Just came from a fantastic event called Soiree on the Greenway – on the Dequindre Cut multi-use path that extends from the Waterfront to Eastern Market and soon beyond. It was a fun swanky celebration on Detroit’s signature piece of bike and pedestrian infrastructure. There was obviously bike parking, a graffiti wall you could contribute to, a great […]
My first day biking to/from work. I realize how strange this must sound, but I had forgotten how much faster biking is than walking. Particularly fast in this city. It might not be the friendliest downtown district to walk, but it’s not that bad for biking because of the overcapacity of all of the streets […]
Wednesday morning I found that my bike had a flat, which I will get fixed tomorrow, but today is when I realized that the difference between being carfree in Detroit and being carfree say in Boston or NYC or Montreal – you absolutely need a working bike to be carfree in Detroit. There are too many great […]
Shall we talk about measures of pedestrian friendliness? Over the years, WalkScore.com has evolved their methodology from a very elementary to much more sophisticated as you can see in the new WalkScore Beta that was introduced in January 2011. The new WalkScore Street Smart Score calculates actual walking paths to a list of destinations rather […]
Did a lot of walking today. Walked to a meeting in Harmonie Park, then around Campus Martius and Cadillac Square at lunch then to work and back to home and then to the grocery store. Loved every minute of it – being able to experience the built environment, the variety and activity of the urban […]
So today was my first day of living carfree in Detroit! yay! It sounds more monumental than it really is given that I live and work in downtown Detroit. The question is – will I like it enough to stay that way in September or not? I’m open to anything…
I thought I would start the […]
Some time ago, I started a series called “M-1 Will Happen, Here’s Why″ – I continue it here with Part 3:
It does make tremendous economic sense: From an economic perspective LRT/Streetcar is all about economic development which can pay for the investment through value capture. I will set the stage: we are currently in the wake […]
Some time ago, I started a series called “M-1 Will Happen, Here’s Why – Part 1” – I continue it here with Part 2:
Don’t compare this to the People Mover: The people mover is a failure because it is a small circle, going around a fairly walkable radius, that is arguably all one single destination/node […]
REPOSTED from January:
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Last week I was at a table during lunch where I overheard someone who was asked about the M-1 project say adamantly it wasn’t going to happen. Of course, there are plenty of naysayers floating around any major project in Detroit, but the unusual part was that it was said with such confidence it made […]
I have written extensively in my Challenge Detroit blog on the five common themes that make great cities. The extent to which Detroit is able to execute these five concepts will determine whether it fully realizes its potential. Great cities need a framework for understanding city systems, a vision for the future, a mindset for […]
