The city of Savannah’s plan to replace relatively recently renovated historic workers’ cottages with a new police precinct is one of the worst public policy decisions I’ve seen since I’ve been writing columns about city life. (That’s 14 years and…
Category: Urban Form
As suburban poverty increases, what options do we have?
I’ve written off and on here about some of the challenges created by sprawl and by the suburbanization of so much of America over the last 60 years or so. One of the thorniest issues is transportation, and that issue…
Checking into the SCADpad
So, SCADpad? From the website for the micro-housing initiative by the Savannah College of Art and Design: SCADpad embraces and advances the university’s deeply rooted commitment to adaptive reuse by utilizing a parking structure at SCAD Atlanta to create an…
Why isn’t Savannah’s bike share program more popular with local residents?
From Marcus Howard today at SavannahNow, CAT bike share program not too popular with Savannah residents: Since launching three months ago, Chatham Area Transit’s bike share program has sold 629 user passes, according to newly released data from the transit…
On parking, development, and better street design
In my City Talk column last Sunday — Lecture emphasizes versatility, beauty in street design — I talked about the recent lecture at SCAD of Victor Dover, an expert on urbanism and co-author of the recently released Street Design: The…
Savannah’s new bike share program CAT Bike starts Friday; NYT takes note
Savannah’s new bike share program CAT Bike, an initiative of Chatham Area Transit, has gotten a little press from the New York Times’ In Transit blog: Savannah Starts a Bike Program. Ironically, the program begins on Friday — among the…
New York Daily News focuses on Savannah’s squares
A really nice piece in the New York Daily News over the weekend: Hip to be Square: Its many little parks make historic Savannah the place to be From the reflection by Joe Dziemianowicz, who was recently in town with…
Civil engineers give Georgia lousy scores for infrastructure — roads, transit, bridges, water, etc.
A really interesting piece by Mary Carr Mayle in Sunday’s Savannah Morning News: Report: Georgia’s infrastructure still lacking The piece talks about the recent “report card” released by the Georgia branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers. From the…
Sand Gnats owner promises a team to Columbia if new stadium is built
I spotted the Savannah Morning News’ Eric Curl’s blog post a couple of hours ago: Sand Gnats owner promises Columbia, SC a team And since then I’ve been reading up on the big Bull Street development in Columbia, S.C., an…
Atlanta’s Beltline: here to stay, expanding, and looking pretty cool
I don’t know enough about Atlanta’s geography or the particulars of the Beltline to say anything original about the project to create a ring of trails around the city. But my fellow blogger Ed at Peach Pundit says: “At the…
It’s Christmas at the P.J. O’Connor House
On my way home from Kroger just after dark tonight, I was met with a strange sight: a Christmas tree aglow inside the P.J. O’Connor House at the corner of Lincoln and 32nd. I had lived in the neighborhood for…
Exciting new development on Forsyth Park working its way through zoning issues
About a month ago, I wrote about the exciting plans for One West Park Avenue at the southwest corner of Bull Street and Park Avenue: New development would anchor south end of Savannah’s Forsyth Park The large lot has been…
NYT’s take on the Braves’ move to new stadium in Cobb County
A typically interesting piece from Kim Severson at the New York Times: With Braves Set to Move, a Broader Look at Atlanta. From the article: As demographics changed and development migrated to the largely white suburbs, the team remained a…
A few thoughts on the Atlanta Braves moving to Cobb County
I should begin by saying that I have never been to a Braves game. I have never been to Turner Field, and I haven’t even been to Atlanta in several years. So I don’t have a dog in this hunt.…