Design vs. Develop

From the Washington Post:

The highest median price in the county, $700,000, was in Zip code 22207, an area encompassing the northernmost end of Arlington, bordered roughly by Lee Highway and Spout Run to the south. For many years, prices in the northern part of the county have been notably higher than those in the southern part.

It looks like the Tyson’s Corner Metrorail project is running into some budget issues. The thing I find interesting about this unfolding story is that it seems as though Fairfax County leaders have this underlying hope that the rail line will suddenly transform Tyson’s into a cosmopolitan downtown.

I have some breaking news: It’s not going to happen like that. Fairfax County could do much more with about 10% of the money they’re trying to get for the “Sliver Line.” The sexiest rail line in the world won’t make this landscape one step more walkable. Zoom in and you see a snarl of frontage roads, ramps, and parking lots that’s a pain to drive through, let alone walk around. While the ambition is admirable, they need to come up with an intentional plan for urbanizing Tyson’s. They could start by cutting up some of those surface parking lots to create new roads, then get rid of the frontages.

…that the Mills Corporation is actually based in Arlington (in Rosslyn, no less). If they actually tried to build a Mills Mall in Arlington, it would probably take up about half of the county. How ironic.

In some very local news, I was riding the bus today and noticed that Five Guys has finally opened their Courthouse location in Arlington on Wilson Boulevard! With our recent commitment to only eating fast food after church on Sundays, this is perfect. My apologies to everyone else reading this who doesn’t have a clue as to what I’m talking about.

Today’s Washington Post has a worthwile feature about a street near the end of the Red Line that’s not only resisted slumming, but has also attracted a new generation of immigrants. I think that in the effort to build “new urbanist” communities, advocates tend to get blinded by the low hanging fruit: the young, childless, upwardly mobile, highly talented couples and individuals with ample disposable income. Yet in this article, we see how an inconspicuous neighborhood has managed to provide safe, affordable, large family housing for the last 6 decades.

Tulsa’s architecture falls into roughly three categories: Art Deco, Modern, and American Sprawl (Side note: what exactly would you call our country’s current mode? Anyone with a strong art background care to comment?). The first two are also cross influenced by Tulsa’s rise through the Route 66 era. Several stretches of town are lined with old roadside attractions (and attraction wannabes).

The cheap cost of land in Tulsa has historically made it much cheaper to construct an entirely new building for a business or home than to retrofit an old one. Couple this with Tulsa’s strict zoning, and you end up with many square miles of largely untouched buildings with moderate occupancy. This makes it very easy for small, unique businesses to open, as the opportunity cost is much lower than what it would be in a more expensive city. Also, small locally-owned shops usually have a choice of older buildings in varying styles.

On the other hand, it is often very difficult for these businesses to stay open. Small enterprises are all too frequently lost in the ocean of parking required by Tulsa’s city government. While the square-mile-blocks make it easy for Tulsans to avoid traffic jams and to get where they’re going quickly, they often breeze past these little establishments in their rush to Wal-Mart/Best Buy/Home Depot and back.

To correct this, Tulsa need to consider two things: 1) Sidewalks, and 2) a relaxed zoning code. Although Tulsa is rather sprawlish, the squiggles are reasonably contained within the mile-blocks. Certainly, foot traffic within these blocks can be accommodated. Some mixed zoning could help spur small neighborhood stores that would not generate volumes and volumes of road traffic.

Now that Tulsa is all but landlocked by the suburbs of Jenks, Owasso, and Broken Arrow, it will be interesting to see if it dawns on someone to change the way they’ve developed the city for the past 50 years.

First, Tulsa Transit workers threaten to strike. Now, I’ve ridden that bus system before and contrary to popular belief, people actually do use it. However, the system’s rather weak, infrequent, and apathetic. I remember once turning out of my apartment complex to drive someplace and a Tulsa Transit bus was resting at the stop. I waited for a minute, then finally decided to just pass it. John was riding with me and noticed that the driver was just sitting at the stop, chatting on a cell phone.

Next, Lost Tulsa provides some shots of various abandoned, underused, or otherwise deteriorating structures around the city. There’s a link to a Flickr album with some shots of the back porch of ORU’s main classroom building, which they don’t maintain as nobody goes back there. There’s also a write up on the old ORM building downtown.

Finally, Eastland Mall continues its steady decline. It appears that the current owner has a reputation for purchasing dying malls, then waiting for the city to condemn and reposses them through eminent domain. This highlights one of the problems that big-box stores and malls pose: when one closes, you’re left with a huge, decaying box the city has to purchase and demolish.

More thoughts on the plusses and minuses of Tulsa later.

Fortunately, nearly 900 people signed on in support of the hot dog man and the council voted 10-1 in favor of another licence, priced at $200. Definitely happy and hope this doesn’t come up again.

Downtown Indiana is at it again: more concerns over a hot dog vendor. It’s really embarrassing that Indiana, which has made a lot of recent progress on working with the university, is still concerned about this street vendor. I find this quote rather amusing:

“It’s hard when these people are paying rent, taxes and wages to employees, and he (Minda) can sell a hot dog for $1 and the storeowner has to charge $3 for a hot dog,” Bertness said.

I was unaware that any of the other businesses downtown actually sold hot dogs in the first place. Of course, no one in the article can quote any hard numbers on lost profits due to the competition.

As I recall from the original conflict, the hot dog vendor is indeed required to pay a yearly permit to set up the cart (without receiving services such as running water or heat), so the taxes argument is bunk. As for rent, it’s not like his cart was free. Finally, his business is obviously very weather dependent. Now, if he can overcome all those hurdles and still make a profit, why does the downtown association feel compelled to throw out another one?

Unlike certain neighbors, I simply don’t find two or three character route lables all that confusing. Also, if you take the bus regularly, you begin to recognize other riders, which reduces any remaining confusion. Of course, if you go to Metro’s website, you can enter in the first line of your home address and your destination station to get detailed route information, including walking directions.

In any event, I always take a book along and find another reader to sit next to. It also seems that when other people are picked up, other readers gravitate towards me as well. I guess we know that by sitting next to another reader, we at least won’t be stuck with the guy yakking/emailing with his Blackberry.