Author: Craig Chester

What the BUILD Act could build: Harrison Commons in New Jersey

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Harrison Commons in Harrison, NJ.

The redevelopment of Harrison, NJ’s waterfront from abandoned industrial buildings into a viable mixed-use development seemed inconceivable only a few years ago.

Strategically located along several rail lines, on the Passaic River and only a few miles from New York City, Harrison once boomed with factories and manufacturing in the first half of the 20th century. In 1912, President William Howard Taft nicknamed Harrison the “Beehive of Industry.”

The town still keeps Taft’s catchphrase as it’s motto, but much of the manufacturers that once called Harrison home have long since closed their doors, leaving behind abandoned factories and large swaths of vacant – and in some places contaminated, land.

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DC area's neighborhoods are becoming more walkable – even in the suburbs

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Chris Leinberger at CNU DC’s Live.Work.Walk event.

Urban dwellers and apartment hunters everywhere are familiar with the term “walk up,” frequently used to describe an apartment building lacking an elevator. But at a recent event hosted by the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) in Washington, D.C., attendees learned about a different type of WalkUP – the “walkable urban place.”

Chris Leinberger, President of Smart Growth America’s LOCUS, was a keynote presenter at Live.Work.Walk. D.C.’s Future Growth, presented by the Washington, D.C. chapter of CNU on March 11. In his presentation, which opened the full-day educational event, Leinberger gave an overview of “The WalkUP Wake Up Call,” a report which emphasizes the economic potential of walkable, urban places in greater Washington, D.C. and how the region can serve as a model for the country for future real estate development.

LOCUS

How Congress Could Help Create the Next Great Neighborhood

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The following article is a cross-post from The Atlantic Cities.


East River State Park in Brooklyn was once a rail-to-barge shipping facility, a use that left the site contaminated. A brownfields grant from the EPA helped clean up the site. Photo courtesy of Graham Coreil-Allen/Flickr.

In Brooklyn, you don’t have to look far to see a hip neighborhood spot that was once a contaminated empty lot.

The East River State Park in Williamsburg was built on the site of a former rail-to-barge shipping terminal. A Whole Foods is under construction in Gowanus on a site previously vacant and contaminated with benzene*. 15 Dunham is a new residential building near the Williamsburg Bridge with affordable housing built atop a former gas station. A high-end design studio for race car engines sits on a cleaned-up site in Williamsburg that stood vacant for nearly 25 years. And plans are under way to turn the massive Domino Sugar Factory site, currently decaying on the Williamsburg waterfront, into park space, offices, apartments and retail.

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Boulder, CO targets carbon reduction through transportation at smart growth strategy workshop

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The Boulder Civic Area is a visionary “community driven” project to rethink and evolve the downtown’s most expansive public space. Image via Bouldercolorado.gov on Flickr.

Boulder, CO officials and local residents will meet with representatives from Smart Growth America on March 4 and 5, 2013 as part of a free, grant-funded technical assistance program. The workshops aim to find innovative travel and mobility strategies that will give Boulder the tools to achieve the next level of the city’s ambitious carbon-reduction goals.

Boulder residents are invited to join the workshops first day for an open house on the city’s 2013 Transportation Master Plan Update (from 4:30 to 6 p.m.) and a presentation by Smart Growth America (from 6 to 8 p.m.). The event will be held Monday, March 4, 2013 at the Hotel Boulderado Conference Center, 2115 13th Street, Boulder, CO.

Technical assistance

Geoffrey Anderson Responds to President Obama's State of the Union Address

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The following is a statement from Smart Growth America President and CEO Geoffrey Anderson in response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, February 12:

‘Stronger families. Stronger communities. Stronger America.’ In his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, President Obama described a shared national prosperity built on a thriving middle class and which has always been the source of our progress at home.

In order to achieve this prosperity, the United States must invest in its communities. Now is the time for bipartisan leadership on the issues that will ensure the long-term prosperity of the United States’ towns and cities. Many of the issues President Obama discussed on Tuesday are part of this work.

I was pleased to hear President Obama speak confidently about the chances for tax legislation this year. Part of bipartisan tax reform must include a review of America’s real estate spending to make sure taxpayers get the most for this investment. Smart Growth America recently released a report detailing the $450 billion in programs and line-items affecting our real estate market. That spending and commitments has a dramatic effect on how towns and cities get built, as well as their economic potential and fiscal resiliency.

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Cincinnati Mayor credits smart growth in city’s turnaround

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When he took office in 2005, Cincinnati mayor Mark Mallory knew he had to turn around a city that had been on a slow, precipitous decline since the 1960s.

It was a lofty task by any stretch of the imagination, even before the recession. But by implementing smart growth strategies and examining how neighborhood development affects economic potential and residents’ quality of life, Mallory has his city back on track.

At the recent New Partners for Smart Growth conference, Mallory touted how his administration embraced a wide range of community improvement initiatives, like tearing down enclosed sidewalks to add ‘eyes on the street,’ and renovating important public spaces to spur economic development and rehabilitate the damaged public perception of downtown Cincinnati.

Local Leaders Council

Progressive Insurance receives Smart Growth America's first Leadership Award for Business

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Earlier this week we announced the winners of our 2013 Leadership Awards. Progressive Insurance was one of the winners.

As Flo, the bubbly white-aproned spokesperson for Progressive Auto Insurance says, “It’s like, from the future, right?” regarding Snapshot, the company’s “pay-as-you-drive” auto insurance. It may seem futuristic, but Progressive has been developing the concept for a long time – the company first launched a forerunner of today’s plan in 1998 and introduced the latest iteration, Snapshot, in 2010.

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Mayor Laura McConwell and Mission, Kansas: A small city with big smart growth ambitions

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The Sylvester Powell Jr. Community Center in Mission, Kansas.

Earlier this week we announced the winners of our 2013 Leadership Awards. Mayor Laura McConwell and Mission, Kansas were one of the winners.

Mission is a first-generation suburb of just under 10,000 people, located 8 miles south of downtown Kansas City, Missouri. At just 2.7 square miles, Mission feels like a small town despite being minutes away from the center city.

Some might see Mission’s small size as an obstacle to economic vitality. But the community in Mission saw smart growth strategies as a way to raise the profile of the city far beyond it’s small size.

Mayor Laura McConwell has helped make those plans a reality. McConwell has served as the City of Mission’s Mayor since 2002, replacing Sylvester Powell who served as mayor for the previous 25 years. Originally inspired to serve on the town council to speak for young families who at that time were not well-represented, McConwell has become a driving force behind several impressive smart growth and sustainability initiatives in the city.

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Mayor Randy Rhoads and Lee’s Summit, MO: Regional leaders in smart growth

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Yesterday we announced the winners of our 2013 Leadership Awards. Mayor Randy Rhoads and Lee’s Summit, MO were one of the winners.

In one Missouri city, a mayor’s leadership has helped foster a culture that values sustainability and public participation, with significant smart growth accomplishments on the ground to show for it.

Lee’s Summit, Missouri is a city of just over 91,000 people located 20 miles from downtown Kansas City. During the last decade, Lee’s Summit experienced rapid growth, with the city’s population swelling by nearly 20 percent from 2005 to 2010. This created an emerging sense in the community that property developers – rather than citizens themselves – were charting the course for the future of Lee’s Summit. Development questions were thrust to the forefront of civic conversation as the community grappled with how to grow in a fiscally and environmentally sustainable manner.

Complete Streets

Public-private partnerships lead the way in a Cincinnati neighborhood’s revival

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At first glance, the history of Cincinnati’s ‘Over-the-Rhine’ neighborhood resembles a storyline familiar to many of America’s urban neighborhoods – a once thriving immigrant community and booming industrial hub turned impoverished and destitute, only to experience a renaissance after decades of disinvestment.

However, there is more than meets-the-eye in regards to the dynamic history of Over-The-Rhine and it’s recent (and unlikely) revival. A unique partnership between city leaders, local corporations and private developers helped to pave the way for what is becoming one of America’s greatest smart growth success stories.

LOCUS