Downtown revitalization is a national trend impacting hundreds of cities across the U.S. right now, which is wonderful. But in the downtowns of a few special cities, the amount of new development under way and planned is so massive that you will literally not recognize these skylines in just a few short years. Without further adieu, here are 5 skylines that are undergoing massive transformations: Austin Denver Los Angeles Seattle New York  If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve noticed … [Read more...]

What exactly makes a public space great? You know a great public space when you experience it. Vibrant public spaces are active places filled with people from all walks of life. But what are the features most commonly found in the best public spaces? I will attempt to answer that question in this blog post. I could be wrong about these 5 characteristics, but I do know one thing: it has little to do with pretty landscaping, fountains, or park benches. You can tell me what you think in the … [Read more...]

Readers of the urbanSCALE blog generally fall into two camps: those who know more urban planning and those who know more about economic development.  And some of you may be like me, with roughly equal interests in both of these fields.  One of my goals in creating urbanSCALE in the first place was to bridge the gap between the two fields.  Because I believe that, while urban planning and economic development are separate professions, they are highly interdependent. One of the cool things … [Read more...]

Do you know anyone who claims to be against government and for business?  What most people mean when they say this is that they're against bad government. This type of thinking tends to create an anti-government mentality that portrays any type of government as ineffective.  And for those that hold this anti-government viewpoint, they're also often against any type of community planning, whether it’s land use planning, infrastructure planning, or economic development planning. This … [Read more...]

This blog post shines a spotlight on 5 metro areas that are national leaders in transit-oriented development (TOD).  But more importantly, this post also brings attention to the 4 key ingredients necessary to create successful TOD. Focus on these 4 ingredients and your city can succeed in creating TOD to become a more vibrant community. National Leaders in TOD: Washington, DC metro area Portland, OR metro area Denver, CO metro area Salt Lake City, UT metro area Cleveland, OH metro … [Read more...]

Ingredient #1: Two or more growing metro areas. Ingredient #2: A rapidly growing in-between zone. Ingredient #3: Multiple transportation connections. Ingredient #4: Complementary growth patterns. Ingredient #5: A diversified regional economy. This post is about the 5 must-have ingredients for creating a new mega-region out of 2 or more individual metro areas. There are many of examples of potential future mega-regions in the U.S., but I’ve chosen to focus here on 2 of the … [Read more...]

Forbes recently named Austin – my adopted hometown – the fastest growing large city in the U.S.  I thought this would be a great opportunity to explore the phenomenon of trend analysis and how predicting the future is a huge part of our society, whether you realize it or not.  Before I answer your burning question of how Austin could ever possibly surpass New York in population, let's talk about trend analysis for a minute. What is trend analysis? Trend analysis is the practice of gathering … [Read more...]

This post is all about why traffic congestion is a good thing for your city.  If you’re looking for advice on how to get rid of the traffic jams that take place every day on your city’s highways, you’re in the wrong place. Here goes… Traffic Truth #1- Bad traffic is just a symptom of your city’s economic success. Traffic Truth #2- Traffic congestion is actually a good thing for urban vitality. Traffic Truth #3- Efforts to reduce traffic congestion are counter-productive. Traffic … [Read more...]

Does your city have a long-range downtown plan? Does your city have a downtown development corporation, a downtown alliance, or similar non-profit organization that is focused solely on promoting downtown as a destination for businesses, residents, and development? Does your city have public policies (like tax abatements, grants, and other special incentives) to promote downtown development? Hopefully, you answered ‘yes’ to the questions above.  But even if you answered ‘no’ to each … [Read more...]

This post will focus on 5 large U.S. cities that each claim to be “capitals of the world” in a particular domain.  For each city, I’ll do 3 things: Identify the claim to fame made by the city. Look behind the curtains to determine the reality of the city’s claim. Dig a little deeper to determine if the city’s status is a success story or a cautionary tale.   City: Austin, TX Claim to Fame: Live Music Capital of the World Reality Check: It turns out that Austin is ranked as … [Read more...]