Development

 Before being transformed into a public plaza, Willoughby Street was filled with illegally parked cars.

Last week Alec posted a vision for transit-oriented development that was met by the Streetsblog commenters with less than universal enthusiasm. While we are on the subject, I submit a vision being acted upon that I find close to ideal. Here we see Jersey City, specifically the two blocks of Newark Avenue between Erie Street and Christopher Columbus Drive. The large building under construction in the background sits atop the Grove Street PATH station, a spot of land that represented an excellent opportunity for high density growth because it was formerly a collection of parking lots with a half dozen low-rise buildings including what looks like it was an automobile service garage. 

Planning a city around transit doesn't mean you have to cluster everything inside the core business district. Copenhagen, whose thoughtful bike network we've explored elsewhere, recently commissioned Chelsea-based architect Steven Holl to design T-Husene, a place for living and working outside the core city. The architect's renderings, released November 2, fit into a town that fits into a local rail line and a regional rail network extending as far as Sweden.

BrooklynSpeaks on Atlantic Yards and Buses:

Norman "The Human Tape Reco'der" Oder cranks out a nice report on this week's Transit-Oriented Development forum at NYU for his blog, Atlantic Yards Report:

London officials closed the northern side of Trafalgar Square to traffic creating a vibrant new public space.

Some reading ahead of tomorrow's big Transit-Oriented Development forum at NYU...

Via the Manhattan Institute's new blog, Streetsblog learns of a pdf-formatted report entitled A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Famillies, which looks at the housing and transportation expenses paid by lower income families in a number of cities. The report, published by the Center for Housing Policy, a K Street think tank, finds that lower-income families in central cities spend significantly less on the overhead of life than suburban and exurban ones.