Learning from Other Places

[KJHburg]

Here is an office building like nothing else seen in the USA.  Googles new Bay View campus in Mountain View CA

Google is opening an engineering hub in Durham with about 1000 people but they don't have a permanent home yet. 

https://blog.google/inside-google/life-at-google/bay-view-campus-grand-opening/

[KJHburg]

top 7 projects underway in Nashville says CPE Magazine 

https://www.commercialsearch.com/news/top-projects-that-will-reshape-nashville/

[smeagolsfree]

14 hours ago, KJHburg said:

top 7 projects underway in Nashville says CPE Magazine 

https://www.commercialsearch.com/news/top-projects-that-will-reshape-nashville/

Thanks for posting, Kevin!

Of all of these projects, the one we have our doubts about is the Riverside Project. The developer IMO is a bit of an egomaniac that has never developed anything. The project sits way out in the middle of nowhere with somewhat limited access on the north side of town across the river. I think the neighborhood will eat him alive when it comes to negotiating a community benefits agreement and the traffic from his endeavor will be too much for the four-lane road to handle. This is one that I really don't care if it happens at all to be frank!

All but that one, are either under construction or well into design phase and about to start and have been approved. The river North project is going to be a ten year build out at least as one of our moderators is on the design team for the Oracle project. 

The Nashville Yards project is well under way now, with the base garage sections of 9 buildings under construction and of those nine, six are under construction with a 10th almost complete. Two more high-rise residential buildings and a hotel that are unrelated to the Yards are also under construction with a 60-story due to start by years end all being across the street from the project.

The Hines project at the Reed site is set to start construction in 2023. This from a Hines official we have contact with. Working for a media outlet has its perks.

[smeagolsfree]

I have a shot I took a couple of weeks ago from the east looking west. There are two more crane bases in place with three more to go in this shot. There is another crane in the foreground where the barriers are that is not pictured.

There are also two more cranes further north for another building in the Gulch under construction. That particular section has eight more high-rises planned and is on the other side of the RR Tracks. 

 

[KJHburg]

Stopping in Nashville on my epic road trip in September and will be sure to blow up the UP there with photos! 

[smeagolsfree]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

Stopping in Nashville on my epic road trip in September and will be sure to blow up the UP there with photos! 

You should have plenty to take pictures of. Right now, I think there are 51 tower cranes up with at least three more basses ready for instillation, but as some go up some come down. We should have a bunch of starts in the next three months.

Let's meet up for coffee, I am sure Mark is available too. You will be in Marks neighborhood if visiting Belmont like usual.

[15895]

Denver 1920 vs 1970

Hearts my heart and I never been to Denver nor have any interest in it (purely because there’s too many places in the world it’s hard to care about everywhere. Nothing personal) But yeesh it’s just painful to see. 

 

Washington DC almost got smashed by the bulldozer, luckily residents fought very hard and Metro was built instead of highways. Here’s the highways that were proposed:

(The highway going into the heart of DC is underground) 

 

Below is a map of DC for those not familiar. The city went fairly unscathed by highways. 

[smeagolsfree]

10 hours ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

Denver 1920 vs 1970

Hearts my heart and I never been to Denver nor have any interest in it (purely because there’s too many places in the world it’s hard to care about everywhere. Nothing personal) But yeesh it’s just painful to see. 

 

Washington DC almost got smashed by the bulldozer, luckily residents fought very hard and Metro was built instead of highways. Here’s the highways that were proposed:

(The highway going into the heart of DC is underground) 

 

Below is a map of DC for those not familiar. The city went fairly unscathed by highways. 

I feel your pain. I have been to Denver a few times and they have saved more than you think as their preservation started in the 1970's, but they did demo a lot of buildings.

Here is a shot of the same area now.

 

[Matthew.Brendan]

The woeful destruction at the altar of the automobile is truly something.

Amazing that we still suffer today at the hand of car-first primacy in how we design and build our social environment.

[KJHburg]

Does anyone know of a map like this for Charlotte?   This shows the ages of buildings built by decades.  This one of Raleigh shows how small Raleigh once was especially before 1940s?

https://develop.dtraleigh.com/buildings/

Charlotte while bigger than Raleigh was still much smaller than it is today.  People often ask where are all the older neighborhoods and with the exception of Brooklyn they are mostly still there in tact we just don't have as many as a Richmond for example.   The reason we did not need them as Charlotte like Raleigh really boomed in the last 50 years not before WW 2. 

This is a great map. 

[LKN704]

Not really sure where to put this, but this is an amazing video: 

This comment on the video really resonated with me:

I’m 45 and have two young children. I grew up in a reasonably walkable/bikeable suburb of Boston that had a population of around 35K. Around age 12, I started riding my bike further and further away from my neighborhood. I craved freedom. Biking to a friend’s house for the first time that was outside of my normal range was powerfully liberating. Over the next few years I walked and biked increasingly longer distances to visit friends and enjoy feeling independent. But I remember one evening I was about to leave the house to go somewhere and my father offered me a ride. I politely says no thanks, I’d rather walk. This angered him, and he asked me, “Why do you want to be walking around on the streets like some kind of jerk?” At the time I didn’t get why he was so upset. But looking back I realize most of the people you’d see walking or occasionally biking around my hometown had “DUI” written all over them. They were either ne’er do well types, or extremely poor. My father didn’t want me mingling with these people on their level, or to be seen by the ‘normal’ people in our town as some kind of aspiring f**k up in the making. All this despite the fact that his generation had immeasurable freedom as children, far more than even I could imagine. Perhaps in the name of progress and improvement we naively allowed walking and biking to become so stigmatized they’ve basically been abandoned, and as this video illustrates it’s not just a cultural thing it’s baked into zoning laws and likely tied into the auto industry itself in some ways. North Americans are losing their minds.

Growing up in a suburban housing development in NY, I biked all around the neighborhood with friends and that was relatively common. Our house was up against a bike path that led to a large riverfront town park that had hiking trails and a huge pool complex. You could buy a summer pass for the pool, and starting at around age 9 my parents allowed me to get my own pool pass so I could bike by myself to the town pool, which was a facility with countless lifeguards. Looking back now, I'm surprised the town let me get my own pass and go unaccompanied, but I remember the nosy, neighborhood hens thought the idea was crazy and wouldn't let any of their children/my friends bike to the pool with me without an adult. These are the same parents who would call my parents if I was outside after sundown or if I was riding a scooter without a helmet, etc. 

My parents weren't free-range by any means, but as long as I didn't get into trouble they really didn't care what I did. I remember one time a friend of mine and I explored the woods behind our neighborhood...it was pretty cool, there was a massive waterfall and this cool abandoned concrete water tank. One time, we were playing back there for probably 3-4 hours and I guess my friend's parents didn't tell them where he was or whatnot, and they freaked out, called my parents, searching the neighborhood, etc. His dad eventually found us, screamed at him, and told me I needed to go home. I got home, and my dad parents were casually watching TV. I asked them why they weren't freaking out, and they responded "well you would have come home to eat eventually!". 

Going the other direction, the bike path went along the river to the neighboring county. Starting at around age 12, I would bike along the path, exit at one of the entry/exit points, bike down a backroad, and then bike down a busy four-lane road to go to a McDonalds and mini-golf place that sat up against one of the runways at the Albany Airport. I had a friend (whose parents were like mine) and we would regularly go get sandwiches and then sit and watch the planes takeoff and land. It was about 11 miles round-trip. A couple of times I recall cops asking what we were doing, but I don't know if anyone ever called the cops on us. 

When I moved to North Carolina in high school, it was even worse IMO. None of the kids biked around the housing development, and kids on bikes were seen as a nuisance...none of the neighborhood kids owned a bike, or if they owned one, I never saw them ride it. One time I rode down to a park by our house (around 2 miles away) with my younger brothers, and someone I guess called the cops on us saying we were unattended...mind you I was 16 at the time with my 12 year old brother. First the cop attempted to tell me the park was "closed" to which I was responded it isn't because there were literally other people using the park at the same time, and then he said that children couldn't be there unsupervised. I wasn't going to get into it with him, so we eventually left, but I remember my mom called the non-emergency number to complain on the cop. 

Today in DC, I sometimes take the subway to this mixed use development outside the city in North Bethesda called Pike + Rose, just to get away from the city for a bit and take a look around. Pike + Rose is like a fancier Metropolitan at Midtown...there's an H&M, Uniqlo, Gap, REI, LL Bean, and a couple more stores I can't remember. There might be a movie theatre. Anyway, to get there, you need to take the Red Line to White Flint station, and then walk up a busy four-lane road for about a half mile. While there are TODs near the station, it's still suburbia, and I can tell drivers give me confused looks when I walk on the sidewalks over there. 

Bottom line, I don't want kids, but the thought of raising kids in suburbia scares me. I get the package deal of a big yard, etc., but looking back now, if I was a kid again, I would trade my suburban house with a backyard for the opportunity to live in a walkable city any day.

[CLT2014]

^ I think there is demand for walkable neighborhoods... the few walkable / older neighborhoods are some of the most expensive in Charlotte now because people prefer it. They are just very expensive on a price per square foot basis (think Dilworth) that most families can't afford to get into. Plus, you may need to consider budgeting for private school. This is fine for the affluent families like surgeons and investment bankers snapping up the historic bungalows and then send their kids to Providence Day School, but private school is a $25,000 per child cost most middle class families can't afford. Hence you see strong demand for these semi-walkable new suburban developments that try to replicate a Dilworth type neighborhood like Baxter Village, Waverly, Birkdale Village, Ardrey, et... that happen to be a lot cheaper to get into and try to "replicate" walkability at a more affordable price with better public schools. These new developments are still ultimately too car focused though, isolated, not off transit, and "flawed." Our central core is ringed by 1950's - 90's neighborhoods that didn't prioritize walking at all, further hurting transformation to connect walkable nodes.

Further, in a flawed system on the school front, schools like Garinger High School for NoDa and Plaza Midwood only have 10 AP classes. South Mecklenburg and Providence High have 29, Ardrey Kell has 27, Myers Park High has 26, et... so people worry about their kids and move to the suburbs where the housing is cheaper and public schools have more opportunities. Hence, you don't see as many families in NoDa compared to young people without kids (who aren't worrying about schools). Many of the families that do live in the walkable areas of the Garinger High boundaries (like Chantilly, NoDa, Plaza Midwood, Commonwealth) are NOT picking public school. The dot map confirms this... there ARE kids in Chantilly when you walk in the neighborhood... but the dot map shows literally one kid in the whole neighborhood attends Garinger. Plenty of "My kid goes to Charlotte Country Day" yard signs though. So while the affluent can have their walkable neighborhood + private school, middle class and working class families are pushed further out where the housing stock is pretty much all sprawl. If people preferred sprawl to walkability, Dilworth wouldn't require $1 million to get into, while you can go snap up a house in Matthews for $500,000 : https://www.cms.k12.nc.us/cmsdepartments/StudentPlacement/PlanningServices/Student Dot Maps/7397_GaringerHS.pdf

Charlotte isn't unique in this regard. Manhattan's walkability makes it one of the most expensive places to live. Creates a fantastic lifestyle for the affluent that can get in. Middle class families with two kids are harder to find on Manhattan though, but plentiful in New Jersey. 

Edited June 21, 2022 by CLT2014

[LKN704]

22 hours ago, CLT2014 said:

^ I think there is demand for walkable neighborhoods... the few walkable / older neighborhoods are some of the most expensive in Charlotte now because people prefer it. They are just very expensive on a price per square foot basis (think Dilworth) that most families can't afford to get into. Plus, you may need to consider budgeting for private school. This is fine for the affluent families like surgeons and investment bankers snapping up the historic bungalows and then send their kids to Providence Day School, but private school is a $25,000 per child cost most middle class families can't afford. Hence you see strong demand for these semi-walkable new suburban developments that try to replicate a Dilworth type neighborhood like Baxter Village, Waverly, Birkdale Village, Ardrey, et... that happen to be a lot cheaper to get into and try to "replicate" walkability at a more affordable price with better public schools. These new developments are still ultimately too car focused though, isolated, not off transit, and "flawed." Our central core is ringed by 1950's - 90's neighborhoods that didn't prioritize walking at all, further hurting transformation to connect walkable nodes.

Further, in a flawed system on the school front, schools like Garinger High School for NoDa and Plaza Midwood only have 10 AP classes. South Mecklenburg and Providence High have 29, Ardrey Kell has 27, Myers Park High has 26, et... so people worry about their kids and move to the suburbs where the housing is cheaper and public schools have more opportunities. Hence, you don't see as many families in NoDa compared to young people without kids (who aren't worrying about schools). Many of the families that do live in the walkable areas of the Garinger High boundaries (like Chantilly, NoDa, Plaza Midwood, Commonwealth) are NOT picking public school. The dot map confirms this... there ARE kids in Chantilly when you walk in the neighborhood... but the dot map shows literally one kid in the whole neighborhood attends Garinger. Plenty of "My kid goes to Charlotte Country Day" yard signs though. So while the affluent can have their walkable neighborhood + private school, middle class and working class families are pushed further out where the housing stock is pretty much all sprawl. If people preferred sprawl to walkability, Dilworth wouldn't require $1 million to get into, while you can go snap up a house in Matthews for $500,000 : https://www.cms.k12.nc.us/cmsdepartments/StudentPlacement/PlanningServices/Student Dot Maps/7397_GaringerHS.pdf

Charlotte isn't unique in this regard. Manhattan's walkability makes it one of the most expensive places to live. Creates a fantastic lifestyle for the affluent that can get in. Middle class families with two kids are harder to find on Manhattan though, but plentiful in New Jersey. 

It's interesting that you brought education into this, as I was just literally (like, Sunday) talking with some friends of mine in DC, and we were all in agreement that we would send our (some of them have kids already, some on the way, most were speaking hypothetically) kids to DCPS, regardless of the school's reputation, and wouldn't necessarily leave DC proper for the suburbs just for education reasons. One of my friend's who has a 4 year old son enthusiastically said with gusto "his a** is getting on the public school bus whether he likes it or not". 

Granted I don't have an education background, but most studies I have casually perused have stated that in the long-run, private schools are essentially no better than public schools. It's true that most studies indicate that private schools have better outcomes in terms of testing scores and university enrollment, but it's difficult to quantify whether the higher test scores (and higher levels of university enrollment) are due to the private school itself, or simply because families at private schools are wealthier in general. Public school students (regardless of being in an inner-city school or suburban) actually score higher than private school students when results are adjusted for family income. Simply put, with the right home environment, kids can succeed and thrive in a public school setting, regardless of how bad a reputation said school has. 

Regarding AP, there are numerous articles and studies that question the long-term benefits and overall student success stemming from the courses:

From a Stanford article:

If you are truly interested in the subject, there’s a good teacher and you’re surrounded by other motivated students, then you’re probably going to have a good experience from taking a more advanced class. But if you’re pushed into it without good preparation and without a safety net in place at the school to help you if you get in over your head, then it may be more harmful than helpful.

Colleges don’t always accept the courses for college credit, many students end up repeating the course in college anyway, and you can run the risk of memorizing material for a test versus delving into a subject and exploring it in an enriching way. Sometimes an honors course at a high school is actually a better option for rigorous and engaging learning.

Frankly, many high-achieving high school students are really stressed out. They have a lot to do between extracurricular activities and homework and also trying to get the sleep they need. They need to be prepared for what an AP course involves. The extra tests, extra homework, on top of an already demanding schedule, can be brutal. And a very low grade on your transcript from an AP course may hurt you more in the long run than not taking an AP in that subject at all.

In NY Public Schools, you were only allowed to take an AP class if you:

1. were enrolled in a Honors level class in the subject previously and achieved a high final grade mark…I think it was a 95, and;

2. received a teacher recommendation

This essentially kept AP classes from everyone except the best and the brightest. Even to take a Honors level class in NY you had to receive a certain grade mark, and receive a teacher recommendation. 

This contrasts with my experience in NC, where it was basically a free for all, at least in my school/district. You could enroll in any class level regardless of your grade or your instructor's input. My family and I didn't know this at the time (we ignorantly thought they had the same policy as NY) so I never took AP classes because I thought I didn’t have the final marks to qualify for the classes. The only two AP classes I ended up taking were AP Spanish and AP Human Geography, both of which were offered online via the NCVPS portal. At the end of the day, my lack of AP credit overall didn’t make a difference in my final education outcomes and the UNC system failed to recognize my AP Spanish credit because it was offered online. 

I agree with you though, that there are plenty of people who leave urban, walkable areas and go to the suburbs to give their children a schooling environment that has more experiences, whether that be AP classes, band, or athletics. 

I just get frazzled (and I am not saying you believe this, it just took me back to my conversation with friends over the weekend) and irritated when rich, urban yuppies get all scared about sending their kids to an inner-city public school. 

[KJHburg]

in news from down south The Varsity in Atlanta looks at possibly redeveloping their flagship store site in Midtown.    This is a HUGE Atlanta institution 

https://atlanta.urbanize.city/post/varsity-development-property-restaurant-redevelopment-ideas    

I would say firstly the 2nd huge surface parking lot or approx. 2 acres could easily be redeveloped into a highrise with X number of parking spaces for their customers. The other 2 acres could be redeveloped with a huge flagship location with some parking maybe above but overall less parking since the whole Midtown area is so dense and much more walkable than in the past.  

[videtur quam contuor]

Other places in this case means New York Times and featured New Jersey office park. The death of the single purpose office park, or "pastoral capitalism" features Clay Grubb. His idea is how to combine both residences and office but the first part of the article is about death of the isolated office park, separated from other business and life, to be entered and departed and with no interaction but by the drive to and from the work site.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/05/upshot/future-suburban-office-park.html

Clay Grubb, another developer, has been looking for exactly these kinds of sites: office parks with a few acres of surface parking where he could build apartments affordable to people like teachers and nurses. Multifamily housing is expensive to build, but the land now being used for suburban parking lots is cheap, so the economics can work out (if the politics do). Then build one parking garage, Mr. Grubb said, and the workers park there by day, the residents by night.

“Five years ago, we were like, ‘Oh my God, this is just going to be a gold mine, nobody in the office business sees this, nobody in the multifamily business knows how to get to it,’” said Mr. Grubb, who is now doing this in the Southeast. But it turns out, he said, “not every community wants it.”

The problem for some suburban officials: “It’ll be, ‘Oh, what do you mean we can’t just zone for single-family homes and offices? That’s our thing. That’s why we exist,’” said Tracy Hadden Loh, a researcher at the Brookings Institution. “So now it’s like an existential crisis.”

 

 

 

[KJHburg]

Raleigh like Monroe like Kannapolis like Mooresville like Salisbury has voted to allow a Social district downtown.    While in Charlotte we are studying it...... 

Raleigh's start August 15 along Fayetteville Street from the Capitol to Red Hat Amphitheater and in the Warehouse district

[kayman]

3 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Raleigh like Monroe like Kannapolis like Mooresville like Salisbury has voted to allow a Social district downtown.    While in Charlotte we are studying it...... 

Raleigh's start August 15 along Fayetteville Street from the Capitol to Red Hat Amphitheater and in the Warehouse district

According to outgoing Mayor Pro Tem Julie Eiselt, the reason why Charlotte hasn't been able to jump into the mosh pit as quickly on social districts are bc there will be over a dozen created with the enabling legislation passage.  She said that COC Council wants to do it right upon its initial passage rather than blindly rush into doing and have to amend it several times over. 

I get that as it would make sense as the scale of Charlotte is over twice the size of Raleigh and tenfold in size of its suburban jurisdictions like Monroe, Kannapolis, Mooresville. It's a lot of moving parts

[carolina1792]

26 minutes ago, kayman said:

According to outgoing Mayor Pro Tem Julie Eiselt, the reason why Charlotte hasn't been able to jump into the mosh pit as quickly on social districts are bc there will be over a dozen created with the enabling legislation passage.  She said that COC Council wants to do it right upon its initial passage rather than blindly rush into doing and have to amend it several times over. 

I get that as it would make sense as the scale of Charlotte is over twice the size of Raleigh and tenfold in size of its suburban jurisdictions like Monroe, Kannapolis, Mooresville. It's a lot of moving parts

Raleigh's first Social District is a pilot program, focus on one visible area first and see how it pans out. Next year the social district could expand and other districts could apply to get their own social district. 

[KJHburg]

Charlotte could have done a pilot program picked on small area like NoDa and see how it worked out.   No one said Charlotte had to roll it out in 5-7 different locations at once but could have seen how it worked out in one small neighborhood.  

[JHart]

A NoDa social district NEEDS to shut down vehicular traffic on N Davidson at least on weekends, but it's difficult to say how far you would need to block the road. If the 3-4 new projects (Herrin, Johnston Mill, Alexander St., etc.) on 36th street allow for paid parking in their decks, you could close N Davidson all the way back to Jordan Place but otherwise if you only close 34th-36th, it is just going to drive traffic onto Yadkin and Alexander which are already extremely tight on weekends. 

It is crazy how many more cars there are driving to the area than there were a few years ago and people are reckless.

[kayman]

On 7/6/2022 at 7:52 AM, KJHburg said:

Charlotte could have done a pilot program picked on small area like NoDa and see how it worked out.   No one said Charlotte had to roll it out in 5-7 different locations at once but could have seen how it worked out in one small neighborhood.  

It appears the COC City Council wants to roll them all out at once rather than half stepping with a trial run.  If you want proactive stuff occurring, maybe a change the form of municipal government from council-manager to strong mayor-council of municipal government needs to be advocated by you and other citizens to the NCGA. It's obviously that the 12 person COC City Council are too fickle to act unilaterally in this major city era of Charlotte. Maybe the legislation initiative and decisionmaking power needs to be vested btwn an elected executive branch (strong mayor) along a legislative branches (COC City Council) of municipal government to the city manager to act upon. 

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by kayman

[15895]

8 hours ago, kayman said:

It appears the COC City Council wants to roll them all out at once rather than half stepping with a trial run.  If you want proactive stuff occurring, maybe a change the form of municipal government from council-manager to strong mayor-council of municipal government needs to be advocated by you and other citizens to the NCGA. It's obviously that the 12 person COC City Council are too fickle to act unilaterally in this major city era of Charlotte. Maybe the legislation initiative and decisionmaking power needs to be vested btwn an elected executive branch (strong mayor) along a legislative branches (COC City Council) of municipal government to the city manager to act upon. 

 

I haven’t heard many people advocate against changing charlottes governance before but you raise very good and interesting points. 

[15895]

Recreation field, townhomes that house quite a few units, brand new large protected bike lane, permanent streateries, street level retail. 

 

It makes me wish we could replace some single family homes & empty lots in NoDa with some more Multifamily (that don’t look super block) and expand the feel of Davidson St to other portions of NoDa

[jthomas]

2 hours ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

Recreation field, townhomes that house quite a few units, brand new large protected bike lane, permanent streateries, street level retail. 

 

It makes me wish we could replace some single family homes & empty lots in NoDa with some more Multifamily (that don’t look super block) and expand the feel of Davidson St to other portions of NoDa

Yeah, the fine grain of the street in the foreground (many individual, small buildings) gives a human-scale feel that today's superblock developments will never replicate. It also spreads the wealth and responsibility for a healthy street into many hands. There are so many obstacles to creating a street like this in the current paradigm - zoning, parking requirements, finance, and building codes, to name a few. But I think it is definitely possible to establish a road map for single-family neighborhoods to transition to a more intense but still small-scale environment, as pictured above. Here are a few ideas:

• Allow subdivision of existing lots by right, and abolish minimum lot sizes. Many typical inner-city single-family lots are something like 50' wide by 150' deep, give or take. Most of the buildings pictures above are probably 20-25' wide. Allowing a typical single family lot to be split down the middle would provide the bones for a neighborhood like the above, as long as it is accompanied by
• Eliminating minimum setbacks. Even a small, 5' setback on all sides of a 50'x150' lot makes 25% of the total lot area illegal to build upon. Obviously, any type of setback on a 25' wide lot would make it completely unviable for development.
• Aggressively establish/re-establish alleys. This would be a challenging and controversial step, but alleys are crucial for supporting a higher intensity of small-scale development. They allow for service functions (as well as some amount of off-street parking) to be moved away from the street, allowing the main frontage of buildings to have a more pedestrian-friendly interaction with the street. Eminent domain may be necessary in order to implement alleys in a critical mass to be functional.
• Building code reform. Currently, any building with more than 2 dwelling units must be designed to the more stringent International Building Code, rather than the International Residential Code (townhouses occupy somewhat of a gray area in this distinction). The extra costs dictated by this code difference have helped to stifle the development of small-scale residential multifamily buildings. However, Memphis is recently changed their development standards to allow use of the IRC for buildings of up to six units. Making this change, especially if it also facilitated the inclusion of small retail spaces, would make it easier to develop neighborhood-scale buildings.
• I'm less of an expert on the financing angle, but currently FHA-backed residential mortgages are only available for properties with four or fewer dwellings units. Any building larger than that, whether it has 5 or 500 units, requires a commercial loan which has higher barriers to entry. Perhaps reform at the federal level could allow banks more creativity in financing neighborhood-scale buildings built by small developers.

And of course, I didn't even mention the need to change single-family zoning to something that would accommodate the small-scale mixed used buildings above. The good news is that cities have the power to remove most of the obstacles I listed above. The hard part is finding the combination of technical knowledge and political will necessary to make a change.

[15895]

I present to you, Seattle bike lanes. Minneapolis has quite a few like this. DC has a ton too. 

Completely separate from the road and buffered by greenery as barriers from sidewalk and road. 

Tryon Street needs this inside the loop down through New Bern starting out (yes, there is the rail trail but I found it annoying for biking because it’s too crowded.)