PARTNERS FOR A LIVABLE WESTERN NEW YORK
INTERIM REPORT OF NEWS AND ACTIVITIES- OCT. 14, 2005
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Recent quotes in the news:
Casinos are monsters. They are like atomic power plants. No one wants to live around them. We want to integrate them better into the urban and social fabric, so they provide vitality to the downtowns. – Andres Duany in his opening remarks at the organizational meeting of 200 planners and other land use professionals assembled to plan for the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast as reported in the New York Times.
What we have here is a very feasible way of testing out whether we can mobilize people to walk and cycle and for people to leave their cars behind. – Vancouver, B.C. City Council member Fred Bass after the City voted to convert two lanes of one of its busiest commuter bridges to bike lanes.
If you want people to gather, whether in a retail shop, a grocery store, or…in a blighted urban area, build a Starbucks or something like it. – columnist Kathleen Parker in the Orlando Sentinel
CURRENT ACTIVITIES, ISSUES, AND PRESENTATIONS
1. On October 11 George Grasser and Jad Cordes presented the Smart
Growth is Coming power point presentation as well as a presentation on understanding density put together by a collaborative group including the Urban Land Institute and the Sierra Club to members of the City Council
and other local officials of the City of Tonawanda. and the Sierra Club. The presentation appeared to be well-received and we were impressed by the interest of those in attendance. We thank City Council President Carleton Zeisz for chairing the event and City Administrator Don Witkowski for arranging the event.
2. On October 14 George Grasser was interviewed for two quarter-hour
segments on WPXJ-TV I-network cable television (Channel 51 in Buffalo). The topics of the segments were (i) the last two programs in the “Smart Growth is Smart Business” series and (ii) Partners for a Livable Western New York – its mission and activities.
3. On October 19 a group of Partners for a Livable Western New York
architects and design consultants will be meeting with local representatives of Habitat for Humanity to assist them in considering a more urban design to the homes they build in urban areas. All architects are welcome to join us in this one-time commitment. Call 883-5070.
4. On November 17 George Grasser will be teaching a course entitled “Smart
Growth and New Urbanism for the Realtor” at the offices of the Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors.
5. In November George Grasser will be meeting with representatives of the
Common Good Planning Center of Rochester to discuss common goals and objectives.
6. Our planned program on smart growth and land use for suburban candidates for elective office did not materialize because of the delay of the Board of Elections in counting the paper ballots used in so many suburban communities because of the funding crisis in Erie County government. We plan to hold programs for newly elected suburban public officials after the November election.
7.The Brookings Institution will be doing a study of how to improve the
economics of several upstate New York regions including Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Corning-Elmira. Partners for a Livable Western New York has been asked to provide input by the coordinator of the Brookings effort.
8. George Grasser will do a presentation on smart growth and new urbanism at the
annual meeting of the New York State Bar Association Condominium and Cooperative lawyers on January 26, 2006 in New York City.
9. Several of our members are taking a prominent role in the assisting a team from
the National Vacant Properties Campaign that will be addressing the causes and effects of vacant and abandoned housing and other properties in Buffalo and the first-ring suburbs of Tonawanda, Amherst and Cheektowaga.
a, On October 18 at 7:00 p.m. at the Nichols School the next program in the free monthly “Smart Growth is Smart Business” series will feature James Eppink, a retail consultant, town planner and landscape architect from Michigan presenting “Creating Places Where We Like to Shop” (see flyer attached). After the presentation there will be a discussion with a local panel including Newell Nussbaumer – owner of the Thunder Bay stores and publisher of Buffalo Rising magazine and Art Judelsohn, a commercial realtor. A free reception sponsored by Forever Elmwood, to which all people on the Partners for a Livable Western New York e-mail contact list are invited, will begin at 5:45 p.m. in the lobby of the Nichols School auditorium.
b. October 26 (Wednesday) – 6:30 p.m., The Old Library Restaurant, 116 South Union Street, Olean, a free workshop “Enhancing Main Street: Making Upper Floors Work Again” sponsored by the Preservation League of New York State and the Cattaraugus County Dept. of Economic Development, Planning & Tourism and the Cattaraugus County Planning Board. Pre-registration is required by Friday, Oct. 21 – call Margaret Puszcz at (716) 938-9111 x 2312.
c. November 8 (Tuesday) – 6:00 p.m. monthly meeting of Partners for a Livable Western New York – EPIC Building, 1000 Main Street (between North and Allen Streets). At 6:30 p.m. there will be a presentation by Amy Holt, Executive Director of the Western New York Land Conservancy.
d. November 15 (Tuesday) – 7:00 p.m., The Nichols School, “Smart Growth is Smart Business” series presentation “Transportation Strategies for the 21st Century” – James Charlier, transportation planner, Boulder, CO. (see attached).
e. On December 7 at 6:30 p.m. George Grasser will present a workshop on Smart Growth at the Finger Lakes Institute on the campus of Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The program is open to Hobart and William Smith students and the public.
f. December 8 (Thursday) – 7:00 p.m., Albright-Knox Art Gallery Auditorium, free “Smart Growth is Smart Business” series presentation “Making it Happen – Putting Smart Growth Policies and Practices to Work” – William Fulton, journalist, urban planner, member of City Council of City of Ventura, CA. (see attached flyer)
g. January 26-28 (Thursday to Saturday) annual Smart Growth conference in Denver, CO. This is a well-attended conference, usually 1200 or more people, from all over the US and many informative concurrent sessions, including several for elected officials. For more information go to www.NewPartners.org.
h. June 1-4 (Thursday to Sunday) annual Congress for the New Urbanism conference in Providence, RI. This is another conference that often has an attendance of 1,000 to 1,500 people from almost all states and many foreign countries.
i. July 17-21 (Monday to Friday) Chautauqua Institution theme week “Landscape, Architecture and Community Design”
For more information on any of these events contact George Grasser at 883-5070 or at ggrasser@irdprojectmanagers.com
The following is a selective sampling of news stories about smart growth and livable communities reported in the mass media over the last several weeks
1. New Urban News reports that Target Stores now has 35 multilevel stores with structured parking and another 8 stores with parking underneath, unlike Walmart which has resisted radical changes to its building designs.
2. New Urban News reports that Vancouver has decided to convert two lanes of one of its busiest commuter bridges to bike lanes.
3. The New York State Senate has passed legislation creating a “Come Home to New York” campaign intended to lure back former New Yorkers who have fled to other states. The Buffalo News article reporting this asks: what jobs are these people coming home to? And why come back to a state that has done little to lower the overall costs – whether its taxes or workers’ compensation or energy – for small businesses?
4. New Urban News reports two municipalities (San Francisco, CA and Bristol, RI) have banned chain stores in neighborhood commercial districts. San Francisco’s ban, limited to two neighborhoods, bans “formula businesses” defined as businesses that have at least 11 locations worldwide and maintain two or more of the following features: a standardized array of merchandise, a standardized façade, a standardized décor and color scheme, uniform apparel, standardized signage, a trademark or a service mark. Bristol defines formula businesses similarly to San Francisco but considers a chain a business with 5 or more stores. The Bristol ordinance applies only in the City’s downtown district. Bristol also limits each new chain store to a maximum of 2,500 square feet and a width of 65 feet. The figures were arrived at by measuring the average storefront in Bristol.
5. A manual to help communities implement Andres Duany’s SmartCode zoning ordinance is now or soon will be available. It can be downloaded for free at www.placemakers.com. It will also be available in hardcopy by calling 866/268-8696.The manual is a tutorial on all of the SmartCode’s articles, tables, and illustrations and compressed the design of hundreds of communities into a single package.
6. Because of the fast growth of new urbanism (traditional neighborhood development) projects throughout the United States, a number of planning and architectural firms are in need or planners, architects and landscape architects. For more information contact the Partners for a Livable Western New York office at 883-5070.
7. An extensive study of 4-lane to 3-lane road conversions in the state of Iowa over a 23-year period has demonstrated a 25% reduction in accident frequency and a 19% reduction in crash rate. See www.dot.stat.ia.us/crashanalysis/fourto three_ iowa.htm
8. A new book “Sprawl Costs – Economic Impacts of Unchecked Development” is now available. The authors analyze the extent of sprawl, define an alternative, more compact form of growth, and compare the costs of sprawl and compact growth. It is comprehensive and objective and gives decision-makers and others concerned with planning and land use realistic and useful data on the implications of various options and policies. The book ($24.95) can be ordered at www.islandpress.org/books/detail.html/SKU/1-55963-530-4
9. There are signs that Americans are rethinking the way in which they get around reports the Associated Press. There has been a big bump in sales of bicycles in late summer.
10. In an article entitled “Are McMansions Going Out of Style?” the New York Times reports that the size of the typical American house is leveling off, that Generation X-ers who are buying homes are willing to trade away space to get more amenities and that many people are reluctant to buy more space than what they will really use.
11. The American Journal of Public Health reports after a study of the proximity of fast- food restaurants to public schools that fast-food restaurants are concentrated within a short walking distance from schools, exposing children to poor-quality food environments in their school neighborhoods.
12. For the fourth year in a row Vancouver has claimed Economist magazine’s top spot on an international ranking of the world’s most livable cities. No U.S. city was in the top 10. Toronto was no. 9 and Calgary no. 10.
13. The Town of Cheektowaga has abandoned efforts to re-build the Cedargrove Heights neighborhood as a new urbanist or traditional neighborhood development mixed-use community. A vocal group, believed to be a minority, obtained the support of one or more Town Board members and the developer was unable to generate enough support to overcome the opposition. Comment: unfortunately the proposal for redevelopment was allowed to generate from an initiative to help the residents to a proposal for the benefit of the developer at the expense of the residents. Had this worthy proposal been handled differently, e.g. had some money been spent to identify and address the economic concerns of the individual property owners affected, a different result might have ensued.
14. The Buffalo News, in a front page story, reported on the Village of East Aurora’s “get-tough” stance on big-box development and other initiative to maintain the built environment in the Village, e.g. eliminating fast-food drive-thrus.
For more information on any these references contact George Grasser at (716) 883-5070, ggrasser@irdprojectmanagers.com