Planning Quote of the Day

zoning is merely a tool

"Zoning is merely a tool. It can be used constructively as a positive force for community good or it can be misused. Zoning is what you make of it. It works best when it is based on a vision and closely tied to the comprehensive plan."

-- Edward T. McMahon, "What's So Bad About Zoning?" (from Planning Commissioners Journal Issue #44)

only in reruns of old sitcoms

"One person living alone (single, widowed, or divorced) represents the predominant household type in suburban areas today. The suburban male breadwinner family with a stay-at-home mom and two children living in a peaceful three-bedroom colonial with a leafy yard predominates only in reruns of old sitcoms."

-- Dolores Hayden, from "How Should We Be Thinking About Urbanization?" (NY Times Freakonomics blog (December 11, 2007).

Note: Hayden is a professor of architecture and author of Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth (among other books).

pigs will fly over the Statehouse

"As you know, we have massive transportation demands, but no money after 2011 to meet them. ... In the next 10 years, we have over 10,000 miles of highways that need to be resurfaced ... We have 700 bridges, deficient bridges that need repairs and we shouldn't wait for a tragedy to motivate us to fix them. We need to expand mass transit so as to get cars off the roads and carbon out of the air ...

All in all, we need close to $40 billion over the next 10 years to ... The truth is, we have few practical ideas of where the money will be found. As a thirty year veteran of financial markets, I know there is no magic to finance. No plan, no investment comes without cash.

I want to be clear and honest upfront -- my plan involves significant toll hikes. ... The first increase will come in 2010 and will be 50%. Three other increases of up to 50% will come in successive four-year intervals ending in 2022. ... Before critics rush to judgment, this toll schedule needs to be contrasted with equally robust alternatives of tax increases or budget cuts that would produce the same results.

Let’s not insult each other or the public with empty rhetoric about that we can pay down the debt and fund transportation improvements if we 'just cut more spending and get rid of all waste, fraud and abuse.' We will cut spending. We will direct trust fund monies to their proper place ... We will challenge fraud and raise accountability standards ... and we will end spending gimmicks ...

But pigs will fly over the Statehouse before there’s a realistic level of new taxes or spending cuts that can fix this mess."

-- from New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine's State of the State Address (Jan. 8, 2008) which unveiled a controversial proposal for steep toll increases on the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, and Atlantic City Expressway. Note: for a recent update, see "Tide turning against toll hike plan," in the New Jersey Star-Ledger (Feb. 8, 2008)

the density of alcohol outlets

"The density of alcohol outlets correlates with density of physical assaults and is closely related to crime and violence. Alcohol slows reaction time and its use by pedestrians and drivers contributes to traffic injuries. ... Liquor stores are concentrated in low-income neighborhoods."

-- from a background research report for the new "health element" of the City of Richmond, California's general plan.

Note: for more about the fascinating work Richmond, California, has done in developing a health element for its general plan, see today's post, Here's to Your Health, on our PlannersWeb blog.

definition: localvores

"Localism blossomed. Vermont embraced local foods as a way to support our small farms, cut our carbon footprint (less transporting), and keep the money we spend on food bouncing around inside our state. The Eat Local Challenge of August made temporary localvores out of Gov. Douglas, House Speaker Gaye Symington, and many others."

-- from The Top Five Environmental Developments of 2007, by Daniel Hecht in the Vermont Environmental Consortium's Green Grapevine (Jan. 8, 2008).

the amount of vacant land

"The amount of vacant land coming online has been overwhelming ... this is something that can't be dealt with by local volunteers."

-- Blaine Bonham, Jr., Executive Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, on why paid clean-up crews are needed to deal with the inventory of some 40,000 vacant lots in the city of Philadelphia.

Note: See, "Greening Up Vacant Lots," posted today on our PlannersWeb blog, for more on Bonham's remarks at the recent national Smart Growth Conference in Washington, D.C.. You'll also see why a horticultural group is involved in what may well be the largest undertaking in America to clean up vacant lots.

one heck of a cleanup on Aisle 7

"So the Suisun Planning Commission approves a new Walmart Supercenter despite the dangers the Airport Land Use Commission pointed out of a C5 Galaxy plummeting through the roof ot the building? Oh sure, Suisun. Thumb your nose at fate. Mock the possibility of a flaming cockpit causing one heck of a cleanup on Aisle 7. At this proposed Walmart, customers won't only have to beware of falling prices but falling cargo planes."

-- From "Jilted by the Suisun Planning Commission," on Kelvin Wade's The Other Side blog. Wade is a columnist for the Solano County (California) Daily Republic newspaper.

I am so over committed

"... I should be at home with my family, taking care of my family. I am so over committed that it just doesn’t make sense for me to take on even more. I am on the city planning commission, I have church responsibilities, I have work responsibilities, I am President of the Chamber of Commerce, I am just doing 'way' too much. I need to concentrate on the best, and not do more."

-- from "I Can't Say No" on Pappa Hardy's Musings on Life blog (Jan. 26, 2008)

Note: One thing I can say to Pappa Hardy is there are plenty of other civic-minded individuals out there who share your feeling -- and tend to get way over committed! I plead guilty myself.

they chanted and ranted and roared

"It's blasphemy, creature, and criminal, too
to suggest such a terrible sight,
as a densely packed city with sidewalk cafes
With people out strolling at night"

They rattled their pikes and they clattered their swords
they chanted and ranted and roared
"Desist and dismount you deplorable beast,
decamp we demand and implore"

"It's statistically proven with table and chart
Your City is no longer there.
You're defeated, discredited, quite out of touch,
and your prattling is too much to bear".

"We've graphed and we've analyzed, summed and regressed
til we've come to the only conclusion
That the City is evil the City is dead
... So stop spreading noise and confusion".

-- From "The Phelton Rides a Train," posted on the AtlantaLarry blog (Aug. 14, 2007)

Note: the above is excerpted from a wonderful longer posting. The author of the rhyme describes its origins: "For several years I participated in an internet forum started by Wendell Cox, who has staked out a position as a defender of post-WWII development patterns and road-building policies. As a person with strong urban proclivities I often served as target practice and a punching bag for that particular forum ... At some point along the line I wrote this poetic narrative drawing inspiration from both Dr. Suess and Lewis Carroll, based largely on my interaction with that particular subculture." 

   

so much about parking is psychological

"So much about parking is psychological. Isn't it interesting the long distance -- often the equivalent of several blocks -- people will walk across a mall parking lot to get to a destination. Yet in downtowns they want to be able to park at their destination's front door."

-- Roberta Brandes Gratz, from "We Don't Have Enough Parking," Planning Commissioners Journal, Issue #48.

if the hospital closes its doors

"The hospital is essential to the city. If the hospital closes its doors we will have an exodus of boomers, including me."

-- posting by an Oregon planner on Cyburbia about the importance of retaining the community's 37 bed hospital (Jan. 13, 2008).

Note: take a look at the extended blog post added today on the PlannersWeb, Hospital Boom(ers)

definition: faux loft

"Much like fake fur, the faux loft may share the name loft but not share the essence of the original, which descended from decommissioned factory or warehouse spaces. Unlike their Industrial Era brethren, faux lofts are brand-spanking-new construction in which the loft name is used to attract buyers."

-- from "A Condominium Primer," in New England Condominium (June 2006).

See also this use from another article from New England Condominium posted on LoftsBoston.com: "Dana Schaefer, of Paragon Properties of Boston, says she has seen faux-lofts in the South End in new construction like Wilkes Passage, Laconia Lofts, and Gateway Terrace. ... 'I think some of the buildings that they are saying are lofts might be stretching the meaning. I guess the true, true sense of a loft is an old industrial building with high ceilings and period architecture. But I think that now there are a lot of buildings in which they've done a wonderful job and [they] are loft-like. I would definitely call them lofts,' she says."

something is not right

"Chapel Hill downtown seems to be owned by well heeled landed gentry always holding out for more money. If they asked me, I would try to get more people to live there, I would get the university a bigger foothold downtown, as my planner friend always says, instead of building a giant outpost campus. There’s little to do downtown other than eat, drink, or buy UNC paraphernalia. But who knows, city planning ain’t my area of expertise. But I have lived downtown for the past 5 years and all I ever did in downtown Chapel Hill was drink (lots), eat (occasionally), fix my bike (a couple of times) and buy a T-Shirt (once). So something is not right."

-- from "Chapel Hill Downtown Property Shenanigans," on The Olive Ridley Crawl blog (Jan. 28, 2008)

the world's first truly sustainable city

"PlaNYC [is] our strategy for creating the world's first truly sustainable city. PlaNYC includes 127 proposals – many of them pioneering the latest technology to achieve our goals. This year, we'll work to increase our use of solar panels to continue greening government buildings and we'll join forces with the real estate industry to make new construction and old buildings greener.

This is the single most important thing we can do to reduce our carbon footprint – but it's not the only thing. With the State's blessing, we'll also use technology to create a system of congestion pricing - something no other American city has done. It will help us achieve four critical, inter-connected goals: reducing traffic congestion; raising money for mass transit; improving our air quality; and fighting climate change."

-- From New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's State of the City Address (Jan. 17, 2008)

Note: for details on PlaNYC.

place for new development to occur

"Your community's comprehensive plan should make downtown the easiest and most advantageous place for new development to occur."

-- Kennedy Smith, "Downtown Hurdles" (Planning Commissioners Journal #59)

note: this article is also included in our collection of articles on Downtowns & Town Centers

the real zoning code in Chicago is unwritten

"The real zoning code in Chicago is unwritten, but developers know it well: Changes in zoning go hand in hand with contributions to aldermanic campaigns."

-- From "How cash, clout transform Chicago neighborhoods," an investigative report in The Chicago Tribune (Feb. 1, 2008).

Note: According to the Tribune article, "The investigation found that Chicago is a city where a building boom greased by millions of dollars in political donations to aldermen has remade the face of neighborhoods, changing the feel of the streets where people live and work. It's a city where aldermen have become dependent on the political contributions they rake in from developers, while routinely ignoring city planners who oppose out-of-scale development."

For more commentary on the Tribune article, see Steve Rhodes' "Unzoning Chicago" in The Beachwood Reporter blog.

once it gets to us, all bets are off

"When we ask our citizens to take part in an exercise to determine how our city will look, they turn out in droves on their days off and pour their hearts into the work we have asked them to do. When the process is complete the headlines read 'Triumph of Participation' and we all pat ourselves on the back for the project's success. Developers will study the plan and, with the help of our nationally recognized planning staff, design a project that fits perfectly within the planning criteria that the public has designed, the staff has supported, and the Council has approved. The project goes through the Planning staff, Technical plat review, Subdivision Committee and the Planning Commission. Then, in the final step, the project comes before us.

This process, while time consuming and expensive, works reasonably well to this point. But then, once it gets to us, all bets are off. If a few individuals oppose any part of the project we will thwart the will of all the citizens who designed the plan, all the creative massaging of the Planning and Engineering staff, the citizen's subcommittees, and the Planning Commission. In being hyper responsive to the individual, we completely discount the majority.

The ripple effects are serious. The developer, who is risking millions of private dollars in the project, just had his costs go up, making the price of everything in the project increase. That is bad for the consumer. The chances for financial success of the project are diminished. This is bad for the city and the developer, and it erodes the confidence of our city staff. It teaches the developer to avoid anything that is creative or innovative. ...

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that we should just rubber stamp everything that comes in the door. But if we could approve the creative, innovative, new-urban design that fits our plan as quickly and easily as we approve the bad developments, it would be a vast improvement for the future of our city -- and our reputation."

-- State of the City 2008, from The Official Blog of Mayor Dan Coody, Fayetteville, Arkansas

sign regulation

"Sign regulation is one of the most powerful actions a community can take to make an immediate, visible change in its physical environment."

-- Edward T. McMahon, "Sign Regulation" (in Planning Commissioners Journal #25)

note: this article is also available as part of a collection of articles on Design & Aesthetics.

definition: cake eater

"... if you want to thrive in the 21st century, it pays to be a cake eater."

-- from "Pittsburgh Still a Player in Steel Industry," NPR, Morning Edition (Dec. 19, 2007)

Note: Adam Davidson's NPR report on the decline and transformation of the steel industry in Pittsburgh mentions how the engineers and white collar workers in the steel industry traditionally used to be referred to as cake eaters by the "mill hunks" who did the blue collar labor inside the mills. But today, the specialized steel support companies that still exist in the Pittsburgh area, Davidson reports, almost exclusively employ "cake eaters."

But umbrage was taken to the NPR story by Pittsburgh blogger (and law professor) Mike Madison: "To top it off (or make it worse, or both), [guides for] Rivers of Steel encouraged the [NPR] reporter in the idea that the phrase 'cake eaters' is a fair description both for the white collar managers of steel works long gone and for the white collar owners and employees of steel firms today. Ouch! If there's cake-eating in Pittsburgh today, it's being done by the domestically-inclined Cupcake Class, which is a far cry from steel, especially if you take yours rolled cold."

a commissioner's greatest asset

"A commissioner's greatest asset is credibility; once damaged, that credibility may be impossible to restore."

-- Greg Dale, FAICP, "Behind the Scenes Advocacy" (Planning Commissioners Journal #17)

note: many of Greg Dale's articles on ethical issues facing planning commissioners are collected in our publication, Ethics & the Planning Commission.