 'Urban Wilderness' I described in my Urban New Vol. 1 post. "Rubble fields punctuated by rows of slums occupy block after block of the old grid. Here and there a once-grand Victorian house totters darkly..."

He then encounters a modern surburban style home on a small lot and characterizes it as "the little cabin in the woods inserted into a new kind of wilderness" before proceeding to crush Cleveland urban planners for introducing elements of sprawl into the inner city in the form of a city block converted into a suburban supermarket center complete with parking lot (for whose cars exactly? The people in the old neighborhood?). This section resonates with me as one of my pet peeves in the state of U.S. cities. Nothing looks worse in a supposedly vibrant downtown core than surface parking lots. Not only are we catering to those with no vested interest in city well-being (Eg. Surbanites), and encouraging polluting practices, but also wasting prime real estate. The message it sends is defeatist to city dwellers. 'We feel this land is worth more to the people as a place to put their toys for 9 hours than as housing, dining, or other offices.'

Days like today make me want to eat home improvement dollars in exchange for a non-nepotistic real estate process (I'm getting the feeling that no offer I put in is going to make a difference with this particular listing agent), but my wife reminds me I just have to live this lifestyle for a couple more months. So I guess I'll pay the stupid tax (citations, locksmiths, etc) and take solace in the fact that my surcharge money is going to the city on this one. Tomorrow I will take a quick glance at the other urban resource I snared from the public knowledge bin and possibly one I received as a Christmas gift.

Urban News Vol. 2

Despite anticipating writing about my home search today, I'll not be able to do that until I receive more feedback from the listing agent of the unit we visited last Sunday. Instead, this edition of urban news takes us around the country for redevelopment news and energy commentary.

I'll start today in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with Rich Lord of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Arena Plans Get Go-Ahead; Hill Group Still Lobbying


Article Key Points:

• City planning commission voted 5-3 to approve layout of new Pittsburgh Penguins arena site
• Neighborhood leaders insist on having input into overall development planning before adoption of master plan
• Neighborhood organizations and Mayor want to ensure the neighhood is not forgotten the way it was sections of it were torn down for building of original arena
• Team has pledged $1 million toward a grocery store, matched by $1 million from the city

It's good that anyone is even paying attention this time around as one gets the feeling little to no public input was seeked last time in the interests of 'progress.' These residents are doing a valuable thing by organizing and refusing to buy that those in power know whats good for them. As related in Chapter 6 of Death and Life of Great American Cities (see: Urban Resources, right sidebar), the organization of not just neighborhoods, but larger distinct recognizable districts of a city must be employed to 'take on city hall' with numbers.

Studying a map of Pittsburgh, and more specifically the Lower Hill/5th-Forbes corridor, shows a great disconnect in what I call 'city fabric.' The routing of Interstate 579 to transfer traffic to the South Hills via the Liberty Bridge and Tunnel coupled with the placement of the 'Civic Center' Arena and its massive parking lots serves to isolate this large district surrounded on all other sides by exclusive Universities and unforgiving terrain (as you see to the North, the Strip District is distinct and possibly hundreds of feet lower in elevation). An inconvenient bottleneck for pedestrian traffic between the Lower Hill and downtown is funnel through a fairly dangerous interchange at Centre Ave/6th Ave and the junction of most crosstown on/off ramps with no bordering commercial or residential properties to give a sense of melding with center city.

It would appear that the county/city are somewhat tuned in to the concerns of what could be described as a troubled part of the city. Let's just hope its not lip service.

We return to Rochester for this next one and the oft-discussed Renaissance Square Project. Here's some short, somewhat biased background on the project which is taking more and more criticism as weeks go by, facets are trimmed, and cost estimates rise due to building costs. From Stuart Low of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle:

RenSquare May Shrink to One Theatre

Article Key Points:

• 250 seat theater seemingly removed from plans, was most popular amond local performance groups
• 2,800 seat 'roadhouse' theater for traveling broadway shows and other productions only theater left in what was partially billed as a performing arts center
• Theatre availability expected to shrink next year with renovation of Nazareth College Performing Arts Center
• Decision awaits a study on local parking needs, City may demolish Mortimer St. garage
• Subsides likely for large theater, economic impact diverse however

Renaissance Center plans to replace a dilapidated city block on Main Street between Clinton and St. Paul with a combination central bus terminal, community college satellite campus, and performing arts center. The most vocal opposition naturally comes from the privileged suburbanite who cares little or not at all about the current state of the Rochester bus system (RGRTA/RTS). If you're brave, you can read on in the reader comments which are rife with ignorant statements to "take back out(sic) streets and sidewalks" from bus riders who jaywalk. I feel that car owners who feel like they own the streets is the bigger problem in our society. All aspects of the projects are worthwhile to me in general, though I feel two smaller theatres are more worthwhile to this community than another huge one. Independent of all of that, the bus terminal is a pressing need. Right now, all buses meet downtown, but not at a central destination. There are spottily arranged shelters lining St. Paul, Clinton, Main, and a dropoff point near the inter-city bus terminal at Midtown Plaza on Chestnut street. In addition to making connections semi-difficult for the occasional rider (and discouraging them from ever wanting to ride again), said shelters are open air and not heated, a significant issue during the winter. I'd postulate that these naysayers will be singing a different tune (or just bitching louder) when the price of gasoline hits $5 per gallon.

This sentiment is a perfect segue to Falls Church, VA and Tom Whipple of the Falls Church News-Press who postulates that high oil prices will have an effect on more than just commuting habits.

The Peak Oil Crisis: We Are Starting to Dim

Article Key Points:

• Electric grids are shutting down for long periods each day in underdeveloped countries
• Already high oil prices are making petroleum based generation too expensive in much of the world
• China has become a net importer of coal, with imports increasing 34% in one year
• May impact the advent of electric cars

A somewhat dour look at electricity generation capacity that stops just short of saying people shouldn't reproduce. That's another debate for another time and this piece is speculative opinion, but I think the message to take from it is that the energy conservation effort needs to ramp up faster than it currently is and that electricity conservation isn't just something you do to make yourself feel better about the environment or save money on the electric bill. It is a necessity to maintain standard of life. To put a city spin on it, I'd say that city living is more efficient on its face due to shared resources. To spread goods and services over larger regions can only mean price increases so you don't want to be stuck too far from a city in the event of a real energy crunch.

Rather than end on that note today, my wife sent me an article that speaks to one of my extra-cirricular interests, ice skating. Kate Appleton of Budget Travel in association with cnn.com presents:

Top 10 Ice Skating Rinks in the United States

Locales Represented:

• Boston
• Chicago
• Houston
• Los Angeles
• Minneapolis
• New York
• Philadelphia
• Sun Valley
• Washington, D.C.
• Yosemite National Park

I haven't skated at any of these rinks. The most unique ones I've been to are the triangular famous Wollman Rink at Central Park in New York City along with the seemingly defunct Lackawanna County Stadium on Ice which was set up on the field of a baseball stadium during the winter. The Houston (bi-level?) and Minneapolis rinks on this list look particularly intriguing. Unfortunately this list did not extend into Canada and include Ottawa's Rideau Canal which I will attempt to navigate on February 9th.

Urban News, Vol. 1

Good Morning everyone. As the blog goes forward I envision mostly quick hitting urban development news discussion posts on mornings during the week and the aforementioned city Case Studies as weekend or weeknight projects. This is the first in my news series and the news happens to come from right here in Rochester.

In today's online edition of the Democrat and Chronicle, one of the local headlines boldly proclaims:

City Home Assessments Up 12%

This of course has both positive and negative consequences for various members of the population.

Article Key Points:

• 12% Increase on average from city wide reassessment
• One of the largest jumps in the Neighborhood of the Arts (Atlantic-University)
• Second straight increase (2004 saw first increase since 1990)
• 'Unlike four years ago, however, the upswing extends noticeably into the crescent...'
• Not surprisingly, South and East Sides of city see largest increases
• Brown Square Neighborhood (home to new soccer stadium) shows progress
• 41% of city homeowners and 34% of commercial property owners will see a tax increase

For those of you getting your first exposure to the city of Rochester and its districts, I've embedded the map included in the article so you can see the weed-whacker like shape of the city and the large scale neighborhoods mentioned in the article. You also get an idea of the socioeconomic divide we face here.

My initial feelings on this article are mixed. An increase in value logically dictates that demand has risen, and a decrease in value in other areas makes thing immenently more affordable, yet it is well known that areas of low land value are prone to rapid decay/neglect and the tax burden on those with property of value may be greater than their current budget. To lose these tenants is as big a problem as having low land value in and of itself. To me, in a completely open minded society (which we certainly don't live in), figures like these would cause a redistribution of population along economic lines, improving the quality of poorer neighborhoods while sacrificing some of the quality of life of the richer ones. We know that unfortunately the world doesn't work this way due to social issues and perceptions. The positives I choose to take out of this are the big time gains seen in the Pearl/Meigs/Monroe, Swillburg, and South Wedge areas. A lot of this can be attributed to the likes of Lyjha Wilton, champion of the South Wedge, owner of Boulder Coffee Co., and founder of the South Wedge's Boulderfest.

Another thing comes to us from Time Warner Cable's locally operated 24-Hour News Station - RNews.

'Restore' Money for Rochester Area

Article Key Points:

• Rochester will get a total of more than $6 million from the New York State Restore Communities Initiative
• More than $4 million of that will go into renovating downtown buildings
• Another $1.9 million will pay for the demolition of 2,800 vacant homes

This is a tricky one. Yes, vacant homes lower property values in the neighborhood and promote covert crime, but at the same time, a public demolition takes this property off the tax rolls to the best of my knowledge. Obviously the hope is that the parcels can be redeveloped, but you have to be careful not to wind up like Detroit, Michigan and their vast 'urban wildernesses' where streets outnumber functional houses. This created a domino effect that now sees Detroit's roughly 900,000 residents trying desparately to maintain infrastructure for 1.8 million with decreasing income opportunities.

My next post is likely to start the chronicalling of our city home search which is already underway. Until then, I leave you with City Newspaper's Events List for today with plenty of things to do in the city. Headliners include an art exhibit of restored motion picture posters at George Eastman House and Cabaret at Geva Theatre.

Where to Begin?

For starters, welcome to my blog devoted to the positive aspects of city life. I hope to address a wide array of topics from travel options to the history of downtown street grids. Opinion will inevitably color some of the pieces, but I hope to keep that to a minimum. I also hope to create a place to bring together news on urban development projects, primarily residential. The launch of this blog is the culmination of months if not years of thought and a new attitude for the new year.

First, a little bit about me. I live at the condo/townhouse seen to the left in Webster, a Rochester suburb. How my wife and I ended up here is a long story for another post, but the short version is that a real estate transaction for 690 Broadway in Rochester fell apart almost three years ago and 'Plan D' was moving out here. Don't get me wrong, we love our place and wish we could detach it and airlift into the city, but it wasn't our first, second, or even third choice. The launch also coincides with us starting to pick up our city home search in earnest, so expect posts along the way. For now this undermines my credibility somewhat, and I understand that, but I think you'll find I have a very progressive urban attitude based on experiences despite my current address.

A recurring feature of the blog will be single editorial posts on the vibrancy, amenities, and attractions of various Great American (and some Canadian) Cities that we've been to. I'll do my best to be thorough enough that the post could be used as a mini-guide for their downtowns. Cities of all sizes are in store including Toronto, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, tiny little Batavia, NY, and many other places in between. I will do my best to augment these case studies with personal photography and an even-keeled perception that tries to find positives in each environment while not completely ignoring the negatives. Where applicable, I will comment on mass-transit systems, one of my favorite interests.

To the right, linked lists will guide you to recurring reference material. More is to come in addition to Jane Jacobs' seminal work (which I have started but had to return to the library. I am in the process of purchasing a used copy from Amazon). To add local flavor, I am also going to compile a short list of Rochester resources and hope to gain significant local readership. One thing that spurred me into creating this sort of forum is the tendency of Rochesterians to narrow their focus on negative aspects of life in this area. I'm living proof that there is a lot to be proud of and enjoy and I hope to shine the spotlight on events going on in the area worth attending.

I'll finish this introduction with a link to RochesterDowntown.com's Downtown Living Website and a picture taken in 1999 in Toronto that is symbolic of the beginning of my dream to live in a major downtown. More to come tomorrow!