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There is a good series of articles on Cobb County at Strong Towns: "Cobb County: Addicted to Growth." It's five parts and goes into the insanity of Cobb County's entire project. Another one that might be of interest in light of the "cars > people" discussion on the Legacy Union thread is "The True Costs of Driving" from the Atlantic.

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Also, I wanted to link to an "exemplar intersection," one of the types of streetscapes that I think could be Charlotte's model. This one is in Singapore at the intersection of Bencoolen St. and Bras Basah Rd. It's not a tourist area; it's full of ugly, non-historic modern buildings; it doesn't have many of the types of things that would make it "cool." However, it does have excellent transit accesss, bus lanes, bike lanes, protected pedestrian crossings, shade trees, and so on, despite being part of a relatively high-volume street. Here is a street view.

image.thumb.png.658a8113dc331cf4e5b8c3d69b623451.png

 

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1 hour ago, asthasr said:

Also, I wanted to link to an "exemplar intersection," one of the types of streetscapes that I think could be Charlotte's model. This one is in Singapore at the intersection of Bencoolen St. and Bras Basah Rd. It's not a tourist area; it's full of ugly, non-historic modern buildings; it doesn't have many of the types of things that would make it "cool." However, it does have excellent transit accesss, bus lanes, bike lanes, protected pedestrian crossings, shade trees, and so on, despite being part of a relatively high-volume street. Here is a street view.

image.thumb.png.658a8113dc331cf4e5b8c3d69b623451.png

 

Been there. I think one thing that makes this all possible is the high tolls to access the area in a car during busy periods keeping traffic to a reasonable level (compare to Bangkok or Beijing for example!). Assume that is still the case?

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2 minutes ago, elrodvt said:

Been there. I think one thing that makes this all possible is the high tolls to access the area in a car during busy periods keeping traffic to a reasonable level (compare to Bangkok or Beijing for example!). Assume that is still the case?

Yes, I believe Bras Basah is tolled--and that does help, of course--but I think that even with heavier traffic the pedestrian and transit infrastructure would still function well.

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On 11/16/2018 at 11:17 PM, elrodvt said:

Nice photos KJH. No surprise but think you're 180 off on this being a model. :tw_grimace: It belongs in the urban core. It's like an old fashioned case of white flight. Atlanta is such a mess. Transit to the park sucks.

All large sports venues will not be in the core of a metro's primary city, nor should they be. As far as the Braves go, they probably should have remained in the city but Atlanta is large enough to support several types of suburban sports venues (which it does). The Battery could most definitely serve as a model for those other venues, albeit on a smaller scale.

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Up in Raleigh today and I was in Nashville a few weeks back.  I prefer Raleigh to Nashville for a lot a reasons.  One is the way the city looks.  Raleigh has great design standards, landscaping and sign regulations, and generally the city just looks a lot better.   Plus Charlotte can take a big cue from the capital city in its parks, greenways, bike lanes etc.  Here is a bridge of a greenway trail over I-440 the Beltline.  Raleigh may not have tall buildings as Charlotte does but the city is really booming like it the two other It cities. But the way it looks you can tell it has good standards in landscaping.  

PS No I have not had time to clean my windows sorry for the spots LOL 

IMG_6816.JPG

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From the New York Times, "Nashville's Star Rises as Midsize Cities Break Into Winners and Losers," by Ben Casselman, December 16, 2018.  

"Amazon’s announcement has been widely described as a rich-get-richer victory of coastal “superstar cities” like New York and Washington, regions where the company plans to employ a total of at least 50,000 workers.  But the company’s decisions also reflect another trend:  growing inequality among midsize cities.  Nashville and the other Amazon also-rans, like Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis, are thriving because of a combination of luck, astute political choices and well-timed investments.  At the same time, Birmingham and cities like it, including Providence, R.I., and Rochester, are falling further behind. ... In Birmingham, Mayor Woodfin said the city must follow a different path.  'I am 100 percent convinced we do not have to be the next Nashville or the next Austin or the next Charlotte,' he said. 'We can be the best Birmingham.'”

17nashville-diptych-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

Nashville, right, and Birmingham, left, were peers 40 years ago.  CreditCreditLynsey Weatherspoon for The New York Times

Link:  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/16/business/economy/nashville-birmingham-amazon.html

Edited by QCxpat
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Here is a simple idea to activate the streets and maybe remove some of the hundreds of benches along Tryon.    From downtown Asheville these tables for street hawkers to sell their wares.  I am sure there is some kind of permitting process but I think this could work and hopefully lead to more permanent stores. 

1. early this morning.  2. full of business yesterday afternoon 

 

IMG_7442.JPG

Ashideas.jpg

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On 12/6/2018 at 9:02 PM, KJHburg said:

Up in Raleigh today and I was in Nashville a few weeks back.  I prefer Raleigh to Nashville for a lot a reasons.  One is the way the city looks.  Raleigh has great design standards, landscaping and sign regulations, and generally the city just looks a lot better.   Plus Charlotte can take a big cue from the capital city in its parks, greenways, bike lanes etc.  Here is a bridge of a greenway trail over I-440 the Beltline.  Raleigh may not have tall buildings as Charlotte does but the city is really booming like it the two other It cities. But the way it looks you can tell it has good standards in landscaping.  

PS No I have not had time to clean my windows sorry for the spots LOL 

IMG_6816.JPG

Raleigh does have that manicured look. 

On 12/17/2018 at 6:23 AM, QCxpat said:

From the New York Times, "Nashville's Star Rises as Midsize Cities Break Into Winners and Losers," by Ben Casselman, December 16, 2018.  

"Amazon’s announcement has been widely described as a rich-get-richer victory of coastal “superstar cities” like New York and Washington, regions where the company plans to employ a total of at least 50,000 workers.  But the company’s decisions also reflect another trend:  growing inequality among midsize cities.  Nashville and the other Amazon also-rans, like Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis, are thriving because of a combination of luck, astute political choices and well-timed investments.  At the same time, Birmingham and cities like it, including Providence, R.I., and Rochester, are falling further behind. ... In Birmingham, Mayor Woodfin said the city must follow a different path.  'I am 100 percent convinced we do not have to be the next Nashville or the next Austin or the next Charlotte,' he said. 'We can be the best Birmingham.'”

17nashville-diptych-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

Nashville, right, and Birmingham, left, were peers 40 years ago.  CreditCreditLynsey Weatherspoon for The New York Times

Link:  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/16/business/economy/nashville-birmingham-amazon.html

Headline 2028: Hipsters Flee Nashville For Affordable Birmingham

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23 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Here is a simple idea to activate the streets and maybe remove some of the hundreds of benches along Tryon.    From downtown Asheville these tables for street hawkers to sell their wares.  I am sure there is some kind of permitting process but I think this could work and hopefully lead to more permanent stores. 

1. early this morning.  2. full of business yesterday afternoon 

 

IMG_7442.JPG

Ashideas.jpg

Are these in front of the arcade building on the west side of downtown?  I remember walking through to go inside of the historic building that spanned an entire block.  It was so impressive inside!  Kind of reminded me of the old school arcade buildings in the Northeast!

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This came out from one of my YouTube subscriptions this morning. Miami doesn't get as much attention as some other cities--maybe because it's perceived as being unique in its cultural/economic/geographic positioning and thus "irrelevant?" In any case, this video shows a lot of its characteristic residential architecture and, more interestingly for Charlotte, a lot of its actually good civic art.

 

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3 hours ago, asthasr said:

This came out from one of my YouTube subscriptions this morning. Miami doesn't get as much attention as some other cities--maybe because it's perceived as being unique in its cultural/economic/geographic positioning and thus "irrelevant?" In any case, this video shows a lot of its characteristic residential architecture and, more interestingly for Charlotte, a lot of its actually good civic art.

I work around a lot of people who move to Charlotte from out-of-town, and so many people come here from Miami. They all say the same thing: that they will dearly miss the unique culture, but they will not miss the horrific, nausea-inducing, takes-30-minutes-to-drive-1-mile traffic.

There are some crazy shots in that video, though: Like, look at those islands/peninsulas!... those are all single-family residences with docks, it looks like. And that highway junction through downtown... wow.

image.thumb.png.facef3eaf41719ac323bdc45a6c79f1c.png

image.thumb.png.5422962a72821bb8fff77126c97620dd.png

 

Edited by SgtCampsalot
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^^^ Though metro Miami and south Florida the 3 big counties are larger much larger than the rest of the metros in Florida, all the rest are growing faster Tampa St Pete, Orlando and JAX.

Miami has style for sure in their buildings but street level wise especially in downtown Miami or Brickell it is a bit dangerous for pedestrians.  The smaller cities around the metro have great little downtowns that are pedestrian friendly Coconut Grove, Palm Beach, Delray etc.

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I used to live in Parkland, just north of Miami off the Sawgrass expressway and 441. I speak to many Floridians that decided to move to Charlotte. 99.9% of them I speak to do not regret the decision they made, but what they do tell me is they know Charlotte’s going to sprawl out like Miami did, give it 10-25 years. 

Edited by Cadi40
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