Recently in Cities Category
The American Consumer Project: Find Your County - Advertising Age
Interactive maps show each county in the US color-coded for two different "consumer targeting frameworks" -- Patchwork Nation and Esri's Tapestry. Point at a county, see how it's categorized, its median income, and the change in income over the last decade. Tulsa County is classified as "Boom Towns" (Patchwork), "Traditional Living" (Tapestry), with a 2010 median income of $50,267, increasing 0.4% over the decade.
NAVA - AMERICAN CITY FLAGS SURVEY
Best and worst city flags in America according to a survey of the North American Vexillological Association. Tulsa and Oklahoma City are down near the bottom of the list, along with other cities that merely slap their seal on a rectangular piece of cloth. Wichita's is quite nice. (Via TheAtlanticCities.com, which has some examples of nice flags from outside the US.)
Midnight Blue Says: Joey Vento, Successful Businessman and Conservative Activist Dies
The founder and owner of Geno's Steaks, an iconic cheesesteak stand on Passyunk Ave. in Philadelphia, famed for his "This is America: When Ordering, Please Speak English" sign. Tania Gail has video relating to Vento's trial by the Philadelphia Commission for Human Relations and a speech Vento gave at a Tea Party rally
OKC Central: Sunday Flashback: "The Misconception That Cities 'Happen' And Need Not Be Designed"
Steve Lackmeyer posts a 1964 article on Oklahoma City's Classen Blvd by Phillip Morris -- "I'm stunned at the discovery of this 1964 article - stunned at the depth of discussion of urban planning, stunned at the foreshadowing of issues to follow, and quite frankly, uncertain what to make of it all." -- and it leads to an excellent discussion of urban design ideas, a discussion that includes the author of that 1964 story. One especially interesting aside by Morris:
"FYI, the City of Birmingham (truly a center city wrapped by close suburbs) used urban renewal only for UAB expansion, but in the 1980′s established more than 20 design review districts overseen by a single board with guidelines written with input from property owners (who must organize and formally request the designation before public improvements are made). They are titled "Commercial Revitalization District" and do just about everything you would in a local historic district -- but without the red flag name. Incrementally adds up over time, but only where the economic base supports development."
Eminent Domain as Central Planning by Nicole Gelinas, City Journal Winter 2010
An over-broad definition of blight (it includes "underutilization") allows cities to condemn land and buildings that aren't blighted at all. (Oklahoma has the same problem, which undermines our state constitutional protection against government seizing land for private use. "In the 1930s...'substandard' and 'unsanitary' meant 'families and children dying from rampant fires and pestilence' in tuberculosis-ridden firetraps. In 2006, by contrast, the UDC's consultants found 'substandard' conditions in isolated graffiti, cracked sidewalks, and 'underutilization'--that is, when property owners weren't using their land to generate the social and economic benefits that the government desired."
Hartford: It's A Parking Place -- Courant.com
Sounds like Tulsa:
"Since 1960, the number of parking spaces in downtown Hartford increased by more that 300 percent -- from 15,000 to 46,000 spaces. This change has had a profound and devastating effect on the structure and function of the city (see accompanying maps) as one historic building after another was demolished.... Over the period that parking was being increased by more than 300 percent, downtown was losing more than 60 percent of its residential population, and the city as a whole lost 40,000 people and 7,000 jobs....
"The contrast between, Say, Portland and Hartford is stark in terms of economic vibrancy and social vitality. Hartford looks more like the hundreds of other American cities that have hollowed out their core to accommodate automobiles.
"With more that 700 parking spaces for every 1,000 employees, Hartford has the dubious distinction of being near the top of the list for parking -- up there with cities such as Detroit and Buffalo."
According to DTU's website, downtown Tulsa has 38,300 parking spaces and a daytime population of 34,000. That's 1,126 parking spots per 1,000 employees.
Urban Review STL: Growth of auto related structures
Steve Patterson shows with photographs how pre-war auto-oriented development accommodated cars while maintaining a pedestrian-friendly environment.
news from me: Arnold Stang, R.I.P.
The voice of Top Cat and Herman the Mouse has fallen silent at age 91. Mark Evanier shares some memories, including Stang's response to the offer of a limo ride to a New York recording session: "No, I like to walk. You don't stay in touch with the city in the back of a limo."
Field of Schemes: Winston-Salem: Okay, that stadium didn't work out so well
Public-private ballpark partnership turns into a totally public $48.7 million burden on the taxpayers, on the heels the failure of a 2004 $250 million Dell Computer subsidy -- Dell is closing and laying off over 900 employees. When will cities wise up and stop playing at the corporate welfare casino?
