Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Development

Midtown Rezoning Would Let Developers Buy Height With Ped Improvements

By Noah Kazis | Jul 12, 2012 | 7 Comments

Transit-oriented development is a virtuous circle. New transit infrastructure makes it easier and faster to get to a place, and then that place grows. New development in turn leads to demand to justify better infrastructure, and more tax dollars to pay for it. That, in a nutshell, is the story of how Manhattan grew into […]

Arizona DOT Study: Compact, Mixed-Use Development Leads to Less Traffic

By Angie Schmitt | May 18, 2012 | No Comments

Does walkable development really lead to worse traffic congestion? Opponents of urbanism often say so, citing impending traffic disaster to rally people against, say, a new mixed-use project proposed in their backyards. But new research provides some excellent evidence to counter those claims. A recent study by the Arizona Department of Transportation [PDF] found that […]

Inez Dickens and EDC Want to Keep Four Stories of Parking in Harlem Project

By Noah Kazis | May 17, 2012 | 5 Comments

The New York City Economic Development Corporation’s commitment to replacing any parking spaces the agency builds on top of is a one-way ratchet toward ever-increasing amounts of automobile infrastructure. For projects at Flushing Commons and the Lower East Side’s SPURA site, slated to be built over surface parking lots, EDC has pushed for the new developments to include hundreds of […]

EDC Wants 500 Parking Spots at Long-Awaited Lower East Side Development

By Noah Kazis | May 15, 2012 | 30 Comments

The Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, or SPURA, is the largest undeveloped, city-owned area south of 96th Street. Located along the south side of Delancey Street at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge, SPURA currently consists of five empty lots, the leftovers of a 1967 slum clearance project. Though mid-century towers-in-a-park style housing was built […]

Thanks to Brooklyn Parking Minimums, 360 Degrees of Ground Floor Parking

By Noah Kazis | May 7, 2012 | 19 Comments

Parking minimums have struck another blow for terrible urban design, this time just three blocks from the transit mega-hub of Atlantic/Pacific, where nine subway lines and the LIRR converge. A new luxury apartment building going up at the corner of Bergen Street and Third Avenue will dedicate its entire ground floor, facing both the side […]

The Greenwashing of Sprawl

By Angie Schmitt | Apr 11, 2012 | No Comments

Twenty-eight miles southeast of Cleveland, there is a development that bills itself as “Ohio’s FIRST Green Certified Residential Community.” According to the developer, The Lakes of Orange “offers a rare, one-of-kind opportunity to build and live in a green and sustainable environment.” “Reserve your place in eco-history today,” its website implores. “We are accepting lot […]

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