In this part of the Olympic Games series, we’ll examine the role that the Olympic Games has played as a catalyst for urban development, particularly in the form of transport infrastructure. The evolution of the modern Olympic Games can be related in terms of size and cost. As each Olympiad passes, the cost borne by…
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games will begin this summer in London and I thought I would share a bit of my knowledge in this arena. Not about the Olympic Games themselves, but rather, on the massive planning efforts that are involved for the host city (and country) that the Games will be played in. This…
Building off of my previous post on suburban poverty, I briefly touched on the aspect of infrastructure. I mentioned that municipalities and transit agencies (really all government agencies) will be hard pressed to keep up their existing infrastructure, let alone create new infrastructure in a financially sustainable way. Much has been written on this topic,…
Veering off a little from previous topics, I’d like to discuss the issue of suburban poverty, which has been in the news lately, and what it means for metropolitan regions and transit service providers. The impact of the Great Recession will be felt for decades and some of the long-term problems are only now just…
I’d like to delve a little bit further into the pernicious effect of parking minimums, particularly as it distorts the market tenets of supply and demand. Seeing an article over the weekend in Crain’s Chicago Business about the decline in parking demand in downtown Chicago residential buildings, I could not avoid beating my favorite drum about the high…
Of great interest to this site is the connection, or nexus, between transportation and land use. One prominent example of this failure of this nexus is at the southwest corner of Ashland Ave., Division St. and Milwaukee Ave., historically known as the Polish Triangle. Now part of the East (Ukrainian) Village neighborhood, this site is commonly…