KEEP RIGHT! What's the best road sign for it?

Social media often devolves into the realm of the truly vapid ("Hey, look at my ________ (baby, dog, food, selfies, politics, etc.), but it's also a tool for learning and constructive conversation if you use it for good rather than evil.  I'm a Twitter fan for planning/land use/housing/transportation ideas and found this post from a fellow transportation nerd intriguing.

The photo asks two questions:

1. What's the best road sign to use for the message "KEEP RIGHT"?
2. How well-trained are drivers in the United States?  If they're simply poorly-trained and subsequently poorly-skilled drivers, then perhaps the written/graphic content and retroflectivity of a traffic sign is a moot point?

Let's work through the first question.  

Having experienced UK, US, and Australian roadways as a driver and pedestrian, I much prefer UK and Australian roadways, as they are safer.  Why? Perhaps because it's because they have visually clear and simple signs and pavement markings. For example, in the UK, if you see a blue circle (images below) with an arrow pointing left (and where applicable, right), that means KEEP LEFT whether it's a fixed location on a pedestrian refuge island or part of temporary traffic control for road works.

The United States' Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD, I know, it's a mouthful) has four different sign options for KEEP RIGHT - why not just pick ONE standard?  Australia (always a fun blend of UK and USA influences) has a sign remarkably similar to the US's MUTCD R4-7 sign (see below), with one key difference: the arrow points DOWN, like the UK's sign.  These are both good wayfinding practices at which these countries excel.

UK signs for KEEP LEFT are usually placed at driver eye-level, which provides more immediacy in message conveyance, "Oi' mate, keep left!".  US signs are often posted on minimum 7' vertical clearance posts, which allow the message to be seen from further away, but given the business/distractions of urban streets and urban driving, is that message then forgotten by the driver once they're immediately upon (within 60', or 3 car-lengths) the KEEP RIGHT point?  The UK design strikes me as being more effective at providing messaging to drivers in urban environments than US designs. However, the issue is also likely due to the quality of drivers - onto question two!

Regarding question two (Is it the drivers, not the sign?), driver education and testing is much more rigorous in the UK than the US.  Want proof of that?  See the image below that shows the SIX steps you have to go through to get a driver's license in the UK.  Notice the step that includes "Theory and hazard perception test app" - here's a video with some highlights.

There are at least two key study guides for the test - Know Your Traffic Signs and The Official Highway Code.  See all those multimodal icons across the top of The Official Highway Code? They're teaching you to drive amidst all of them.

I bought the two guides shown below on a trip to Scotland in 2015, and they were available at a bookstore in Glasgow Central Station [train].  Yep, that's right, I didn't have to order them or go to a DMV office - these guides are published by a private publisher and readily available at $5 a piece!  They're literally best-sellers!

And I circled key messages on them: "Know Your Traffic Signs/The Highway Code - for life, not just for learners".  I recently moved back to North Carolina and was surprised (saddened) that I wasn't required to take a written/computerized driver's exam.  I had a license from Oregon (they require all new residents to take the driver exam, with emphasis on bicycle/pedestrian safety), so I got a "pass" onto North Carolina's roadways because I had a license from another state.

So, is it the safety of the signs or the drivers that would prevent this sign from being destroyed? The answer is probably "Both".  Still, I do believe that visually striking, yet simple traffic signs and pavement markings, coupled with well-trained drivers, can vastly improve roadway safety. 

Want a quick comparison of US vs. UK road safety?  In 2017, 40,100 people died on US roadways (12 per 100,000 people). That same year, the UK experienced 1,793 traffic deaths (3 per 100,000 people).  And of course, Sweden is the country to beat for World's Safest Roads, but the UK's not too far behind Sweden for Americans wanting an English-speaking case study country.

 Driving is a privilege, not a right, and we should treat it as such. 

Who is this guy?

I'm a city planner, I'm a gardener, I'm a dog-lover, and most of all, I'm curious.

I grew up in Augusta, GA, with my first foray into city planning/politics being a petition-drive I led to create a public skateboard park. (Yep, I was as skate punk - see evidence below.)

Me and a friend figuring out the vagaries of mini-ramp construction, 1993 (left).  The same friend and I with decidedly worse haircuts, 1995 (right).  Sonic Youth will always be a great band.

In college at UNC-Asheville, I was part of a student environmental group that convinced our chancellor to rebuild an existing school entrance with a roundabout vs. building a NEW entrance over a creek crossing.  I also lived in Portland, Ore., where a summer job and brief college attendance sold me on bikes, beer, and transit.

I've always had a travel-bug, so after college, I got a 4-month work visa and lived in Sydney in 2002.  I made sure to get out beyond my Inner West Sydney neighborhood, exploring much of eastern and central Australia's countryside, plus livable cities like Adelaide and Melbourne. [I lucked out for a second trip in 2017, 10th wedding anniversary, below].

Australia puts convicts on their [plastic] money!  Also, they put Target in an 1880s-era wool warehouse in Geelong, Victoria (a city 1.5 hours southwest of Melbourne worth visiting)

Upon returning stateside from Australia in 2002, I put my journalism degree to use as reporter for a small newspaper in Western North Carolina.  I covered local government, which at the time included the town's planning department and their wrangling with second-home development on ridge lines/steep slopes.  I soon discovered that I'd rather DO planning than write about planning, so that sent me to grad school.

After considering schools in California and Oregon, I rolled down the hill from Western North Carolina to Clemson University (the then-girlfriend, now-wife would've frowned upon anything longer than a 2-hour drive from Asheville).

While I was getting a Master of City and Regional Planning (MCRP) degree at Clemson, I also had opportunities for learning further afield, including an internship with METRO, Portland, Ore.'s regional government, and attending Transportation Research Board (TRB) conferences in Washington, D.C.

From grad school, I moved to Nashville, TN, working as a transportation planner for Metro Nashville-Davidson County's planning department.  In my three years there, I experienced a 500 sq. mi. city-county that deals with planning issues ranging from skyscrapers to silos.

My next experience after that was an almost opposite setting - the City of Baltimore, who at 80 sq. mi. had finalized their city limits in 1918.  I worked as a transportation planner in the City's Department of Transportation (DOT), focusing on urban issues ranging from bike lanes, intercity and local bus stop interactions, traffic impact studies, and pedestrian issues.  I also found my dream home - the humble, yet immensely versatile rowhouse.  "Daylight Rowhouses" (below) are a favorite of mine! I was lucky enough to see a real, live "Jesus Christ Bail Bonds" car downtown one day! : )
See YouTube video link below for a good laugh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AJFleIrQ1Y

Source: The Baltimore Rowhouse, by Charles Belfoure and Mary Ellen Hayward

At that time, my wife worked for NPR in Washington, D.C. and we lived in Riverdale Park, MD (Prince George's County, Maryland), so she'd WMATA into D.C. and I'd MARC to Baltimore. (You can turn a mass transit agency's acronym into a verb, right?).  Life in the Mid-Atlantic was more hectic than our liking, and this quote from a fellow commuter rail passenger to a tourist was apt: "Visitin' here is easy, but livin' here is HARD!"  With that sentiment, we moved back south to Charlotte, NC in summer 2012, thinking kids might be in our future.

I took a job with a planning/engineering firm that did transportation work (transit, highways, bike/pedestrian, railroads, etc.), but drew the "Lucky Layoff" card when the planning work dried up in spring 2014.  If you're in a planning group of five people in an office with over 100 engineers and the company's always focused on high-dollar engineering work, then yeah, the planning work might not be the priority.  Years later, an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) that I worked on for the Durham-Orange Light Rail line got nixed.

My GIS color palette (below) included Duke blue (RGB 0 48 135) and Carolina blue (RGB 75, 156, 211). Mapping tip: Avoid ambiguity and keep colors in high contrast for colorblind people like me! The Brits are tops at this nationwide and in cities.

My next job was my favorite thus far: working as Senior Planner for a mid-sized city (Concord, NC) where I got to dabble in a parking study, a market analysis study, and plenty of urban design supporting a downtown master plan (images below).  The only reason I left that job after a couple of years was the 10 hours/week I was commuting from Charlotte to Concord and back (1-hour each way).  Some people are "Super Commuters", but it's not for me.

In spring 2016, I landed a job in Charlotte, NC, five mile from my house, with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Department, but a bigger salary and bigger agency aren't always better (I did get to help Charlotte illustrate its food truck ordinance, below).  No kids were in our future, and after visiting Glacier National Park in summer 2017, hiking though Western Red Cedars, humidity-free, I declared that the Pacific Northwest was once again in my future.

SketchUp modeling supporting Charlotte-Mecklenburg food truck ordinance.

In spring 2018, I started as a Transportation Planner for Multnonmah County (Oregon) and my NC-born-and-bred wife made the move 3,000 miles to metro Portland. Planning in Oregon is certainly never boring - the images below illustrate how I had to negotiate between a property owner wanting to build a house and paved road that happened to have a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) strip of leftover land from Oregon Territory days in the 1850s!

Roughly a year later, some things had been well-established:

1. We noticed a discernible lack of sunshine at times [Okay, weeks and months.]
2. Every time we wanted to see the majority of our family, it required a 5-hour flight to the South.  [My mom's in Colorado, but that's STILL a 2 hour flight from Oregon.]  My wife's an only-child and she wun't havin' it. In fact, I've joked that our move was a 3M move:
1. Momma - The wife missed her momma in the NC Piedmont.
2. Moods - Rain/gray/cold for weeks at a time were not for my Southern wife. As for me, heat/humidity bring out a special kind of crazy in me.
3. Money - Rents and housing costs are metro Portland are the lowest among major West Coast metros (aside from Sacramento), but that's still EXPENSIVE almost anywhere else in the US.  We were likely never going to be able to afford decent long-term housing there.

So, what to do?  "Hey, let's do a West Coast-meets-South-compromise," I joked.  And that's what brought us back to Asheville, NC in September 2019.  I've been gone 15 years (left for grad school in 2004), so it's a full-circle return to a place that's stayed the same and changed a whole lot - those two conditions can coexist, right?

We're both here now, job-searching.  Outside of work, I enjoy taking my dog for walks in our West Asheville neighborhood, poking around in gardens and the woods, and exploring food and drink; Hungry Times Two gives my wife (and sometimes me) a chance to discuss meals at home, restaurants/bars, farmers markets, and whatever else comes to mind).  I look forward to sharing my observations on the built environment, natural environment, and whatever else catches my eye.

Announcing a change in programming

I started this blog in 2013, titling it "CityCentric Charlotte", intending to focus on Charlotte growth/development, but six years of LIFE (job-changes, moves) seemed to get in the way creating posts.  After moving from one coast (North Carolina) to another (Oregon) and now back to another (North Carolina), I'm keen to make this a place where I can wonder around.

Sure, there's Twitter and Facebook for quick snippets, but long-form writing, plus photos and graphics, are what I really enjoy.  And as anyone who knows me can attest, I often come back from vacations with more photos of curbs, buildings, and wayfinding signs than I do of my traveling companions.
That's why I'm rebranding this blog as .. The Built Environment Nerd!  

Want proof that I'm a nerd?  Here's my dad on a trip to the UK in 2015.  I got a two-fer, my dad and Legible London (left), and then I really nerded-out in Glasgow - overview, close-up, and DETAIL. ; )

The Fast Food Venue Formerly Known As ..

I'm always surprised by the number of ways people can reinvent Pizza Huts.  I've been in a "world soul seafood" place in Charlotte (the restaurant's description, not mine), an Indian restaurant in West of Ashley (Charleston, SC) and this website highlights SO many other uses.

Krazy Fish, Central Ave., Charlotte, NC (used to be Pizza Hut)

And sure enough, YES, there is also a similar documenting website for the distinctive 3-arch, old Taco Bell buildings.

Curry Hut (formerly Thai Jong, formerly Taco Bell), Washington Rd., Augusta, GA
(And yes, that's a highway-scale billboard tucked in front of it - thanks GDOT!)

Even though these aren't lasting works of stunning architecture like the Taj Mahal, the Empire State Building, or Asheville City Hall, it's always encouraging to see a building's re-use.  If you want real action on climate change, look at our built environment and transportation networks that it requires (see image below).



And to loop in city planners/housing-options @YIMBYwiki, reuse of older buildings/homes, plus shared-wall home options (i.e. not single-family detached homes) and location-efficient housing and transport modes are key. https://google.com/amp/s/grist.org/cities/this-old-house-why-fixing-up-old-homes-is-greener-than-building-new-ones/amp/… #embodiedenergy #locationefficiency

Pro Sports - Add Cricket to The List

The hot topic of U.S. pro sports these days is Major League Soccer (MLS), but there's another global sport moving into U.S. cities - cricket.  Yes, cricket.  The sport origin of the term "sticky wicket".

Many American's reactions to that may be "nothing but crickets", but expat Brits and Australians are likely disclaiming "Crikey!" (Australian for "surprise"), as are Americans originally from South Asia (Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka) and the Caribbean.  I'm a fan of the "British World" (tea, politeness, good desserts, and "colourful" language), so I was intrigued to read this in Construction Dive, a newsletter covering all things "built and developed".

There's two fascinating elements within this story.  First, there's the doubling of the number of people from India in the U.S. between 2000 and 2013 to 2.04 million people. I grew up in Augusta, Georgia, which even in the 1990s, had a large South Asian population due to employment at the state medical university.  My dad worked as a researcher at the university and several of his co-workers were Indian, so a group of them partnered on funding an early Indian restaurant.  For my sisters and I, that became our go-to spot for birthday dinners - we wanted saag paneer, not McDonald's or Captain D's. I'd bet there's spots in Augusta nowadays where you can watch cricket and get a great meal.

A second interesting element of this story is the stadiums are planned for mixed-use development. That's a smart way to leverage the pricey investment in a stadium ($70-125 million) while having active uses ($80-100 million) around the stadium year-round, cricket match or not.  The rendering below illustrates concepts planned for an Atlanta stadium (no specific site yet), so it will be interesting to see where it lands.

Zoning Hearings: As Civil as Cats vs. Dogs

Have you ever been to a planning/zoning meeting and wondered if someone could portray the things people say via cats?

A blogger in Austin did just that with "9 Things People Always Say at Zoning Hearings, Illustrated by Cats". (thanks to The Direct Transfer for featuring this!)

I'm working on a rezoning project right now that involves quite a few of these including:

1. I’M NOT OPPOSED TO ALL DEVELOPMENT.  JUST THIS DEVELOPMENT.

I'm trying to help an infill developer build 4 townhouses and 1 single-family detached house on two separate corner lots.  That's five housing units that are walking distance to a historic downtown.  Nevermind the 50 and 100-unit subdivisions that are regularly gobbling up nearby countryside.

3. REALITY IS, EVERYBODY DRIVES A CAR.

If these houses get "parked", the townhouses will each have a 2-car garage (2 cars x 4 units = 8 cars), plus a rear row of 4 guest parking spaces, so 12 cars in total.  And the single-family house on the opposite corner would have a 2-car garage, so a whopping 14 cars in total added to an existing city block.  Yes, that's 14 more vehicles moving about, but it's so much more than that:  it's new residents that can support downtown businesses and not necessarily have to drive for every trip they make.

4. THESE GREEDY DEVELOPERS ONLY THINK ABOUT PROFITS

This project's zoning currently only allows one minimum 10,000 SF lot - the site is 14,000 SF, which is a huge lot for being less than a 5 min. walk to a historic downtown.  A third-party property appraisal noted that the highest and best use of the property would be subdividing it for smaller single-family detached houses or townhouses, especially given the existing $16,000 worth of water/sewer taps on-site (previous commercial building site).

Neighbors are insistent on "one lot, one house", but the market will simply not support that at this time.  The real question for neighbors is, "How long can you tolerate this being a vacant, City-owned and non-tax generating lot?"  That's a question for City Council too.

7. I’M 5TH GENERATION! MY GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER MOVED HERE BEFORE THIS WAS EVEN ON THE MAP!

"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less."  It's a harsh truth, but it's a truth nonetheless.  If the immediate neighborhood's going to remain viable and relevant to future generations (i.e. your Gen X and Millennial kids, plus you the Boomers as you retire/downsize), it's got to evolve with a range of housing options, which comes to the next point.

9. THIS HOUSING IS TOO SMALL FOR ME!

If you've only ever lived in a single-family detached (i.e. freestanding) house, that may very well be your worldview on housing.  And that's frankly what most Americans have been exposed to since World War II - a limited range of housing, usually in a spectrum of: grow up in single-family house, go off to college for a dorm or apartment, graduate from college and live in an apartment or rental house (uh oh, we'll get to that in minute), and buy your first house (Congrats, now you're a certified and acceptable adult!).

This current project also has nearby residents asking if new housing can be restricted to owner-occupied vs. rental housing.  Sorry folks, planning authority only regulates use, and in a lesser manner, form.  Housing tenure (i.e. ownership vs. rental) cannot and should not be regulated by government - it's a decision for one of two parties to make: 1) the developer can place Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CCRs) on the property; 2) a future Homeowner's Association (HOA) can make the call on owner-occupied vs. rental.

I had a planning grad school professor that swore by Barriers to Infill Development, and I'm now living his research.  Dr. Ferris, I'll throw my wallet on a table and see if that sways anyone, neighbor or City Council Member, to support the project.

Charlotte streetcar technology: 1915 vs. 2015

Charlotte's streetcars started July 14, 2015, 77 years since last running in 1938, and 2015's first streetcar/car crash occurred on July 18 - why?

That question's still up in the air with safety investigators, etc., but another question arising from this considers 1915 technology vs. 2015 technology.

Charlotte is currently running three Gomaco replica trolleys (leftover from South End Trolley days) which seem to have modern systems, at least based on a glance of the manufacturer's website.  The image below is a spec sheet on Charlotte's current Gomaco vehicles.

Still, the long-term plan is to run modern streetcar vehicles, which one assumes would have better braking/safety technology.  Siemens S70 rail vehicles have the ability to run on LRT tracks and be linked up for multiple-car sets (spec sheet images below).  Would these S70s, based on 2015 technology, perhaps be safer and more reliable than 1900s replica streetcars?  If the answer is ultimately "yes," then let's keep the nostalgia in a streetcar museum and the meaningful, safe, and modern transportation on the street.

Atlanta's new streetcar is running S70s which experienced crashes as well in May 2015, albeit with admitted human error, not technical issues.

Driver error aside (both streetcar operator and parked vehicle in the Atlanta example), costs are the ultimate constraint on transit operators like CATS.  Gomaco replica trolleys were estimated at $1 million or less/each in 2007, while Siemens S70s run around $4 million/each.

Would a $12 million investment in three modern streetcars to replace the Gomacos be worth it for transportation safety and reliability?  That's a question that may come up if crashes keep occurring.

A snapshot of Elizabeth/Plaza Midwood

What do a 1920 apartment building, an LGBT book/gift store, and a 2015 apartment building (The Gibson, 250 apts. under construction) have in common? They're all in this photo I took and they're a snapshot in time of July 18, 2015.  How this image will change in the future is an interesting question.

First off, this image is technically only showing Charlotte's Elizabeth neighborhood, but I captioned it Elizabeth/Plaza Midwood, as the stick-built frame rising above The White Rabbit is emblematic of changes in that more well-known neighborhood. (Sorry Elizabeth, as a relative Charlotte newcomer (moved here in 2012), it seems like Plaza Midwood and NoDa are more well-known - perhaps I'm wrong?)

I took this photo while sitting on the front porch of The Frock Shop, a vintage clothing store housed in a 1912 Craftsman Foursquare house on Central Avenue.  It was a hot Saturday night, with some merciful breezes, as I joined a PACKED house (inside and out) listening to Charlotte Storytellers' Story Slam.  I'll definitely keep an eye out for their next event, and am curious to see how the corner of Central Avenue, 10th Street and Louise Avenue changes over the months and years (NOTE: Street View image is from May 2014)

Memorial Stadium .. forgotten?

Major League Soccer (MLS) may consider an expansion team in Charlotte, but would this come at the expense of our historic built environment?

That's the impression given by a June 26 Charlotte Observer article discussing demolition of Charlotte's American Legion Memorial Stadium, begun in 1934 and completed in 1936 (Art Deco, Art Moderne architectural style period) by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).  Like many venues of its time, it was built to honor and remember soldiers lost in World War I.

Since we're in 2015 and just over 100 years removed from World War I, does this give us license to demolish history?  A July 2 Charlotte Agenda headline noted "I will strap myselft to the gate of memorial stadium to prevent it from being torn down" and raised some good questions about alternate sites:

Why not look at sites on the west side, along Freedom Drive or Wilkinson Boulevard? Or, how about the old Eastland Mall site? There are options out there that could not only be more cost effective, but revitalize parts of the city.

Major League Soccer (MLS) stadiums don't have to be brand-new, as demonstrated by the creative reuse and updating of Portland, Oregon's Providence Park stadium.  Originally built in 1926 as Multnomah Stadium, its name evolved with ownership by an athletic club, a power company and a window manufacturer, but its core location and character remained constant.  Renovations to support MLS occurred in 2001 ($38.5 million) and 2009-2011 ($31 million), with the MLS Portland Timber being one of the league's most popular teams today.

Tearing down Charlotte's Memorial Stadium would erase a bit of history, but building upon and modifying the historic base would provide continuity in our built and social environment.  The site is also near Charlotte's newly developing CityLYNX Gold Line streetcar, so Memorial Stadium could benefit from transit proximity, just as Portland's Providence Park's MAX light rail station serves legions of Portland Timber fans.

Charlotte has the potential to have an East Coast counterpart to Portland's stadium, a stadium that balances the past and present, so let's shift our mindset from "demolishing/replacing" to "modifying/updating".  The end result will be a more interesting stadium gained through the honoring of history.

The "Wow" Factor vs. Small is Beautiful

Does sound economic development rest on big projects that deliver a "Wow" Factor?  Or are smaller, more incremental projects a better long-term solution for cities? These are questions being asked in Charlotte regarding the Bojangles Colesium and the former Eastland Mall site.  And as Charlotte City Council member John Autry noted, "I've had it up to here with 'Wow'!", noting an interest in more balanced approaches to growth and development.

As a citizen and a city planner in 2015, I'm partial to smaller, incremental initiatives, as three recent observations have echoed my thinking.

Make some 'small plans'

In a blog post titled, "The Burham backlash: Make some 'small plans" Mary Newsome, contrasts 20th century urban planner Daniel Burnham, who created the 1909 Plan of Chicago, with Jaime Lerner, a Brazilian urban planner and former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil.

Burnham advised, "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work."  This was stated in the context of early 1900s Chicago, where machine politics and Boards of Trade made decision-making on this scale possible.

Decades later and a continent away, Jamie Lerner held three mayoral terms in Curitiba from the 1970s to the 1990s.  His popularity was driven by his incremental and practical approaches to urban issues. Problem: Got a city approaching 2 million people and no money for a subway? Solution: Build a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system for a fraction of the cost of subway construction.

Pro sports - an economic touchdown?

Planner and NFL fan Bill Adams in San Diego points out "Five reasons losing an NFL football team is good for a city".  My summary and Charlotte relevance of his points are as follows.

1) Keeping public assets and funds: Charlotte pays dearly for sports. The NFL's Carolina Panthers got $87.5 million for six years, with an option of $50 million more for four additional years (the $87.5 million is $75 million up-front for stadium renovations, $12.5 million for stadium maintenance and traffic control over 10 years). At 10 years, that's over $13.5 million per year. What if even a fraction of this funding (3% hotel tax, 1% prepared food and beverage tax) went toward public assets like crosswalks, sidewalks, parks, schools, and transit? Charlotte's 800,000 residents might find the alternatives more relevant to their everyday lives.

2) More support for college football programs: UNC-Charlotte's new $45 million football stadium, plus those of Davidson College, Johnson C. Smith University, and others surely have fan bases that could grow.  Bill Adams poses an interesting scenario: colleges in cities with no competing NFL team have higher sports attendance, and subsequently draw more students, tuition, jobs, and regional economic benefit than NFL teams.

3) Better use of the land: The sheer size of an NFL stadium, plus parking tends to lay down a monolithic development footprint.  This is less an issue in suburban edge locations (think the Patriots' Gillette Stadium (formerly Foxboro) or the Redskins FedEx Field) than in-town locations. Is Charlotte's northwest corner of Uptown a lively mix of uses, or a boring, empty part of town outside of game/event days?  These are things to consider with an NFL stadium.

4) Avoiding the blighting effect of stadiums: As noted above, NFL football stadiums have HUGE development footprints, and when located in downtowns, historic buildings are often demolished and city blocks fragmented/consolidated for a lowest/least land use: parking.  

5) Grab-bag of benefits: Bill Adams' last point brings up the basic issue of "opportunity cost".  Given all the time, money, and energy that goes into NFL stadiums and teams, how else could those resources be spent and directed?  What would 80,000 people doing a one-day street-litter cleanup and sweep of area streams look like? That's my own shameless plug for Keep America Beautiful's Great American Cleanup, of which I'm hoping a fraction of Charlotte's citizens will participate in.

Design Quick, Fail Fast

A recent CityLab article highlights how New Haven, Conn. is pursuing this philosophy in redesigning their streets and public places for Complete Streets - places that serve more than just automobiles.

What's really encouraging is that it's the GOVERNMENT, the Director of the city's Dept. of Transportation, Traffic, and Parking, who's spearheading this!  They're doing projects that cost $80,000, not $8 million, in an effort to quickly and affordably assess what works and what fails in retrofitting their streets for PEOPLE ("pedestrians", "walkability" - these words ultimately mean people, see Seattle (and below) for interesting take on language and definitions).

The work of Charles Marohn, a engineer, and Strong Towns (www.strongtowns.org) also strongly echoes these ideas. Imagine an engineer who thinks about project costs (especially operations and maintenance costs) and people as end-users - he's that guy!

Shine vs. Substance

We don't always need "magpie infrastructure" (named for the bird that's often drawn to things that are more shine than substance).  It's okay to have big goals and aspirations, but sound economic development often involves finding many silver pellets/BBs (mixed-use, flex-space) rather than one silver bullet (a movie studio complex). And when we're low on or out of money, it's definitely time to think.

Good urban design foils crook

Yesterday, I saw the photo below via the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's Twitter feed and my first city-planning-geek thought was, "Hooray for urban-scale building setbacks! If this was on a highway or in a suburb, the driver would have more time and space to correct/overcorrect back into a travel lane."  Good urban design can indeed function as Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).

This relatively new building in Charlotte's NoDa (North Davidson) neighborhood took some damage from the robber's car, but with some repair, it will continue to provide a great example of urban housing options.

Hooray for shallow urban setbacks and great street walls*!

*Buildings built to the sidewalk define a street and create a "street wall".  A continuous street wall with windows and doors create a better urban experience via walkability and more "eyes on the street".