Global News

Pedestrian-only zone on Broadway
To keep Broadway lively during the bridge rehabilitation, Strong Towns YXE has proposed a pedestrian-only zone for July and August.
#pedestrian #traffic #city #planning #Broadway #Canada
globalnews.ca/news/11160212/pe

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Day 31 cont 🧍‍♀️🧍🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️🧍🏡

“Already these so-called #greenfield developments — houses built on previously #BareLand, just as the name suggests — are changing the #terrain of #Australia’s #cities.

The new #developments are easy to spot from the street, or the air, thanks to the sea of grey roof tiles.

Where once #ResidentialDevelopment was concentrated around #economic centres, now it’s #bulging outwards to an extent that the connection to city-living is tenuous at best.”

The barely mentioned issue that needs to be addressed, #population and #planning.

#AusPol / #cities / #land / #LandUse <abc.net.au/news/2025-04-30/fed>

Caught between a promise and paradise in Australia's housing borderlands

The major parties have decided on a solution to Australia's…

ABC News
Douglas E. Welch

How 18th Century Spanish Conquistadors Built the Heart Los Angeles Around Crooked Streets via Laughing Squid [Shared] [Video]

Map historian Daniel Steiner, who previously explained how the first street grid in New York City started in Gravesend, Brooklyn, talked about how Spanish Conquistadors in the late 18th laid out the map for the city of Los Angeles.

In 1850, when California became part of the United States, most of the area began following a grid formation, except for the heart of the city, whose crooked streets are a reminder of the city’s Spanish roots.

welchwrite.com/blog/2025/04/28

#map #history #city #la #losangeles #california #planning #spanish #planning #education #shared

AJ Sadauskas

Insightful long-read about the urban renewal program that's transformed Parramatta into the main central business district for Western Sydney: https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/it-was-once-sydney-s-neglected-outpost-then-came-the-developers-20250411-p5lr3g.html #auspol #planning #urbanism #yimby

From an urban planning perspective, Parra is an interesting case study about retrofitting a new downtown area and high-rise business district in what was previously a suburban area.

"Until 2009, Parramatta had one tall office tower, housing the council. Today, there are dozens of office and residential high rises, the tallest of which stretches to 225 metres. The development has cemented its promise as Sydney’s second CBD: it follows only the Sydney CBD for office floor space.

"Sydney’s original CBD was too far east to be reached each day by workers in the west, he argued. Presentations to government claimed that half a million people were passing Parramatta each day on the train as they travelled to Sydney for work. Soon more people are expected to live west of Parramatta than east of it.

"Parramatta’s boom is far from finished. The council has approved developments for 30,000 new dwellings in the financial year to date, according to ABS data, making it by far the top approver of housing in the country.

"The second stage of the Parramatta Light Rail is yet to begin construction, and the Metro West project, connecting Sydney’s CBD to Westmead, is slated to open by 2032.

"Construction on the Powerhouse Parramatta, located on the former site of the historic Willow Grove, is expected to be completed this year, followed by the redeveloped Riverside Theatres in 2028. The Civic Link, a pedestrianised “green spine” connecting Parramatta Square to the Powerhouse, is also on the cards for Parramatta’s future."

It was once Sydney’s neglected outpost. Then came the developers

It’s hard to overstate just how much Parramatta’s CBD…

The Age
Apr 27, 2025, 03:22 · · · 2 · 0
JuneSim63

"Those of us who try to defend wildlife are horribly familiar with bad laws. But we’ve never seen anything like this. The government’s planning & infrastructure bill is the worst assault on England’s ecosystems in living memory. It erases decades of environmental protections, including legislation we inherited from the EU, which even the Tories promised to uphold"
George Monbiot rightfully incandescent with rage.

#Nature #Environment #Biodiversity #Planning #UKPolitics

theguardian.com/commentisfree/

Labour’s great nature sellout is the worst attack on England’s ecosystems I’ve seen in my lifetime

The horrifying planning bill, which rips up environmental…

The Guardian
AJ Sadauskas

There's a housing crisis. So redeveloping an old factory on Parramatta Rd, near the future Five Dock metro station, into apartments should be a no-brainer.

Unless you're Inner West Council: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/developers-want-to-build-1100-apartments-two-sydney-councils-are-alarmed-20250415-p5lryv.html #auspol #nswpol #planning #yimby #urbanism

"An inner Sydney council is fighting a mammoth $880 million proposal to build more than 1000 apartments beside Parramatta Road, arguing the towers would overshadow houses on the opposite side of the busy thoroughfare, despite the development sitting outside the council’s boundaries.

"The Inner West Council has objected to property giant Deicorp’s plan to build 1185 homes, including 219 affordable housing units, in six towers up to 31 storeys between Parramatta Road and Queens Road in Five Dock.

"the Inner West Council is complaining that the suburb of Croydon, south of Parramatta Road, would be “significantly impacted” by the Kings Bay Village project, which includes units, offices, shops, a recreational facility and a public park between the future Five Dock and Burwood metro stations.

"The council also said the estimated 2175 residents who would eventually live in the apartment complex would “significantly increase demand for public transportation services, potentially compromising the current service levels enjoyed by the existing population”."

The whole point of the Sydney Metro West, which is currently under construction, is to encourage more apartments within walking distance of the new train stations.

And if having a nearby Metro station is not enough, then the answer is to push for light rail along Parramatta Rd.

If more people have homes and catch public transport, that's a *good thing*.

And amenity to Croydon residents?! Parramatta Rd is a six lane stroad with many light industrial buildings, many abandoned, along its length.

I guarantee you that local amenity will improve.

Seriously.

The Northern Beaches and Ku-ring-gai Councils might be notorious for their NIMBYism, but Inner West is definitely up there too.

Developers want to build 1100 apartments. Two councils are alarmed

A proposed development includes towers up to 31 storeys…

The Sydney Morning Herald
Apr 23, 2025, 23:42 · · · 0 · 0
Panethos

America’s loneliest Amtrak stations in FY 2023

Listed below are the 15 loneliest Amtrak stations across the country based on their number of passengers for fiscal year 2023. Nearly all of the places listed are in rural areas. The largest city on the list is New Iberia, Louisiana with just over 27,000 residents in 2023. Indiana and West Virginia both have three stations on the list while Montana and Louisiana have two each.

Screenshot

Most striking about this data, is that nearly half (47 percent) of the loneliest stations are along one Amtrak corridor — the Cardinal, which is a scenic arcing rail route which runs between Chicago-Indy-Cincinnati-Charlottesville-Washington DC-New York City! Why this is beyond the line traveling through many rural areas in the Appalachian Mountains and it being rather circuitous compared to more direct Chicago to New York rail routes is unclear.

The Cardinal Amtrak rail corridor – Source: amtrak.com

Somewhat surprising are the numbers from Dyer, Indiana as well as Browning and Essex, Montana. Dyer is a suburb of Chicago, while Browning and Essex are located close to Glacier National Park. From the data, it appears most visitors to Glacier utilize the East and West Park Stations instead of nearby towns.

One town whose numbers are currently low, but likely had much highest tallies in the past is Rensselaer, Indiana. The town is home to the reopened St. Josephs College and once home of the Chicago Bears Training Camp. St. Joseph College closed down between 2017 and 2021 and is still rebuilding its academic programs. Meanwhile the Chicago Bears held their training camp at St. Joseph’s College from 1944 to 1974.

As the popularity of rail travel increases, hopefully additional passengers will choose to ride Amtrak to/from these lonelier stations. Regardless, for some of these towns, the train is the only intercity passenger service they have. For example, none of the three towns in West Virginia have current bus service from Trailways or Greyhound, nor do Browning and Essex in Montana. The same is true for Connersville, Schriever, Wishram, and Arcadia. That accounts for 60 percent of the list. As a result, the Amtrak provides a vital link for residents and businesses of these communities.

Peace!

_______

Montgomery, West Virginia = 266 passengers

2. Alderson, West Virginia = 399 passengers

3. Thurmond, West Virginia = 466 passengers

4. Rensselaer, Indiana = 509 passengers

5. Connersville, Indiana = 528 passengers

6. Lordsburg, New Mexico = 688 passengers

7. South Shore, Kentucky = 870 passengers

8. Schriever, Louisiana = 912 passengers

9. Browning, Montana = 935 passengers

10. Dyer, Indiana = 989 passengers

11. Essex, Montana = 1,009 passengers

12. Wishram, Washington = 1,072 passengers

13. New Iberia, Louisiana = 1,078 passengers

14. Lamar, Colorado = 1,138 passengers

15. Arcadia, Missouri = 1,228 passengers

SOURCES:

https://www.amtrak.com/state-fact-sheets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Iberia,_Louisiana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Joseph%27s_College_(Indiana)
https://www.amtrak.com/train-routes
https://trailways.com/bus-station/
https://www.greyhound.com/bus-stops

#AMTRAK #bus #cities #fun #geography #Greyhound #history #landUse #passengers #planning #rail #railroads #tourism #towns #Trailways #trains #transportation #travel