Tag: "real estate"
More Encouraging Economic News
OK, the signs are still modest, but at least they’re headed in the right direction. Reuters reports that recent REIS data shows that office vacancy rates are declining in the nation’s technology centers: During the first quarter, the average New York office rent rose 1.4 percent to $47.22 per square foot. Over the past 12 [...]
Good news: Downtowns are Winning!
Do you remember when it seemed inevitable that shopping malls were going to completely destroy downtown shopping districts? Well, it looks like the malls have lost: For more than 50 years, retailers favored the rows of boxy single-story shops opening onto a common parking lot facing major roadways bringing commuters driving between their suburban homes [...]
Zoning Industry Into Urban Neighborhoods
As any student of urban planning knows, zoning first came into being to separate out noxious uses like industry from residential areas. But with a few exceptions (c.f., fat-rendering plants), over the last 100 years much industry has become cleaner and quieter. At the same time, planners are increasingly convinced that locating a mix of [...]
Pop Ups: A Solution for Vacant Storefronts?
According to Springwise, a charity has been created in the UK whose sole purpose is to find not-for-profits who are willing to fill vacant commercial space on a temporary basis, keeping the storefronts active while providing the organizations with affordable space: Pop-up spaces have graced our virtual pages many times in the past, and now [...]
Building Green Cities
The Wall Street Journal has a special feature on what it will take to make US cities green for the future. Here are a few of the extensive ideas in the report: District Heating In a typical office building, heating and cooling account for nearly two-thirds of total energy use. So an alternative to traditional [...]
Jane Jacobs was wrong!
So says Harvard University economist Edward Glaeser. Take a look. In its criticism of Jacob’s embrace of Greenwich Village as the only good type of urban environment, his thinking is in that way related to Lewis Mumford’s response from 50 years ago.
