It is so simple to make pedestrian crossings accesible and safe for blind people that I wonder why we don’t do it too all.

"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 Lane and Tipsy Turtle (bars in Northgate, College Station). Without commenting much on the “type of people” implication, I am surprised by Mr. Curs’ other implication that when given a pedestrian plaza, people tend to break out into fights and love to box. Somehow given all my years of experience in designing and studying public spaces, I have not come across this concern much. Admittedly, proximity of bars may give rise to these concerns but then it isn’t the availability of public spaces that is instigating such fights but rather the presence of bars. Public spaces can be designed to deter anti-social behavior but the mere presence of a public space doesn’t necessarily lead to a free for all.

The Northgate businesses may have a valid point when they resist changes by saying that the city is “playing puppeteer in something you shouldn’t be messing with” but then the government has always defined public spaces when it comes to safety. If the city government doesn’t play puppeteer, you wouldn’t need traffic lights and drivers would be expected to be on guard while driving through the area. Having lived in the area and currently working, I can attest to the horrible traffic bottleneck that Wellborn and University is. Add to that, the randomly crossing pedestrians in a haphazard manner across a wide road, it is a wonder that more deaths don’t occur on that stretch of road. Further, the loading trucks to the businesses (I’m looking at you, Dominos truck) somehow manage to plan their deliveries around rush hour further jamming up the roads. Given the large number of students who live across University Blvd and cross across to the university at all hours of the day, the idea of wider sidewalks, a 9′ median, and a pedestrian mall near College Main and Houston St seem like a darn good idea. There are plenty of parking lots that are underutilized further down the road toward Wellborn Rd so businesses could just advocate for a parking garage from their TIF dollars.

via
Journal of Urban Economics (under review)
.

Tolerance of everything and openness to everybody are not universally accepted principles. This is one reason why globalization and migration have introduced new complications. Most religions advocate tolerance in theory, but organised religion can be oppressive in practice.

I’m glad they recognize the limitations imposed by differentiation of cultural and religious norms within civilizations in creating democratic cities and unless users themselves demand certain freedoms, it will be hard to impose such on them. But at the same time, unless you expose them to certain freedoms that we take for granted they’ll not know what they are missing out on. Considering the current conflict in Iraq which also faces similar dilemmas, can the nature of rebuilding their cities help any?

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. Will continued rise in oil prices or even stagnation at this level modify our lifestyles and in the long-term create dense and walkable neighborhoods?

We all know of the fascination for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco with people wishing to end their lives. Well, the San-Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge is attracting people for the same purpose down south [hat tip: Randy]. There have been 236 suicides for far. What is about these grand structures acting as magnets for suicidal people?