OK, this video is really funny. Due credit to Jeff Speck and Ken Firestone for propagating it around urbanist Facebook circles, and to Andre Spino-Smith and JJ Kinsfather of the Buena Vista, Colorado development South Main, who are credited with putting it together. Enjoy:
The trendiest neighborhood in West Palm Beach is Northwood, a collection of historic districts, fading industrial areas, and blocks of small bungalows and grand Mission-style homes that is now hopping with cafes, boutiques, a monthly art and wine "promenade," new workforce housing, significant streetscape improvements, a new Maritime Institute, and a can-do attitude. Yet not that long ago it was a worn-down area with declining property values (pre-recession), empty storefronts, "slum landlords" and a dicey reputation. One local business owner lamented to Palm Beach Post reporter Rhonda Swann in 2008 that "Northwood Village [the commercial district] has been up and coming for 25 years, and that's sad."
Last week marked the 40th anniversary of the federal Clean Air Act, providing an appropriate occasion to revisit the effects of sprawl and smart growth on air quality.
As noted in a report on public health and smart growth prepared by Lawrence Frank, Sarah Kavage and Todd Litman, the increased automobile trips and miles driven under sprawling land use patterns are "associated with higher levels of several air pollutants that have adverse respiratory health impacts. These harmful pollutants include fine particulates, toxins, carbon monoxide, NOx [nitrogen oxides] and VOCs [volatile organic compounds." (NOx and VOCs are precursors to ozone smog.)
Earlier this month, I spoke to the annual convention of the American Institute of Architects in Miami Beach, as part of a session on neighborhood density. We had a sizable, knowledgeable and attentive audience, and I was struck by the fact that most of the comments and questions after our session were about what we need to do to craft sustainable urban economies, not the facts and figures we had presented regarding the market for walkable neighborhoods, how to design for environmental sustainability, and the dividends that urban densities can bring to their communities.
