Finance, design, suburbs and "The Growth Ponzi Scheme."

It doesn't get much clearer than this. In fact, the Strong Towns website in large measure constitutes a shovel-ready campaign platform for any candidate interested in the future of a city like New Albany.

(That's okay, Dan. you're exempt. Permanent recess for you! Yay!)

The conclusion first:

"We need to end our investments in the suburban pattern of development, along with the multitude of direct and indirect subsidies that make it all possible. Further, we need to intentionally return to our traditional pattern of development, one based on creating neighborhoods of value, scaled to actual people. When we do this, we will inevitably rediscover our traditional values of prudence and thrift as well as the value of community and place."

Now, let's read.

THE GROWTH PONZI SCHEME (Strong Towns)

(This article originally appeared in Grist)

We often forget that the American pattern of suburban development is an experiment, one that has never been tried anywhere before. We assume it is the natural order because it is what we see all around us. But our own history — let alone a tour of other parts of the world — reveals a different reality. Across cultures, over thousands of years, people have traditionally built places scaled to the individual. It is only the last two generations that we have scaled places to the automobile.

How is our experiment working?

At Strong Towns, the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization I cofounded in 2009, we are most interested in understanding the intersection between local finance and land use. How does the design of our places impact their financial success or failure?

What we have found is that the underlying financing mechanisms of the suburban era — our post-World War II pattern of development — operates like a classic Ponzi scheme, with ever-increasing rates of growth necessary to sustain long-term liabilities.

Rinse and repeat: "Complete Streets Are a Bargain."

The primary election approaches. As your district candidate explains the importance of sign planting efforts, consider asking him or her to explain the importance of complete streets.

Consider your vote with reference to the answer ... or the absence of one.

Complete Streets Are a Bargain, by Laura Searfoss (at Sustainable Cities Collective)

... As a recent analysis by Smart Growth America’s National Complete Streets Coalition demonstrates, using a Complete Streets approach is one of the best transportation investments a community can make.

Examining before and after data from 37 projects redesigned with Complete Streets goals, this study found:

Streets were safer: Automobile collisions declined in 70 percent of projects, and injuries declined in 56 percent of projects.

This safety has financial value: Each collision that a safer street helps to avoid represents avoided costs from emergency room visits, hospital charges, rehabilitation, and doctor visits, as well as the cost of property damage. Within our sample, Complete Streets improvements collectively averted $18.1 million in total collision costs in just one year.

Complete Streets encouraged multi-modal travel: The projects nearly always resulted in more biking, walking, and transit trips.

They are remarkably affordable: The average cost of a Complete Streets project was just $2.1 million—far less than the $9 million average cost of projects in state transportation improvement plans. And 97 percent of Complete Streets projects cost less per mile than construction of an average high-cost arterial.

They play an important role in economic development: These findings suggest that Complete Streets projects were supportive of higher employment, new businesses, and property values. Several projects saw significant private investment since their completion.

"Don’t be intimidated by haters. Keep doing what you can to build a strong town."

Jeff G. shared this on my Fb timeline two days ago. It was my intention to read it aloud to the city council last evening, but doing so would have required three times the allotted time for comments, and so instead, I read them this during my last at-bat:

ON THE AVENUES SUNDAY SPECIAL: How many businesses already have died because of City Hall’s street grid procrastination?

... But if City Hall already knows the answer and perpetually procrastinates, then how many businesses has it already caused to die?

It's a 3,000 word essay, but consider it must reading. I'm teasing here with the first few paragraphs. GO THERE AND READ THE WHOLE PIECE.

Come to think of it, this comes pretty damn close to being a ready-made campaign platform.

---

BEST OF BLOG: STAYING STRONG, by Charles Marohn (Strong Towns)

Over the past two years I've been quietly offered a number of job opportunities. All of them would have paid substantially more money than I make now and most would also be pretty high-profile and impactful, at least in the geographic area in which they were located. I only seriously considered one of them, and that one became a non-option once it was made clear that moving to Washington DC was not negotiable. I love what I do and feel very fortunate to be able to work in a calling well-suited to my strengths and desires.

When I was asked a couple of months ago if there was a position I would leave Strong Towns for, the only one that really came to mind was the opportunity to work here locally. City planner, city engineer or even city administrator for my hometown of Brainerd. The more I thought about it the sillier the notion became -- I would be miserable, would not fit in at all and there is really nobody there who would embrace my ideas -- but the fact that it was my first thought reinforced to me how powerful my connection to this place is.

Which is actually kind of bizarre. I generally loath Brainerd. To me this place is like that star athlete who, instead of using their gifts during their prime, spent their time partying and goofing off. Not only did they fail to reach anything near their potential, now they are a pathetic old man, body breaking down prematurely, looking back at the glory days of the past and not grasping what happened. Worse, they go put on a pair of Zubaz and strut around trying to recapture a little of that past magic, not realizing everyone else is shaking their heads behind their back. They don't get that the thing that makes one great isn't the flash and the style but doing the little things day after day after day.

The reason I loath Brainerd is because I see all the little things that need to be done, things that are easily within our grasp, and I watch them not only be overlooked by others, but actually be discounted with a certain level of disdain by those who could actually do something. Instead of using diet and exercise to get back into shape, we prefer the quick (but elusive) promise of the diet supplement. Our latest is a huge sewer and water project out on the far reaches of town, millions being spent on another old-school scheme to create jobs and growth, while the general decline of our city continues unabated. Don't worry, Chuck, it isn't our money. It's so maddening.

And when we get a chance to do something nice -- something that would actually made things better like fix the main north-south boulevard of the city to bring some life back to it -- we're given the option of the three lane stroad or a five lane stroad, neither of which even begins to acknowledge the fundamental lack of investment along that corridor.

This week the Brainerd City Council raised the local levy 10% and borrowed millions of additional dollars for road maintenance and nobody really stops to ask why. Why? Why is this not working? Why is our unemployment rate so much higher? Why are people moving to the area but not moving here? What is our plan to turn this around beyond ever increasing taxes and debt? Where is the prosperity that was supposed to happen from these past megaprojects? Why are the people who orchestrated them allowed to continue to be employed by the city to do more?

When someone does ask why, the answer is never really an answer. It is just the failed belief system of that star athlete who doesn't understand what happened. It's all about jobs, Chuck. Jobs and growth. We need to spend money to make money. If you aren't growing, you die. Baxter has the bypass so we need to make things happen. We need to give that subsidy to be competitive. We need more parking. We need to make sure those long-haul trucks can get through town because that's our lifeblood. People don't walk - this is Minnesota.

And the more frequent: You're just negative.

Point taken: "New Albany is further behind conceptually than kindergarten."

Yesterday we went to kindergarten.

Smart growth, holistic cities ... and New Albany as conceptual kindergarten.

As pertains to any consideration of "smart growth" in the context of New Albany, it is vitally important not to forget the old joke about the musician who begins as a bright young up-and-coming artist, and elects to skip the next few career phases in favor of graduating directly to "too drunk to play" ...

A very good comment was posted at Fb, and it is reprinted here.

As a 62-year observer of the New Albany scene (since I could read the Tribune and comprehend adult conversation about civic affairs) IMO New Albany is further behind conceptually than kindergarten. Tabula rasa, perhaps? At the risk of offending some readers, planning and zoning have never been the community's strong suits. Groups can commission studies for only so long before progressive, creative, locally based and locally interested (read: funded) civic-minded, as opposed to self-interested, leadership, with voters' confidence, must step forward. Otherwise a truck stop on the Coyle property sounds like a mighty good idea.

Smart growth, holistic cities ... and New Albany as conceptual kindergarten.

As pertains to any consideration of "smart growth" in the context of New Albany, it is vitally important not to forget the old joke about the musician who begins as a bright young up-and-coming artist, and elects to skip the next few career phases in favor of graduating directly to "too drunk to play."

Accordingly, we're somewhere in the vicinity of puberty, pre-legal drinking age.

But dude: Check out our aquatic center.

Link courtesy of JG.

Kaid Benfield’s Blog: Moving beyond "smart growth" to a more holistic city agenda (Switchboard)

... I say that it is time to become more ambitious and holistic in our thinking about cities, towns and neighborhoods. In the interest of being provocative and starting a conversation, I propose a list of ten questions that every community should ask in order to identify ways to improve. These questions embrace smart growth, to be sure, but they don’t stop there. Here they are:

1 Are neighborhoods fully hospitable to residents with a range of incomes, ages and abilities?

2 Does the community respect nature, integrating natural areas and systems into regional planning and neighborhood design?

3 Do buildings and infrastructure take advantage of resource-efficient design and management practices?

4 Do the community design and social structure encourage healthy living and well-being?

5 Is the overall metropolitan or community development footprint discernible and no larger than necessary?

6 Does the community include public spaces of beauty, character, and utility?

7 Are there convenient, safe, affordable and efficient transportation choices?

8 Does new development use land efficiently, with appropriate attention to the context?

9 Does the community respect and enhance important local conditions, resources, and culture?

10 Does the community encourage collaboration in planning and development?

"Living better and smarter shouldn’t be a partisan issue."

As the author accurately notes, a restoration of balance between urban and suburban is about providing options for those so inclined, not emulating Ceausescu's forced resettlement policies.

The American Dream: Phase II, by Allison Arieff (NYT Opinionator blog)
By ALLISON ARIEFF

... The aforementioned changes point to the fact that a paradigmatic shift in our concept of the American dream is underway. And this shift is not just because of the recession, says Gregory Vilkin, managing principal and president of MacFarlane Partners, quoted in that USA Today piece, “It’s no longer the American dream to own a plot of land with a house on it and two cars in the driveway.”

The country could be moving toward something much better, something that’s less about consumption (of stuff, of such essential resources) and more about quality of life.

Nash: "Strategic planning has never been a strong point in this community."

Matt Nash's column appears weekly in One Southern Indiana Newspaper (or OSIN, as we've referred to it since the merger), but he also publishes it at his blog site on Friday, and linking to the piece there pleases me. I'm in no mood currently to provide OSIN with traffic via NAC-generated links, at least for so long as pop-up ads continue to plague readers of the newspaper's web site.

As for Matt's column, it's another winner.

When it comes to unchecked development and sprawl's pavement producing proclivities, we as Americans all know how to generate it, but like Matt, we assume that there can be no reversal once the ugliness becomes reality.

Perhaps it's time to ask: Why not?

It reminds me of the debate about Communism back in 1990, in the sense of knowing how it was implemented, but having no blueprint for undoing it. And yet, it was undone. How do we undo past planning disasters, even as we prevent Floyd County government from pursuing more of the very same mistakes?

My Friday Column: Smart Growth Would be Progress, by Matt Nash

After the land is developed and the grass is no longer there, it will never come back again. It will forever be a strip mall or a box store or an empty building that sits and gathers trash. Of course I am sure that drainage will no longer be a problem, since we always trust our developers to manage the extra runoff water so well.

Flannel, boots, and bridges.

Interesting amongst all the bridges talk, I had occasion recently to chat with a relative I rarely see owing to a funeral home visit. As we all stood in small circles who recognized each other thinking of things to talk about like people do at funeral homes, she introduced commuting as a topic.

This relative lives in the rural Indiana hills, a setting that has largely kept her out of urban politics for most of her life. No preconceived notions, no factions, no allegiances-- just the unimpinged, practical mindset that often comes with country life.

"Wouldn't it be great," she said, "if we had public transportation? It would be a lot easier and cheaper. I could just drive a short way to a small train station, hop on, and spend the time usually stuck driving or in traffic doing something productive like reading or working on the computer. I don't see why we can't do that."

Though they're often pointed at as justification, she and "people like her", supposed unaccomplished rubes generally identifiable by their lack of more formal business attire, have rarely been the source of the "can't do that" problem that keeps the region from pragmatically moving forward. It's the unchecked arrogance of area leaders who assume beyond evidence that we must be held back because of them, that certain options and issues cannot be considered because people here are just far too plain to possibly understand the often very simple concepts with which the leaders themselves seem to struggle.

Simply put, they're wrong.

The opposite of Smarth Growth is dumb.

According to a report on the News/Tribune web site, the number of vacant housing units increased 45% in Clark County during a period of 14% population growth.

I admittedly haven't checked the latest numbers but, by comparing building permits issued to population projections last year, it looked as if there was a new, single-family detached home built in Clark County for approximately every one and a half new resident between 2000 and 2009. Floyd County's numbers were similar.

We continue to waste finite resources further diluting our housing and business markets, building structures in substantial quantities for which we have no need and little use. The proliferation of those ill-advised structures is then used in an attempt to justify even more automobile infrastructure, the purpose and outcome of which is the encouragement of more of the same kind of self-defeating building.

For those of you trying to communicate about this with new Hispanic neighbors, the primary word you're looking for is "estúpido". Once I find the Spanish equivalent of "delusional", I'll report back.

HISKES: 10 ways cities and towns can kick the offshore-oil habit.

While Louisville and Southern Indiana citizens await the results of a dance contest between Wall Street honchos, foreign investors, special interest lobbyists, and an "authority" with little transportation and community development expertise, even less diversity, and no public accountability as part of a financial process that's already five years behind in service to a project that, according to current schedules, won't be finished until approximately 2030 making it even more outdated and unsustainable upon completion than when originally imagined, other local governments are rapidly moving forward with more cost effective, long-term solutions.

HISKES: 10 ways cities and towns can kick the offshore-oil habit

With the Gulf oil spill continuing unabated, powering a 21st century economy on a 19th century fossil fuel looks less and less smart by the day.

Luckily, we've got other options. I described the most promising steps the federal government could take toward reducing oil use in transportation systems last week. But local governments don't have to wait for federal action. Through smart land use, cities, towns, and many rural areas can give residents the option of driving less -- a direct way to stem the demand for offshore (and foreign) oil.

I spoke with leaders of the Smart Growth movement, along with advocates for economic justice, to learn about solutions that don't require new technology and, in many cases, pay for themselves.

Just ask Mr. Resch.

It's what we've been saying. If local builders and developers don't believe it, they might ask Steve Resch to explain, because while their suburban business is down, his is up. How'd he do that?

Thanks to JP for the link.

'Smart Growth' Taking Hold in U.S. Cities, Study Says, by Gabriel Nelson (New York Times, via Greenwire)

Redevelopment of urban centers has continued to outpace construction in the outskirts of suburbia, according to a recent U.S. EPA study, suggesting a "fundamental shift" has begun in the real estate market as the Obama administration pushes denser development through its "livability" initiative.

Gonder: "Responsible re-use of the property dictates that the main showroom building be used and preserved as a critical feature of Spring Street."

Picking up where we left off yesterday, John Gonder (city council at large) states the case for smart growth at the Coyle site, and adaptive reuse of its centerpiece.

It's Our Turn

Last week a couple articles appeared in the press about the possible purchase of the Coyle Dodge property for use as City/County headquarters.

At the last regular City Council meeting, (which seems about seven meetings back) a resolution was passed unanimously, favoring the concept of Smart Growth and admonishing the City to hew to that organization's principles in planning. It further suggested that the City's Comprehensive Plan be updated in accordance with Smart Growth principles.

The potential acquisition of the Coyle property is a golden, if sudden, opportunity to put the City's resolve into practice. Smart Growth might not necessarily result in moving City Hall onto the Coyle property. But smart growth, lower case intended, would dictate that the existing Coyle building be used if that property is acquired.

It either flows or it doesn't: Another evening in Council chambers.

As reported by the Tribune and C-J, the City Council will this evening consider whether or not to hold Georgetown accountable for a sewer deal it struck with New Albany some years ago, raising the town's sewer rate and instituting penalties as agreed for failing to begin construction on its own sewer plant within the specified time frame.

Though it's now being billed as some sort of unfair rate hike by opponents, Georgetown sought this deal and hasn't lived up to it. After four years including an extension, town officials can't even say for certain where their plant will be built, let alone when. Perhaps the sewer board should dispatch ROCK representatives to Council chambers to point out that people tend to make use of the sewer system behind closed doors with their pants down. The rest of us should probably start advocating for an independent sewer district.

In other waste handling news, City Attorney Shane Gibson's review and correction of New Albany codes continues with Shane asking the Council to address deficiencies in 150.101 and 150.103, both dealing with cleanliness of premises. Amendments to these codes would clear up confusion in the violation notification and response process and name the Board of Public Works as the Appeals Board, which is currently mentioned but not defined. The proposed amendments are much needed, overdue measures.

The 2009 CDBG one-year action plan is up for adoption and CM John Gonder will introduce a resolution promoting the Smart Growth America program.

A public hearing and special council meeting to vote on the appropriation of $2 million in EDIT funds for paving has been announced for Thursday, May 28. The hearing will be at 7:15 pm and the meeting at 7:30 pm in the usual location.

Those interested in two-way, pedestrian and bike friendly street reclamation might want to consider raising their voices.


The agenda, provided by City Clerk Marcey Wisman, is here.

Jeffersonville Main Street's Smart Growth Summit 2008 is September 17.

From Jay Ellis:

You're invited to attend Jeffersonville Main Street Inc.'s 3rd Annual Smart Growth Summit on Wednesday, September 17 from noon-4:30 p.m. in Jeffersonville, Indiana. It is an educational afternoon of great talks about how we can best use our built and natural spaces to make our communities more livable.

This year's theme is "25 Ways You Can Improve Your Community." The event takes place in an historic rail car factory that has been preserved as a meeting facility called Kye's at Water Tower Square. We hope to see you there.

Registration Form for 2008 Smart Growth Summit >> (PDF Format)
Summit Agenda >> (PDF Format)
Driving Directions to Kye's >>

http://www.jeffmainstreet.org/