Tag: chicago

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New York City, Chicago rapidly advancing progressive transport policies

New York City, Chicago rapidly advancing progressive transport policies.

New York City and Chicago are blazing a progressive path towards a sustainable transport network. Cincinnati has made minor strides with regards to bicycle infrastructure and Complete Streets, but much is being left on the table in the Queen City and elsewhere. More from Grid Chicago:

I hadn’t been to New York since 2008 when I checked out their Summer Streets ciclovia. Since then Manhattan has gone through an amazing transformation under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and transportation commissioner Janette Sadik Khan. Besides implementing the bike lanes, they pulled off the ultimate road diet on Broadway, removing car lanes and shutting down sections of the island’s main diagonal thoroughfare to calm traffic and make space for some amazing new car-free spaces. And I didn’t even have time to check other first-rate bike facilities in Queens and Brooklyn, or the new segments of the Highline, the sleek, 1.5-mile elevated linear park which paved the way for Chicago’s Bloomingdale.

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Up To Speed

Why hyper-local won’t save newspapers (and what will)

Why hyperlocal won’t save newspapers (and what will).

Newspapers have been desperately trying to figure out how to make the finances work as the ground shifts beneath them in an increasingly digital world. In Cincinnati, much like elsewhere throughout the country, local newspapers attempted to compete with bloggers by shifting towards “hyper-local” coverage, but it has yet to work. More from Per Square Mile:

Whenever a business or industry falls on hard times, people trip over themselves to propose turnaround plans. Newspapers are no exception, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to be left out of the fray. My diagnosis? Too many newspapers have placed their bets on intensely local coverage, or hyper-local as they call it in the biz. That’s a mistake. To remain profitable, they need to concentrate on a particular topic instead of a geographic region.

That epiphany occurred to me Christmas morning over a bowl of cereal at my in-laws. I was flipping through the Houston Chronicle when I noticed the paper had branded their energy coverage, FuelFix. Not the best name, but it’s a sound idea. Houston is a major hub for the oil and gas industry, and Chronicle reporters have spent years, even decades reporting on it. Who else would be so positioned to cover the industry?

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The rise of downtowns and resurgence of inter-city bus travel

The rise of downtowns and resurgence of inter-city bus travel.

The resurgence of center cities and urban living has been well-documented. When combined with the inability of the United States to significantly invest in inter-city passenger rail, it appears to be only natural that inter-city bus travel has boomed. More from Chicago Magazine:

“In 1960, there were 454 daily arrivals and departures by bus in and out of Chicago. In 1980, 290; in 2002, 147 (O’Hare has about 2,400 flights every day). From 2002-2006, intercity bus service across the country declined eight percent. Then it turned around…With the resurgence of central-business districts, travelers too young to remember the stigma associated with bus travel, especially those living on college campuses and in large cities, are turning to motor coaches in especially large numbers.”

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The Best Open Data Releases of 2012

The Best Open Data Releases of 2012.

The year 2012 is over. But it’s important to occasionally look back and see what we did well, and not so well, as a society over the last 12 months. One particular item that has become increasingly more significant in planning our cities is open data. From tracking crime in Philadelphia, bikeshare activity in Boston, transit usage in Atlanta, green roofs in Chicago, to rat sightings in New York City…open data has gone viral. More from The Atlantic on the top 10 open data releases of 2012:

Last year, Atlantic Cities named ten of its favorite metro datasets of 2011 from cities across North America, illustrating the breadth of what we might learn (regarding mosquito traps! misplaced vehicles! energy consumption!) in the still relatively young field of urban open data. For this year’s installment, we’re going one step further. Sure, raw data is great. But useful tools, maps and data visualizations built with said data are even better.

In this story, you’ll find our picks for 2012’s best open data releases from municipal vaults, with an emphasis on tools that can be used by anyone, not just developers and data geeks.

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Atlanta’s bold plan for repurposing its unused railways already paying off

Atlanta’s bold plan for repurposing its unused railways already paying off.

The multi-modal Atlanta BeltLine project is spurring new investment throughout inner-city neighborhoods that had long been forgotten in the southeastern city. What lessons might Cincinnati be able to learn from Atlanta’s experience as it looks to repurpose its unused railway corridors? More from the Washington Post:

Since a new urban trail opened last month in an old rail corridor in Atlanta, it has drawn a steady stream of joggers, dog-walkers and cyclists to take in spectacular views of the skyline and neighborhoods once seen only by train. Hundreds of trees have been planted along the paved 14-foot-wide path, while artists have added works such as windmills made of bicycle parts and colorful murals on concrete overpasses.

The path, known as the Eastside Trail, is part of a $2.8 billion plan to transform a 22-mile railroad corridor that encircles Atlanta into a network of trails, parks, affordable homes and ultimately streetcar lines. The Atlanta BeltLine is an example of rails-to-trails projects going on around the country, including in New York and Chicago, that aim to make better use of old rail corridors by creating better-connected and more livable urban areas, providing alternatives to car travel and spurring economic development.