Downtown Idea Exchange, May 2023
May 1, 2023
- Decade of investment takes downtown from dying to thriving
- Dog park is latest addition to downtown’s under-highway real estate
- Downtowns increasingly crack down on e-scooters
- Cultivating volunteers requires constant vigilance
- With police force short-staffed, city hires private security firm
- Five ways to bring more housing downtown
- City uses federal windfall to bolster corner stores
- For poetry month, downtown goes all in on overlooked art
- City uses food trucks to combat crime
- Idea Exchange: Quick Tips and News from Around the Country
San Francisco is one of the world’s most iconic cities, but downtown leaders freely acknowledge that the urban core is not rebounding from the Covid pandemic as quickly as hoped. The city’s office vacancy rate was 25 percent at the end of 2022, not a great number for an international hub of tech, finance, and…
Amid a nationwide wave of marijuana legalization, downtown leaders face a conundrum: Should they welcome cannabis businesses downtown? And if so, under what conditions? There are no right or wrong answers, but municipalities that take the time for a considered planning process make better decisions, says Chuck Latini Jr., partner at InField Consulting in Brodenton…
The city of Boston recently joined a growing roster of cities that have made nightlife management a priority. Boston recently hired its first nightlife economy director, making the position part of the mayor’s cabinet. “We are working to create more opportunities for residents and businesses to help our night scene grow and bolster our local…
Amid a nationwide housing shortage, many planners and downtown leaders have focused attention on eliminating parking requirements. Minimum parking counts discourage new development by raising the cost to build, the argument goes. The American Planning Association (APA) says parking costs as much as $5,000 per surface space and up to $50,000 per space in multilevel…
Motorists in downtown Columbus, OH (est. pop.906,528), are being told to slow down. The Columbus City Council voted unanimously in February to reduce speed limits on all downtown streets to 25 mph, which reduced speed limits by 10 mph along many roadways. The move came after an increase in pedestrian fatalities and speed-related crashes. Matt…
Bike libraries — a concept that lets people check out bicycles like books or DVDs — are popping up across the country. A list of U.S. bike lending libraries curated by StreetsblogMASS includes nearly three dozen programs, located in states such as Massachusetts, Ohio, Texas, and Vermont. Some of the programs offer access to e-bikes,…
Louisville, KY (est. pop. 633,045), will use public art to improve pedestrian safety at four downtown intersections. Louisville’s new Community Crosswalks program was inspired by the Asphalt Art Safety Study. The study by Bloomberg Philanthropies found that after asphalt art was installed, intersections experienced a 50 percent drop in crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists and…
T-Mobile’s latest round of Hometown Grant winners will use the money for a variety of projects, ranging from park upgrades to building renovations. T-Mobile’s five-year initiative gives up to $50,000 to smaller cities investing in downtown improvements. In Payson, UT (est. pop. 21,093), the grant will be used to revitalize The Sideshow, a vacant downtown…
