Des' City Links of the Week 2021-07-29
This week's planning, transport, and urban development links of interest
Hi everyone,
Here are a few interesting reads on cities, development, and transport that I’ve come across recently. Please share!
Planning/Development
How Paris began building housing again:
https://www.sightline.org/2021/07/26/yes-other-places-do-housing-better-case-3-paris/
The long history of arguments in favour of using state power to intervene in the housing market in ways that exclude the less wealthy:
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/6/9/exclusionary-zoning-arguments-havent-changed-in-94-years
Thoughtful piece on the opportunities and realities of the X minute city:
https://www.governing.com/assessments/the-elusive-dream-of-the-15-minute-city
How zoning costs homebuyers in US cities:
https://www.city-journal.org/new-research-quantifies-zoning-tax-exacted-by-land-use-regulations and in Vancouver: https://doodles.mountainmath.ca/blog/2021/07/25/lots-of-opportunity-estimating-the-zoning-tax-in-vancouver/
How turbulence in the office market and the rise of remote work are challenging life in Houston’s -15[?] network of pedestrian tunnels:
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/remote-work-killing-houston-tunnels/
Interesting take on the financial aspects of heritage designation:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/bring-heritage-onto-the-balance-sheet
Could public toilets in your city qualify as interesting architectural tourism destinations?
https://tokyotoilet.jp/en/
Rowhouses and supermarkets in new Dutch suburbs!
https://architectenweb.nl/projecten/project.aspx?ID=42870 [NL, pics]
https://architectenweb.nl/projecten/project.aspx?ID=42867 [NL, pics]
Mobility/Transport
Spicy read on bikes and the political right:
https://wiesmann.codiferes.net/wordpress/?p=10030 [FR]
Is a tunnel beneath the Saint-Laurent an economically viable idea? One graduate student asks the questions that the provincial transport ministry isn’t releasing the answers to:
https://www.journaldequebec.com/2021/07/27/le-3e-lien-pas-un-bon-projet [FR] and the analysis: https://effa.umontreal.ca/2020/projet/urbanisme/Analyse+avantages-co%26ucirc%3Bts+du+projet+de+troisi%26egrave%3Bme+lien+entre+L%26eacute%3Bvis+et+Qu%26eacute%3Bbec [FR, PDF]
“absolute numbers of injuries inside [Low Traffic Neighbourhoods] halved relative to the rest of London (ratio 0.51, p<0.001). Considering changes in background travel patterns, our results indicate substantial reductions in pedestrian injury risk. Risks to other road users may also have fallen, but by a more modest amount. We found no evidence of changes in injury numbers or risk on LTN boundary roads.”
https://findingspress.org/article/25633-impacts-of-2020-low-traffic-neighbourhoods-in-london-on-road-traffic-injuries
Nice write-up on the equity aspect of transit to the trailhead, in Seattle WA:
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/the-cities-trailblazing-transit-service-into-the-wilderness and options in Denver CO: https://www.denverpost.com/2019/07/06/hiking-trails-public-transportation-bus-light-rail/
Thanks for reading; please share! Links with FR, NL, just right click somewhere and click ‘translate to English’ in Chrome; they’re usually image heavy anyway.