Learning from Other Places

[videtur quam contuor]

Manhattan this week for four days. The mask mandate is real here, at least in the locations I visited. Restaurants require mask and vaccination proof for indoor dining. Outdoor not required. Every restaurant we visited, four of them, asked for proof at the door. One restaurant also asked for identification but no record taken of it so not for contact tracing. If I recall, the mandate for vaccinated only at indoor events started recently and the enforcement, whatever it is, will begin on Monday, 13 September. On the Upper West Side mask use was ubiquitous. Hotel sign said mask use STRONGLY RECOMMENDED in common areas indoors. Requirement not stated on sign though the sign may have been superseded by more recent mandate. 

If you fly American to LGA, note that our flight arrived at D8 Terminal B (American Terminal) and it was a one mile walk to the taxi stand, per my phone.  No moving sidewalks. This gate section is to be abandoned, perhaps demolished in 2022 according to an airport worker. I nearly achieved handicap status on the walk.

[rancenc]

.A recent product of Greenville SC's WYFF on the downtowns of several cities including Asheville NC.  It is about a hour long!

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by rancenc

[rancenc]

The Memphis area landed a nice little economic "coup" today with this announcement!

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/money/business/development/2021/09/27/ford-electric-vehicles-memphis-regional-megasite-new-jobs/5884664001/

[KJHburg]

5 minutes ago, rancenc said:

The Memphis area landed a nice little economic "coup" today with this announcement!

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/money/business/development/2021/09/27/ford-electric-vehicles-memphis-regional-megasite-new-jobs/5884664001/

Believe me they need it.  one of the poorest metro areas by income in the country and very stagnant (metro grew by 1% in the last decade)  

[KJHburg]

Bentonville Arkansas will have the largest mass timber office complex in the world with Walmarts new corporate campus.

Walmart’s new Home Office is the largest mass timber campus project in the U.S. | Building Design + Construction (bdcnetwork.com)

I can't believe we do not have a mass timber structure yet especially since Crescent is owned by a huge Japanese timber company! 

[tozmervo]

55 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Bentonville Arkansas will have the largest mass timber office complex in the world with Walmarts new corporate campus.

Walmart’s new Home Office is the largest mass timber campus project in the U.S. | Building Design + Construction (bdcnetwork.com)

I can't believe we do not have a mass timber structure yet especially since Crescent is owned by a huge Japanese timber company! 

The 2024 North Carolina Building code will supposedly be adding substantial changes that make really large mass timber structures more feasible to execute. 

[rancenc]

What a great renovation project...hopefully comes to fruition!

https://www.ourstate.com/village-voices/

 

[rancenc]

Definitely not a city to emulate from a growth standpoint, but this recent aerial of Detroit does showcase the magnificent office buildings that were constructed during the city's heyday.  However, virtually the entire skyline seems to predate the late 1980's.  Also if look at the city on Google maps, whole swaths  outside of downtown is almost like corn fields in Nebraska; very rural looking.

 

[videtur quam contuor]

Detroit is a French word. Étroit means narrow. Détroit means a narrow waterway, a strait. The détroit between lake St Clair and Lake Erie is the one applied here. Voyageurs in canoes pursuing furs and wealth.

Antoine Cadillac, né Laumet, was quite the adventurer and lived in Maine, Québec, ran Détroit (critical for water travel to the fur country) and other locations in French America. Trafficking in furs and alcohol was his game. 

Much more here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_de_la_Mothe_Cadillac

[tozmervo]

I shall henceforth pronounce it as deh-twah

[videtur quam contuor]

Oh, that French "r" is a tough challenge for native English speakers and an instant accent identifier. My French has an American accent that is noticeable before I finish "Bonjour".

[rancenc]

13 hours ago, tozmervo said:

I shall henceforth pronounce it as deh-twah

Be careful and not accentuate a hard "T" at the end of this pronunciation; you might get some nasty stares!!

Edited October 3, 2021 by rancenc

[videtur quam contuor]

If one reads about the French in North America it is amazing what they encountered and discovered. Tiny data point: Boise, Idaho; boisé (bwah-zay)="wooded" in French from an early French visitor, unclear who.

[KJHburg]

I will now pronounce it correctly

How to Pronounce Detroit in French? - Bing video

[KJHburg]

The good the bad and ugly from my 8 state trip.  Here is the Tennessee Arkansas edition. 

1.  Nashville has serious infrastructure problems and not just because it is raining.  It like this all day long basically as they have 3 interestates converge downtown and there is no true north south bypass.  2.  Great historical saves in Nashville like Union Station.  3.  Nashville skyline.    4. Trolley shelter in downtown Memphis.   5. 6. Great older buildings reused in downtown Memphis or still operating like the grand Peabody hotel.   7. Trolley operates in downtown Memphis along Main. 8. Every city needs a landmark and their's is this pyramid formerly an arena now a mega Bass Pro shop and observation deck and hotel.  9. view from Observation deck on the Pyramid  10. How is this for a rail trail?  a bridge that is parallel to an active rail line over the Mississippi River and the only place that you can stand in both Tennessee and Arkansas legally.   11.  this is one way to get height in downtown Little Rock:  ground floor retail over hotel over office over apartments or condos.  12. fun spots for photos in Little Rock 13. skyline and much newer than Memphis's even though much smaller city.  14. Old Junction railroad bridge now pedestrian over Arkansas River. 15. this historical hotel is actually owned by a Raleigh based company.  16.17. Little Rock Central High national historical site and they restored this old gas station which is great.   18.  last photo is Memphis's tallest building that is completely vacant which is very sad. 

[DMann]

I have always disliked the ATT Building in Nashville.

[tozmervo]

1 hour ago, DMann said:

I have always disliked the ATT Building in Nashville.

I'm Batman!

[carolina1792]

2 hours ago, KJHburg said:

The good the bad and ugly from my 8 state trip.  Here is the Tennessee Arkansas edition. 

1.  Nashville has serious infrastructure problems and not just because it is raining.  It like this all day long basically as they have 3 interestates converge downtown and there is no true north south bypass.  2.  Great historical saves in Nashville like Union Station.  3.  Nashville skyline.    4. Trolley shelter in downtown Memphis.   5. 6. Great older buildings reused in downtown Memphis or still operating like the grand Peabody hotel.   7. Trolley operates in downtown Memphis along Main. 8. Every city needs a landmark and their's is this pyramid formerly an arena now a mega Bass Pro shop and observation deck and hotel.  9. view from Observation deck on the Pyramid  10. How is this for a rail trail?  a bridge that is parallel to an active rail line over the Mississippi River and the only place that you can stand in both Tennessee and Arkansas legally.   11.  this is one way to get height in downtown Little Rock:  ground floor retail over hotel over office over apartments or condos.  12. fun spots for photos in Little Rock 13. skyline and much newer than Memphis's even though much smaller city.  14. Old Junction railroad bridge now pedestrian over Arkansas River. 15. this historical hotel is actually owned by a Raleigh based company.  16.17. Little Rock Central High national historical site and they restored this old gas station which is great.   18.  last photo is Memphis's tallest building that is completely vacant which is very sad. 

Of all the metros in the South excluding Florida I think Nashville will be the first to have a supertall (300 meters/1000 feet) purely off of speculative outside investment. Probably a high end condo tower like you see in Austin. 

[jthomas]

2 hours ago, DMann said:

I have always disliked the ATT Building in Nashville.

The proportions are off - it would look a lot better if it was 20 stories taller.

[go_vertical]

9 hours ago, DMann said:

I have always disliked the ATT Building in Nashville.

Very much agree with this. It's always looked like a plastic toy of a building to me and I can't pinpoint exactly why that is, but it just never has worked for me. 

This one is pretty high up on my list of "skyline destroyers".  A list that the Renaissance Center in Detroit comfortably sits at the top of. 

Edited October 5, 2021 by go_vertical

[DMann]

Amen to that!

[KJHburg]

2 hours ago, carolina1792 said:

Of all the metros in the South excluding Florida I think Nashville will be the first to have a supertall (300 meters/1000 feet) purely off of speculative outside investment. Probably a high end condo tower like you see in Austin. 

they had a 750 foot 60 story condo and apartment tower proposed today by a local developer.  Lots of announcements by this developer but not always built so we will see. 

Edited October 4, 2021 by KJHburg

[KJHburg]

Part 2 of the good bad and ugly and what we can learn from others Dallas Fort Worth metroplex.

1. Suburbs and new homes seen a full 50 miles out from downtown Dallas.   2. Texas does not play around with highways extensive system of freeways, beltways, tollways, tolled express lanes etc.  3.4.5 Grandscape a mixed use heavy on the retail and entertainment town center far north Dallas suburbs.  Grandscape - The Colony, Texas   5.6. Toyota North American HQ which short listed Charlotte in their move out of Southern California.  Lack of direct flights to Asia and smaller size hurt our chances.  6000 people work here. 7.8. Transit oriented development in downtown Plano along the DART line. 9.10.  More massive Transit oriented development in Richardson along DART. Home - CityLine DFW   

11.12. 13. Keep an eye on DART nations largest light rail network.   14.15.16. downtown Dallas has saved many of their older buildings which is very common in Texas and everywhere in NC except for uptown Charlotte.    17.18.19. Freeway cap park Klyde Warren Park a private public partnership linking downtown and uptown Dallas.  20, DART map ---goals for Charlotte region.  21. Keep it Weird Dallas or express yourself in Deep Ellum.  22. starting with the Fort Worth skyline shot,  lots of retail both national and local in downtown Fort Worth (Texas Aggies parade before football game this earning morning) lots of historical buildings reused in downtown including a more recent glass 42 story building once an office tower then converted to condos.  (think uptown Charlotte in the future with some of our class B older office towers)   Embrace your heritage which is what Fort Worth does it calls itself Where the West Begins  and even blends new 5 star hotel and high retail into their Stockyards district.    Last photos show the new corporate headquarters of Charles Schwab which moved from San Francisco to this suburban campus in Westlake which is between Dallas and Fort Worth northwest of the DFW airport.  

Dallas and Fort Worth are very different cities but they share a massive airport, the Cowboys and TX Rangers and interconnected commuter rail and light rail system.  (Dallas has the NBA and NHL team in the uptown Dallas area)   Of the top 20 largest metro areas in the country only one instate rival Houston grew faster in the country.   the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex has over 7.6 Million and is the  4th largest metro in the country.  

PS just looking at that CityLine website found out another new light rail line the Silver Line read more here about it

DART.org - Silver Line Regional Rail Project

 

Edited October 5, 2021 by KJHburg

[smeagolsfree]

On 10/4/2021 at 2:07 PM, carolina1792 said:

Of all the metros in the South excluding Florida I think Nashville will be the first to have a supertall (300 meters/1000 feet) purely off of speculative outside investment. Probably a high end condo tower like you see in Austin. 

It will be a while as the FAA will not allow anything over the 750’ that was just announced this week. I know a lot of the backstory on this and there is a lot that I can’t say publicly or for that matter privately. The location of the airport is not any different from Charlotte’s , however the orientation of our downtown is closer to the approach that DT Charlotte’s.

At some point when the main runway is extended and the 4th runway is built, then we may be able to get something over 750’, but until that time, Nashville is SOL.

As Kevin said the infrastructure, especially the transit sucks. There is bad blood between Metro and the State and until that is solved, the hopes of any kind of a viable mass transit system is out of the question. The current Mayor seems hell bent on buses and they will be stuck in traffic as the state will not allow Metro to have dedicated lanes due to a dispute with a previous mayor. There is no dedicated funding option in place and none of the RTA members (area mayors) have come to any kind of agreement as to how to get commuters from the burbs into Nashville.

In Three words… ITS A MESS! 

I do think the Convention center and the airport authority will eventually fund a rail line from the airport to downtown themselves as that plan is on the drawing board, but again getting it down without state help will be hard. The problem with a city/county Metro govt. is that many of these areas came into Metro in the 60’s and didn’t have sidewalks or services and still don’t and are now experiencing a lot of growth. There are some areas of town where entire neighborhoods have pretty much been bulldozed and new homes have been built and due to bad planning on Metros part, sidewalks were not built as this took place over the past 8 years.

The bad planning does not stop there as the downtown code that was written ten years ago was outdated 3 years after it was written as Metro was not prepared for the explosion of growth that has taken place.

In spite of all of this the city continues to grow, add jobs, population, increase, median wages, and attract new business, but for how long is the big question. 

[Desert Power]

On 10/4/2021 at 7:54 PM, KJHburg said:

Part 2 of the good bad and ugly and what we can learn from others Dallas Fort Worth metroplex.

1. Suburbs and new homes seen a full 50 miles out from downtown Dallas.   2. Texas does not play around with highways extensive system of freeways, beltways, tollways, tolled express lanes etc.  3.4.5 Grandscape a mixed use heavy on the retail and entertainment town center far north Dallas suburbs.  Grandscape - The Colony, Texas   5.6. Toyota North American HQ which short listed Charlotte in their move out of Southern California.  Lack of direct flights to Asia and smaller size hurt our chances.  6000 people work here. 7.8. Transit oriented development in downtown Plano along the DART line. 9.10.  More massive Transit oriented development in Richardson along DART. Home - CityLine DFW   

11.12. 13. Keep an eye on DART nations largest light rail network.   14.15.16. downtown Dallas has saved many of their older buildings which is very common in Texas and everywhere in NC except for uptown Charlotte.    17.18.19. Freeway cap park Klyde Warren Park a private public partnership linking downtown and uptown Dallas.  20, DART map ---goals for Charlotte region.  21. Keep it Weird Dallas or express yourself in Deep Ellum.  22. starting with the Fort Worth skyline shot,  lots of retail both national and local in downtown Fort Worth (Texas Aggies parade before football game this earning morning) lots of historical buildings reused in downtown including a more recent glass 42 story building once an office tower then converted to condos.  (think uptown Charlotte in the future with some of our class B older office towers)   Embrace your heritage which is what Fort Worth does it calls itself Where the West Begins  and even blends new 5 star hotel and high retail into their Stockyards district.    Last photos show the new corporate headquarters of Charles Schwab which moved from San Francisco to this suburban campus in Westlake which is between Dallas and Fort Worth northwest of the DFW airport.  

Dallas and Fort Worth are very different cities but they share a massive airport, the Cowboys and TX Rangers and interconnected commuter rail and light rail system.  (Dallas has the NBA and NHL team in the uptown Dallas area)   Of the top 20 largest metro areas in the country only one instate rival Houston grew faster in the country.   the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex has over 7.6 Million and is the  4th largest metro in the country.  

PS just looking at that CityLine website found out another new light rail line the Silver Line read more here about it

DART.org - Silver Line Regional Rail Project

 

Was quite surprised how dead both Ft Worth and Dallas downtowns felt. Both are obviously very beautiful, but just little to no activity while I was there. I had a nice lunch at a latin american place right across the street from the freeway cap park. Just not a lot of people out and about. Likewise, Ft Worth has some really cool buildings with a mix of historic, but felt like their Main St was less active than even Columbia, SC.

Stockyards in Ft Worth were a different story. That place was hopping.

Overall I was pretty impressed with the infrastructure though. Seems like they have invested a lot in their highways which support such a sprawling mass of single family homes. Driving around the area was pretty easy.