Placemaking

Category Archives: Economic Development

November 10, 2015

PlacePlans in action: the skinny on Portage Street

Last week I had the chance to check out progress on part of Kalamazoo's PlacePlan: a "road diet" on a section of Portage Street, passing through the Edison neighborhood's historic Washington Square district. Portage Street had suffered the same fate…
August 28, 2015

“The Dow of Cities” shows bull market for downtowns

The latest new voice suggesting city centers are the place to be: Fitch Ratings. In what Joe Cortright calls "maybe the most under-reported story of the year" for urbanists, the investment rating agency shows housing demand shifting towards urban centers…
June 22, 2015

New Blight Elimination Resource Guides Communities

A once-abandoned commercial strip in northwest Detroit's Old Redford community is now the center of activity for artists, students, business owners, and neighbors. The transformation of Artist Village wasn't quick, and it certainly wasn't easy. More the 10,000 volunteers dismantled…
June 5, 2015

Learning to Play a Different Game in Suburbia

Order book Cars are king in most Michigan suburbs. We have designed our suburbs for efficiency of process, where uses are separated and car-oriented, said Ellen Dunham-Jones, co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia, at the League's Suburban Summits in May. But in…
May 19, 2015

Writing the next chapter in the suburban story

Big box stores can have second lives, as Westland's Circuit City to City Hall renovation, completed in 2014, demonstrates. In 2012, the City of Westland set aside plans to build a new city hall--the long-needed replacement to a '60s vintage…
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