"As one mortgage broker I recently spoke with observed, “The whole idea of buying with resale value in mind is gone. All the countertops, the backyards, all those things are meaningless.”" People are finally buying homes to live in and not for resale. [Link to Home for Life]
“The type of people we all don’t want in Northgate are going to be loitering in that plaza. I don’t understand how you guys don’t perceive the huge liability with fights out of the bars. Well you just created a boxing ring” [Source: Left of College Station] As spoken by Aaron Curs, owner of Paddock [...]
Researchers discovered homeowners, on average, outweighed renters by 12 pounds. In addition to excess weight, female homeowners were also carrying around more aggravation, making less time for leisure, and were less likely to spend time with friends. via Journal of Urban Economics (under review) .
This paper by Andrew Healy [PDF link], an economist at Loyola Marymount University concludes that “on average, every $1 spent on disaster mitigation prevents roughly $8 of disaster damage over the following five years” but voters tend to reward disaster response and recovery efforts more as compared to disaster preparedness leading to governments underpreparing for [...]
New Urbanists believe in the power of physical design (of cities and neighborhoods) in influencing user behavior. John Thackara and Sunil Abraham talk to Cluster Magazine about the dynamism of cities in fostering democratic perceptions and influencing user behavior [hat tip: Jinal Shah]: Tolerance of everything and openness to everybody are not universally accepted principles. [...]
In America, driving habits probably aren’t as inelastic as they are thought to be. This graphic [source] definitely shows consumers reacting to the oil price hike by cutting down on their driving. This summer given the gas prices is going to be a low-traffic one. We canceled our summer vacation and instead bought a Wii. [...]
Build a bridge and you’ll will have someone leaping off it soon. Likewise with buildings – “You know, man is the only animal clever enough to build the Empire State Building and stupid enough to jump off it!” [source: movie Come September]. We all know of the fascination for the Golden Gate Bridge in San [...]
Rob Cockerham intrigued by the proximity of check cashing places and liquor stores, conducted a rough distance measurement of twelve joints and found the average distance to be less than 200 steps. Although not entirely scientific, it certainly says a lot about such impulsive and tempting spending joints from check cashing places [via].
This involves painting streets with a high-visiblity mural that creates a public square for residents to gather and one which gently encourages drivers to slow down when approaching these spaces.
A grocery store in China makes you ride a tiny train to shop [YouTube link]. Mind you, not only is this insanely crazy but also lets the store manipulate you into buying goods at eye-level.
While the housing market in the United States is going belly up, the construction boom in India refuses to subside. With the new economy booming, demand for city housing is at an all-time high. However with incomplete and insufficient information and awareness, consumers can be duped by unscrupulous developers who promise the moon but fail [...]
New Urbanism incorporates neighborhood walkability as one of the pivotal factors in improving quality of life as well as working toward conservancy. Considering that obesity is one of the rising health problems in the United States, walkability measures are also used to promote healthy living. Walkability measures in a neighborhood usually include calculating distances to [...]
It seems that the above cities are the best choices for me to live in, according to this website, Find Your Spot. I dunno where Las Vegas came from because I would hate to live in a city that everyone comes to do freaky things in. There are plenty of things that have ‘stayed back [...]
Like the other day, I was nursing an expensive thimble of wine in a cafe on the Rue de Something, near the Avenue des Whatevers, and to my immediate left sat a Frenchman in a pose so relaxed he might have been modeling for Toulouse-Lautrec. He was doing nothing, and doing it with panache. Between [...]
In the brick-and-mortar realm, the plan is for the first Aloft inn to open sometime in 2008, catering to active, urban 30- to 50-year-olds. But the real-world lodge will be preceded by a 3D cyberversion designed to prompt feedback from virtual guests and help guide the earthbound endeavor.The development is a collaboration involving brainstorming sessions, [...]
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