Smart Growth
Q & A With a Military Architect of the Smart Growth Revolution
We’ve spent this week exploring the ways in which the Department of Defense is overhauling its master planning procedures to turn their sprawling military bases into compact, walkable communities with mixed-use development and town centers. They’re hoping to bring back some of the people who have moved off base in recent decades, with the promise of a more livable community. Streetsblog had the chance to talk to Michael McAndrew, director of facility investment and management for the deputy under secretary of defense. McAndrew has helped guide this process from the inside.
June 21, 2013
The Defense Department’s Embrace of Livability Will Save Money — and Lives
On Tuesday, we wrote about the Defense Department’s new rules for the design of their bases and installations. These rules make smart growth the law of the land on hundreds of vast military installations in the U.S. and abroad. There’s more to the story: In this post we examine how a smart growth development model will bring wide-ranging benefits to the defense complex.
June 20, 2013
New Pentagon Mandate: Make Military Bases Livable, That’s an Order!
This article is the first in a series about the U.S. military’s new embrace of smart growth planning.
June 18, 2013
Why Isn’t Smart-Growth Pioneer Gina McCarthy Running the EPA Yet?
It’s been six months since Lisa Jackson announced she was stepping down as chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, but there’s still no replacement. President Obama nominated Gina McCarthy to be Jackson’s successor in early March, and the Senate EPW Committee confirmed the nomination almost a month ago – albeit by a party-line vote of 10-8.
June 14, 2013
Placemaking to Make Friends: The Case of Cleveland’s East 4th Street
Ari Maron had no friends.
June 6, 2013
William Fulton on Why Smart Growth Pays and Sprawl Decays
Earlier this week, Smart Growth America released an important study that illustrates how walkable development results in huge savings and significantly better returns for municipalities compared to car-centric development.
May 23, 2013
Taxes Too High? Try Building Walkable, Mixed-Use Development
Smart growth could increase Fresno's tax revenue by 45 percent per acre. In Champaign, Illinois, it could save 23 percent per year on city services. Study after study has demonstrated: Walkable, mixed-use development is a much better deal for municipalities than car-oriented suburban development.
May 21, 2013
Study: Walkable Infill Development a Goldmine for City Governments
A study out of Nashville by Smart Growth America provides more evidence that building walkable development in existing communities is best for a city's bottom line.
May 8, 2013
Mayor Mark Mallory on How Smart Growth Helped Turn Cincinnati Around
About seven years ago, when Mayor Mark Mallory came on the scene, Cincinnati was at a low point. To convince the crowd at the New Partners for Smart Growth conference in Kansas City last week of the gravity of the situation, Mallory started off with a story about livestock.
February 11, 2013
How Rethinking the Golf Course Could Help Seniors Age in Place
The 15,753 golf courses in the United States take up more space than half the state of New Jersey. And though they devour so much land, much of it in suburbia, the sport is foundering -- in part because of the enormous amount of time and distance it requires. Some real estate professionals and experts on aging have come together to suggest a solution both for the decline of the game and the land use problems posed by these massive courses: Build mixed-use development inside them.
January 9, 2013