Redeveloping big boxes into walkable communities

Here is a very interesting study in the Washington Post in which several developers and architects proposed ways to redevelop big box retail stores into lively, urban areas. This is something you'd see in the Congress for the New Urbanism's New Urban News, so I was surprised to see this in a publication like the Washington Post. Kudos to the Post for progressive thinking about urban (and suburban) development.

CDC video promoting walkable communities

Nice, short video from the CDC (with images of Atlanta throughout) explaining the benefits of walkable, urban communities. After having spent the weekend in NYC, I could not agree more.

Mass transit was a big winner in the elections

Over 70% of mass transit initiatives were approvated nation-wide, according to this Wall Street Journal article. Now comes the big question -- will these actually be built? That's a much more difficult question, and if the price of oil continues to plumment, will the demand for rail remain?

Leinberger: The beginning of the end of sprawl in Atlanta

I missed this last week, but Chris Leinberger penned an optimistic opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, arguing that Atlanta is becoming home to more walkable urban places. This is certainly true, and projects such as the redevelopment of Buckhead into a dense, urban center with pedestrian friendly sidewalks and street crossings (still a work in progress, but much better than two years ago), improvements downtown and the very promising Beltline project, will continue this trend.

Honolulu rail vote passes

As an update on several posts (here, here, here and here) we ran several months ago on the debate regarding rail vs. an elevated highway in Honolulu, the rail vote passed.