Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Suburbia

The Missed Opportunity For an Urban Stimulus: Mayors ‘Were Ignored’

By Elana Schor | Dec 1, 2009 | 1 Comment

Two-thirds of America’s population, and more than three-quarters of its economic productivity, come from major cities. So why did the Obama administration’s economic stimulus law end up giving metropolitan areas the short end of the stick? Daniel Malloy, Democratic mayor of Stamford, CT (Photo: Bridgeport City Council) Harry Moroz of the Drum Major Institute attempts […]

Has the Government Been Bailing Out Sprawl?

By Ryan Avent | Nov 2, 2009 | No Comments

One of the themes of the financial and economic crisis we’ve faced over the past two years is that government, pressed into responding to serious economic pain, has often found itself supporting the activities that got us into this mess in the first place. Sign of the times? Sde-by-side foreclosures in Massachusetts. (Photo: Yovani via […]

A Solution for Suburbs: Bypass the Roads

By Mathew Katz | Oct 13, 2009 | 3 Comments

A map of a neighborhood in Tigard, Oregon. Some of the proposed new trails are marked in blue. The demand for walkable neighborhoods is up, but in order to fill that demand, we’re going to have to transform our suburbs. How that might be accomplished was one of the most vexing issues discussed at last […]

How Congress Can Help Create Suburbia 2.0

By Elana Schor | Oct 9, 2009 | No Comments

As Obama administration adviser Shelley Poticha noted this week, building more energy-efficient and hospitable cities — not to mention suburbs and rural areas — starts with clear terminology. "Sustainability" and "livability" are positive concepts that can be hard to define, but how can "transit-oriented development" be brought home to someone unfamiliar with the nuts and […]

Growth of Compact Development Likely, Important for Reducing VMT

By Ryan Avent | Sep 25, 2009 | No Comments

About two years ago, the Urban Land Institute published Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change, which argued that it will be crucial to build cities in a more compact fashion if the country hopes to avoid substantial growth in vehicle miles traveled and carbon emissions over the next few decades. At […]

Vote for the Finalists in Dwell Magazine’s Reburbia Design Contest

By Matthew Roth | Aug 14, 2009 | 2 Comments

Airbia: The PRT of the future? I mean, of the future future? The good people at Dwell Magazine and Inhabitat.com have narrowed submissions in their Reburbia: A Suburban Design Competition to the top twenty proposals for re-envisioning the sprawl that blights the American landscape and keeps us locked in our foreign-oil dependent, ever-expanding commute patterns. […]

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