Every day, The Overhead Wire collects news about cities and sends the links to their email list. At the end of the week they take some of the most popular stories and post them to Greater Greater Washington, a group blog similar to Streets.mn that focuses on urban issues in the D.C. region. They are national and international links, sometimes entertaining or absurd but often useful.
Build like Switzerland: To avoid sprawl, about 25 years ago the Swiss canton (read: state/county) of Zurich allowed municipalities to upzone to allow the construction of more housing. Research found areas that upzoned the most and built housing were best at keeping rent growth under control. Of course, more changes in municipal code and provision of improved services are necessary to facilitate change, but the example shows that going big on upzoning can benefit residents long term. (Eliza Relman | Business Insider)
How strip malls failed the suburbs: Strip malls and their vast parking lots were built to serve suburban drivers as an alternative to department stores in the urban core. As the stores evolved into big boxes, developers made a major urban design mistake, having the parking lots instead of the buildings front the street. Now, many of those original places of commerce are half empty and falling into disrepair, which could mean a rebirth in more housing and better urban design. (James Lileks | Minnesota Star Tribune)
Change the zoning frame: The language and framing used to discuss zoning reform in the United States is often confusing and negative, which could alienate potential supporters and voters. An alternative idea: The slogan “End Single Family Zoning” should be replaced by language discussing the legalization of housing types that aren’t currently allowed. (Jenny Schuetz | Brookings)
Winning over skeptics with safety data: Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle startup, Waymo, knows that people are skeptical of vehicles without drivers. To that end, Waymo has launched a website that shares safety data on miles driven with passengers. The company has also shared information with third-party researchers. The data shows Waymo vehicles are comparatively safe, but will that assuage people’s fears? (Andrew J. Hawkins | The Verge)
South Carolina moving on managed retreat: South Carolina’s climate resilience office has acknowledged that hundreds of thousands of homeowners will need to retreat away from the coast. It identifies 700,000 homes targeted for demolition and supports managed retreat programs that will streamline buyouts in the future. Voluntary uptake for the managed retreat initiative has been slow, and home flippers are further complicating efforts. Unfortunately, officials say, the best time to get people to think about moving away from the coast is after a bad flood. (Daniel Shailer | Route Fifty)
This week on the Talking Headways podcast, we’re joined by Dylan Rivera and Jacob Sherman of the Portland Bureau of Transportation to discuss micromobility regulation.
Quote of the Week
“Some experiences are just not meant for the car or carryout, which would seem self-obvious. But you’ll find four-wheeled connoisseurs digging into tomahawk steaks, Maryland blue crabs, a Cajun seafood platter, a Philippine lechon tray for two and other dishes that seem like children lost when consumed in a car. Without a heavy carving board and a steak knife, without the brown paper rolled out on a picnic table and a bucket of cold ones within reach, without the fiddle-and-accordion music waltzing in the background, without loved ones around to share with, these meals are compromised experiences.”
— Tim Carman, Washington Post, on social media food reviewers eating in their cars