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San Antonio TX, and the "Texaplex" / Texas Triangle


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San Antonio TX, and the "Texaplex" / Texas Triangle

 

Diversified away from the old reliance on the oil industry

 

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Texaplex - by David Winans / 7:04

 

(more coming)

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Something like 48% of recent growth in the USA has come inside the Texaplex triangle

 

texaplex.png

 

Mind%20Magnet%20cities%20graph%20WSJ%205

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Detroit rose and fell on the back of Autos.

And, arguably,

Texas rose on its oil resources, but has worked hard to diversify away from a total reliance of THAT key industry.

And the diversification has worked ...

 

But there is still much left to be done, if the Texas triangle is going to improve its walkability. (That's a key theme of this thread).

 

Nevertheless, WALKABILITY is something that some Texans are concerned about:

 

How to Make a Walkable Neighborhood : Cherry Street, Dignowity

 

 

Published on May 18, 2016y

Urban designers in the San Antonio, Texas mobilized and empowered community members to get involved and request walkable streetscape elements in a neighborhood Dignowity Hill.

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CNU #23 was in Dallas/ FtWorth

 

The following talks are from the playlist of talks at CNU-23

 

"Over 60% of the people want this... there's unsatisfied demand" - Andres Duany in his talk

 

The Drumbeat Grows Louder: The Demand for Walkability

Published on May 14, 2015

American's growing preference to live in urban settings is not a trend, but a market correction. There is an earnest interest to return to traditional walkable places. This is not just a "Gen Y" choice to be in the biggest cities. Americans of all ages are choosing to live and work in cities and towns of all sizes.

 

"Jobs follow people... People aren't following jobs in the way the used to"

 

(here's the legendary founder of CNU talking about...

New Urbanism 101: Principles of New Urbanism

Published on May 14, 2015

New urbanists measure success by aligning practical strategies with the principles most identified with places people love. Andres Duany, one of the founders of the movement, talks about the components of community, the failure of post-WWII planning to deliver them, and what new urbanists have learned about restoring relationships between planning, design, and great places.

 

"In America, the point of living is not about Spirituality, it is about owning more stuff"

CNU comes from a different place...

"In Miami it takes 45 minutes to drive from downtown to Nature.

That's not the principle of New Urbanism. The idea is to walk to downtown, and walk to nature."

"There's a battle over bike lanes... because some people believe that bike lines kill the retail"

 

Andres D. pointed at this slide, starting with the photo on the left (at about 37:30 minutes into the talk):

 

CNU-Corner-Store_zps06rwjn3h.jpg

 

"This (small corner store) raises Real Estate values...

The store on the right destroys them, like a small nuclear plant... yet functionally, they are the same."

"Pretty pictures are propaganda... They get me what I want: 'If this what you are talking about, bring it on.' "

 

(other interesting talks in the playlist)

New Urbanism 101: The Market

 

"60% of American households are 1 or 2 people"

"XX% of Americans prefer compact, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use neighborhoods"

55%- in 2004, 56%- in 2011, 60%- in 2013... 62% for Millennials"
"Millennials Aren't Buying - only a 33% share of First Time Buyers"
"... And just over 13% of 18-34 yo's own - down from 17%
"They are loaded with student debt..."

Walkable Urban Premiums & Gentrification: Good News or Bad?

Part 1

 

"We are witnessing the beginning of the end of sprawl" - Chris Leinberger

Part 2

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Dallas / FtWorth may be ahead of the rest of Texaplex in beginning to embracing walkability principles

 

Doug-Chesnut-cropped.jpg

 

Doug confirmed that this demand wave they’re riding, for more urban residences, is a demographic trend that will not be changing anytime soon. Many Baby Boomers who lost a lot of equity in the financial downturn of 2008 decided to liquefy their home equity and change their living situation. That, plus the 2 million Millennials turning 22 years old every year for the next eight years, is a lot of demand. Many of these young professionals don’t have the income to buy a home, nor desire a lifestyle that requires driving. In essence, they’re looking for quality of life through an urban lifestyle with amenities close at hand.

 

StreetLights Residential has built its business on this principle — that a building and the neighborhood’s design creates lasting value and quality of life. Said Chestnut: “Endearing neighborhoods have activated streets, parks, and entertainment nearby. You go to bed exhausted and can’t wait to get up early and do it all over again. Entertainment doesn’t have to be Six Flags or million-dollar museums, it can be as simple as having a glass of wine on a patio.” Great cities flow.

 

Each building contributes to the public realm, creating a humanizing experience. It starts with the street, where people see each other coming out onto the street and interacting along the street. The street isn’t just for cars. People on the sidewalk need buffers (cars, trees, bike lanes.) We feel good when there’s a dimension outdoors that we feel comfortable in, like outdoor rooms.

SLR-case-building-244x300.jpg

The Case Building

Walkable neighborhoods are another principle StreetLights promotes with their projects — traffic’s worse but you’re not stuck driving a car to go six blocks. And when the neighborhood’s denser, you can offer better mass transit, and the quality of life begins improving exponentially. In some of the great cities they’ve worked in, neighbors are more concerned about an ugly building being built across the street than a high rise. Figuring out the parking takes the most time and design attention though. “No one says, ‘I love that city, it has great parking.’ Mostly we’ll say we love it despite the parking problem,” Chestnut said. In Austin and San Diego, a developer will pay a penalty if providing more than one car per unit. They require that you build out the full FAR because they need it, and they can’t afford for every person to own a car and drive everywhere.

 

“Do we want to be a well-planned urban city? Do we want to grow or not?” asked Chesnut, rhetorically. “Frisco will gladly if we don’t. It’s a matter of attracting talent and jobs to talent. This city needs to revamp what they’re allowing — not a single developer does good design.” As with the new Trulucks and the new Convention Center restaurants, in Dallas each building seems to be its own castle. It doesn’t flow. “It’s painful to see a building that’ll be poor to walk by for decades.

==

> more: http://candysdirt.com/2015/11/13/dougchesnut/

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Tackling Challenges as a small developer - Monte Anderson works in Texas / Smarttowns Podcast

 

MonteAnderson_zpszosv7d21.png

Out of pure desperation, trying to make my community a little better, hoping that my kids and my friends wouldn’t move away, I started doing development.

 

MP3 : http://shoutengine.com/StrongTownsPodcast/StrongTownsPodcast-0288-the-developer-who-was-desperate-to-save-a-struggli-16369.mp3

Monte Anderson of Options Real Estate is a developer from the wrong side of town. Instead of fleeing for greener pastures and easier money, however, he stayed in his community and worked to make it better. Here's how he did it.

 

Charles Marohn: Now, when you describe these neighborhoods as places where there's a lot of have-nots, what are you talking about exactly? You're talking about the old neighborhoods that have been walked away from? What do these kind of places look like?

> Transcript:

http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/2/23/the-developer-who-was-desperate-to-save-a-struggling-neighborhood

 

Bring the jobs to where the people want to live (so they don't need to drive):

 

Some say we need more freeways so that southern Dallas residents can more easily drive north to secure good jobs. I say we need good jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities all over the city so people do not have to drive north. Quality of life is living close to work, not driving far away for an hourly-rate job. Not to mention that we already have many routes to get north. Plus DART has multiple ways of connecting us to downtown and points beyond.

We also don’t need more large apartment complexes with failed retail surrounding them like the Lancaster Road mixed-use project. It’s funny to see a sign on the street of this supposedly walkable development that reads “No walking.” This in a neighborhood where many people do not even own cars. And consider that the money spent on the Lancaster Road project could have been leveraged to develop 10 or 15 micro projects.

==

> More: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20141012-monte-anderson-hook-southern-dallas-development-into-prior-successes.ece

 

 

Monte Anderson and John Anderson - at CNU-23

 

MP3 : http://shoutengine.com/StrongTownsPodcast/StrongTownsPodcast-0234-john-anderson-and-monte-anderson-at-cnu-23-8740.mp3

 

John Anderson and Monte Anderson (no relation, except in good looks) talk about how small, incremental development can save the world and make a nice living for the entrepreneurial startup builder trying to transform their city. John and Monte are all about lowering the bar on entry and their similar stories are compelling.

 

> http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2015/5/1/show-234-john-anderson-and-monte-anderson-at-cnu-23

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Cars and Driving are still the "preferred" method of transport in Texas

 

Might that change someday?

The backlash against road spending might trigger change someday, so it is worthwhile to be aware of it.

And roadbuilding is being questioned - even in Texas

 

#NoNewRoads Week

 

MP3 : http://shoutengine.com/StrongTownsPodcast/StrongTownsPodcast-0276-nonewroads-week-15567.mp3

 

98bd04eb69b7dac157208f9c84cf3cc7.jpgRachel Quednau on Jan 26, 2016

read more

Chuck and Rachel discuss this week's #NoNewRoads campaign. They touch on the new federal transportation funding bill, issues in Texas, Minnesota and Washington state, as well as a fascinating new ...

 

Donald Shoup : The High Cost of "Free Parking"

 

MP3 : http://shoutengine.com/StrongTownsPodcast/StrongTownsPodcast-0265-donald-shoup-14061.mp3

98bd04eb69b7dac157208f9c84cf3cc7.jpgRachel Quednau on Nov 23, 2015

Chuck Marohn interviews Donald Shoup, Distinguished Research Professor in Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. His book, The High Cost of Free Parking, and his extensive research into ...

read more

=====

 

STRONG TOWNS: The Elevator Speech

 

-- We're answering the question: why, despite all the growth, cities are struggling financially, even to do basic things.

 

It's our pattern of development. We need to make our cities, towns and neighborhoods more financially productive. We do that by making small, incremental investments over a broad area over a long period of time. -- but it's not the answer people are looking for. It's not as tidy as build sidewalks or make your development mixed use. You're right: It's too thoughtful, at times, and not an easy one to tweet.

It's like we're a jam band but the world wants us (needs us) to produce formulaic pop. I realize writing and producing a great pop song will get us an audience of millions, but does it matter? I'd rather have a smaller, more dedicated group of followers out there listening to the jam -- good parts and bad -- helping us get better and pushing for change.

 

I've been pondering lately about whether we are a pre-collapse or post-collapse movement. In other words, are we trying to change things now to avoid the pain and calamity of what is coming OR are we trying to ideas and approaches for dealing with decline once it reaches a terminal phase? I've always thought the latter, but many people want -- and assume -- we are the former.

It's really difficult, perhaps impossible, to convince squirrels they need to store acorns when the sun is shining and the ground is covered with nuts. Some will buy it, but most won't. I'm not being moralistic: That's human nature and I'm human, with all my failings, too. Pass the Mountain Dew, please.

I think the best we can hope for right now is to accomplish three things.

(1) Help thoughtful people understand what is going on so that, as things get more difficult, we don't go crazy as a society and do evil things.

(2) Establish alternative ways of thinking about and doing things so that when the mass search for ideas begins, we're there with a realistic and viable alternative.

(3) Strategically work to prevent the worst things -- those that are destructive and not reversible -- from coming to fruition.

==

> http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/5/12/sprawl-smart-growth-and-strong-towns

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AUSTIN TX - at CNU_23

 

John Simmerman at CNU 23

3cdcb7cb14e180158c1b31a1b483626a.jpgCharles Marohn on Apr 30, 20150 Comments

John Simmerman of Active Towns talks about his move to Austin, the Active Living tour and efforts to slow cars.

read more

 

/2/

 

Sinclair Black and Heyden Walker at CNU 23

3cdcb7cb14e180158c1b31a1b483626a.jpgCharles Marohn on Apr 30, 20150 Comments

Sinclair Black and Heyden Walker, architects with Austin-based Black and Vernooy, talk about great streets, Austin and the potential to bury and cap an interstate. Their new ebook is available at ProjectGreatStreets.com.

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Uptown, downtown businesses celebrating trolley expansion today

M-Line Trolley Extension Set For Public Opening

 

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Phil Cobb (center), chairman of the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority, rode the M-line trolley on Friday as it made its way through Dallas’ central business district along its newly expanded route. “We’re not to Main Street yet, but keep your fingers crossed,” Cobb said.

 

By BRANDON FORMBY bformby@dallasnews.com

Transportation Writer / 05 June 2015

Nearly six decades after a public transit line last carried Dallasites deep into the central business district, the city is celebrating the expansion of Uptown’s M-Line Trolley into downtown.

“This is the first time we’re really going to the core,” McKinney Avenue Transit Authority chairman Phil Cobb said Friday at Klyde Warren Park after city and transit officials took a ride on the M-Line. “We’re not to Main Street yet, but keep your fingers crossed.”

The free M-Line’s new downtown loop, which began operating last month, runs within walking distance of two Dallas Area Rapid Transit light-rail stations before going back by the park and returning to McKinney Avenue.

“It really does connect people,” DART president and executive director Gary Thomas said.

More than two dozen downtown and Uptown businesses also will celebrate the expansion Saturday. Passengers will receive tokens that commemorate the expansion. The tokens will be good for special deals at businesses along the route.

 

The expansion is the second major transit project to open in downtown this year. DART also started a new Oak Cliff streetcar, which stops on the southwest corner of downtown.

“As they say, ‘Big things happen here,’ and this is another one,” Dallas City Council member Lee Kleinman said.

 

DART and the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority hope to connect the streetcar and trolley lines, which would provide a connection from the north side of Uptown to the Bishop Arts District south of the Trinity River.

==

> http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20150605-uptown-downtown-businesses-celebrating-trolley-expansion-today.ece

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