Category: Up To Speed

Links to keep you up to speed on what’s happening in Cincinnati and what we can learn from other cities.

Categories
Up To Speed

Cleveland considers adding more skywalks!

Cleveland considers adding more skywalks!

Over the past decade Cincinnati has actively been working to dismantle the once extensive elevated skywalk system in its downtown. Other cities throughout the country such as Baltimore have followed Cincinnati’s lead however a recent report coming out of Cleveland spotlights the recent debate over two projects that would add more skywalks in their downtown. Read more at the Atlantic Cities:

For the most part, it didn’t work, and now cities such as Baltimore and Cincinnati are tearing down the skywalks they once built with such fanfare, in an effort to return pedestrian life and vitality to the street. Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the owners of the year-old Horseshoe Casino downtown are planning to build a brand-new skywalk, and the county government is looking to refurbish another one just a few blocks away. For many of the young people moving to Cleveland in search of a 21st-century urban experience – pedestrian-friendly, with lots of people out and about – it seems like a step backward in time.

Categories
Up To Speed

Chicago aiming to cap Kennedy Expressway trench with 10-15 acre park

Chicago aiming to cap Kennedy Expressway trench with 10-15 acre park

Part of Cincinnati’s Central Riverfront Master Plan is the eventual capping of Fort Washington Way. In Chicago, architects are working to develop a similar cap system that will bridge over the highway connecting the West Loop neighborhood to downtown. More from the Architect’s Newspaper:

In cooperation with developer Fifield Companies, Sarver and his firm have fleshed out a masterplan that calls for 10 million square feet of new office space in the West Loop in 10 years. The plan also calls for a 10-to-15-acre park covering the trench of the Kennedy Expressway, which forms a barrier between the West Loop and downtown. Alan Schachtman, executive vice president of Fifield, called this hypothetical green a Millennium Park for the West Loop.

Categories
Up To Speed

Enrique Peñalosa speculates on the future of American cities

Enrique Peñalosa speculates on the future of American cities

The United Nations projects that 2.7 billion people will be living in cities across the world by 2050. What is the future course of cities in America? Historically Americans rejected the city for the suburbs after World War II, now a new generation of people are rejecting the suburbs for the city. Fomer Bogota mayor, Enrique Peñalosa offers his speculation on the future and what cities can do to prepare for it. More from Atlantic Cities:

If low-density suburbs are not desirable and a return to city life in the 1920s is not desirable either, then what should the future American city be like? It is a platitude to say that the new city should be designed for people, but over the past 90 years we have designed cities much more for the mobility of cars than for the well-being of people. Moreover, the best measure of a city’s quality is how good it is to its most vulnerable citizens—children, the elderly, the disabled, the poor—who often have no access to an automobile.

Categories
Up To Speed

Measuring the success of Obama’s Strong Cities Strong Communities program

Measuring the success of Obama’s Strong Cities Strong Communities program

While ongoing sequestration has limited the federal governments ability to allocate much needed funding for the nations ailing infrastructure, the Obama administration rolled out a report touting the success of its Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) program. The program allocates funding to local governments by taking a holistic approach to the impacts of local development projects. The program, which can take on a multitude of urban issues however remains woefully underfunded. More from NextCity:

What Landrieu is diplomatically saying is that the federal government sometimes needed SC2 to shake money loose from its own agencies. That may sound absurd, but integrating the different programs so that each could try to make sure cities have jobs, affordable housing and safe mobility was a new goal when the Obama administration took office and starting pursuing it. The report demonstrates that SC2 is working at its primary goal of helping a handful of cities with some discrete projects.

Categories
Up To Speed

Amtrak aiming to have states pick up operating expenses for short-haul routes

Amtrak aiming to have states pick up operating expenses for short-haul routes

As Amtrak has been recording record ridership on its core routes, federal budget belt-tightening has forced the transit agency to engage the states in cost-sharing measures for some of its smaller lines. However; this also serves an opportunity for some lines to be upgraded with enhanced infrastructure thus enabling some routes to operate at higher speeds. More from the New York Times:

The railroad has traditionally subsidized some local routes, while leaving others up to the states to support, but now state governments will have to pay for all local routes of less than 750 miles in a state. The Northeast line, Amtrak’s moneymaker, is not included. If all the states chip in, Amtrak officials expect revenue to increase by about $85 million a year, which would shrink its chronic deficit.