Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Smart Growth

How Portland Sold Its Banks on Walkable Development

By Noah Kazis | May 25, 2010 | 8 Comments

Gresham, Oregon used to look like your typical suburb. Lots of lawns and lots of parking. When Portland’s MAX light-rail line expanded to Gresham, developers saw an opportunity to bring something different: walkable development. But a downturn in the local real estate market interceded. One developer trying to build a four-story condo project decided that […]

Campaigns for Smart Growth and Complete Streets Heat Up in Albany

By Noah Kazis | May 11, 2010 | No Comments

The smart growth bill pending in Albany would cut down on subsidies for sprawling greenfield development. Image of subdivisions outside Riverhead, in Suffolk County, NY: Google Maps The campaign to rein in sprawl and build more livable communities across New York state intensified yesterday, as advocates redoubled their efforts to pass two critical pieces of […]

Signs of Street Life in Sprawlanta?

By Brad Aaron | May 10, 2010 | 3 Comments

I lived in Athens, Georgia, for seven years, and though Atlanta is only about an hour away (by car, of course), with a little effort I could probably count the number of times I made the trip. This video, the first in the American Makeover web series, goes a long way toward explaining why "Sprawlanta" […]

The Next New York: How NYC Can Grow as a Walkable City

By Noah Kazis | Feb 22, 2010 | 12 Comments

In the last eight years, Amanda Burden's Department of City Planning has rezoned 20 percent of New York along relatively transit-oriented lines, while simultaneously promoting quasi-suburban projects at prominent sites and maintaining parking minimums that erode the pedestrian environment. In other words, the planning department is promoting growth in the right places, but enabling the wrong kind of development. So in the next four years, will New York's planners adopt more sustainable practices or continue the status quo?

The Next New York: How the Planning Department Sabotages Sustainability

By Noah Kazis | Feb 19, 2010 | 18 Comments

The Argyle, a new arrival on Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue, is close to transit but cedes the ground floor to parking rather than retail or even a stoop. Parking requirements throughout New York compromise walkable development. Image: Brownstoner. This is the second installment in a three-part series on the reshaping of New York City and its […]

Shaping the Next New York: The Promise of Bloomberg’s Rezonings

By Noah Kazis | Feb 18, 2010 | 7 Comments

The Department of City Planning has mostly zoned for growth near transit, as in its plan for downtown Jamaica (left). Where the city has encouraged growth far from transit, however, car-oriented developments have followed, like Schaefer Landing in Williamsburg (right). This is the first installment in a three-part series on the reshaping of New York […]

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