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Walkable Streets Are More Economically Productive
381–390 of 429 posts
Re: Walkable Streets Are More Economically Productive
#382The US has too much retail space. About 2x too much. There's a fan club for cutesy little hipster stores that sell overpriced hipster stuff bought by hipster people with their hipster little dogs. Look at the pictures in the article.[1] See any stores selling necessities? A hardware store? A real grocery store? Nah. Retail is happening at the strip mall or online. It's hard to fill those little shops at the base of c…
You're right. There isn't a hardware store in that picture. You have to go an entire 0.8 miles away[1] to get to one of those or 1.1 miles to get to a different one[2].
There also isn't a grocery store in the picture. You might have to go an entire block to get to one of those[3] or 0.5 miles if you want a different one[4].
[1] https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Lindy's+Bon+Apetit,+2040+I+S...
[2] https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Lindy's+Bon+Apetit,+2040+I+S...
[3] https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Lindy's+Bon+Apetit,+I+Street...
[4] https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Lindy's+Bon+Apetit,+2040+I+S...
Re: Walkable Streets Are More Economically Productive
#383I found this blog a few months ago and then lost it. Thanks for posting this!
Don't worry. You'll see it show up here about a zillion times more.
Re: Walkable Streets Are More Economically Productive
#384Earlier quoted context omitted.
27.5 residential and 39 commercial, but the problem remains. It isn't that big of a deal. Creating different depreciation schedules for different items on a property should be done no matter what (fences are 5 years, for example).
I’m going to ask for your source. Not because I doubt you, but because I wonder what other interesting depreciations exist. I never knew a fence had a 5 year tax lifetime.
It should be on the IRS website. They determine the "useful life" of various capital goods and the set the depreciation schedule. Another example I believe is that cars have a 7 year life for tax purposes.
Re: Walkable Streets Are More Economically Productive
#385Earlier quoted context omitted.
Weird - I visited Chicago a couple years ago from NYC and was shocked at how pedestrian-unfriendly central parts of Chicago seemed (e.g. River North). There were parking lots everywhere , with aggressive drivers pulling in and out. I walked through a parking lot to go to a liquor store and was almost run over. Sometimes crossing a large street felt like a race against the green light. Jaywalking signaled to drivers t…
This makes sense to me. Street-level retail != walkability. Anyone who has tried to walk from a suburban stripmall to another right next door can attest to this.
That's where it's important to consider the often sprawling nature of suburbs and how they're inherently unwalkable. While that is definitely a problem, it seems to be a sprawling problem.
Re: Walkable Streets Are More Economically Productive
#386> Streetscape enhancements add value to an area and are associated with higher rents and the attraction of new businesses. In addition there is good evidence to show that improving walking and cycling environments raises private property values by significant amounts. Nobody doubts this. Actually everybody sees this as the problem. I love NYC, but i also hate it. There is a price for density: crime, trash, prices, ov…
> I love NYC, but i also hate it. There is a price for density: crime, trash, prices, overcrowding, urban decay, poverty and homelessness, etc. These read as mostly outdated stereotypes of NYC from 80s and 90s. NYC now ranks as the safest major city in the United States, by most measures.
I live there for the most part (currently in CA until March).
Re: Walkable Streets Are More Economically Productive
#387Lafayette looks very inviting!
Re: Walkable Streets Are More Economically Productive
#388It's always a tradeoff... - super dense cities like Tokyo or New York can feel suffocating. A lot of people can't bear it. The lack of green space, and the overcrowding of people and cars increases the stress levels by a lot. Yet, being able to walk around the city is excellent for exercising and mindfulness, it's easier to meet with people, etc. - super sparse cities (like LA or Brasilia) on the other end tend to is…
> super dense cities like Tokyo or New York can feel suffocating. A lot of people can't bear it. The lack of green space, and the overcrowding of people and cars increases the stress levels by a lot. I strongly suspect when people say that, they're thinking of the day time population of the tourist/business districts in those cities. The daytime population of Manhattan is nearly 4 million people, mostly concentrated…
The same goes for Hong Kong. Shopping districts like Causeway Bay https://www.google.com.hk/maps/@22.2784287,114.1833788,3a,75... and Central https://www.google.com.hk/maps/@22.2821186,114.1578335,3a,75... can be suffocating.
And yet the most densely populated districts don't feel all that bad for the most part. Kwun Tong https://www.google.com.hk/maps/@22.3138909,114.2268051,3a,60... and Wong Tai Sin https://www.google.com.hk/maps/@22.3435765,114.1929784,3a,75... for example. But Mong Kok is a subdistrict in Yau Tsim Mong, famous for being the most densely populated place in the world.. AND it's a shopping district too, with huge influx after working hours. https://www.google.com.hk/maps/@22.319367,114.1699535,3a,75y...
Re: Walkable Streets Are More Economically Productive
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only city I've been in the US that made me think "wow, that's kind of walkable" was Boston. Are there any other dense cities I should visit?
Lots of DT areas of cities are walkable, but Boston is kind of unique in that it has miles and miles of walkable streets. Its urban core is just really big. Portions of Seattle are very walkable (From the International District going north, quite a few miles), and individual parts of Chicago are walkable. Heck there are 2 or 3 mile stretches of San Diego are walkable (there might be more than that, I only spent a wee…
Seattle is among the most walkable cities in the US but San Diego is not. The nominally walkable areas of San Diego are for tourists with tourist desires; locals don’t live there for the most part and for good reason. I loved living there but walkable it was not.
Seattle, on the other hand, is a city where I’ve never really needed a car no matter where I lived or worked. I think that part of the lifestyle is brilliant. I have a car, but the battery goes dead between usages as often as not.
Re: Walkable Streets Are More Economically Productive
#390Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't call Chicago and San Diego walkable (I'm talking about like european cities walkable)
I don't know about European cities, but it's generally easier to walk around the San Diego Gaslamp Quarter than it is to drive.
Gaslamp is a tourist area, you wouldn’t want to live there, there isn’t much around. It used to be really dodgy, no one sensible would go there, but they rehabilitated it to a significant extent. Unfortunately, it is mostly only frequented by 20-somethings getting drunk at the myriad bars and tourists.