My girlfriend and I used to speculate as to why the Metro Red Line ran so astoundingly far underground in LA. After all, New York and Paris subways are usually just one flight down, as are most others I've ridden; even in Tokyo, when a line is deep, it's ony so it can cross under the two or three other lines it meets at a given station. But LA's subways are deep underground--often three flights of stairs deep, one flight being abnormally long. The Vermont-Wilshire station has two platforms, one of which is so far down that there is only mechanical access--a two-stage elevator or the longest escalator I have personally ever seen. (I have not seen the famous hillsade escalator in Hong Kong.) The shallower of the two platforms has five landings on the staircase.

Since all this digging didn't come cheap, we kinda wondered: earthquake safety? Soil stability?

And now we know: Over the last few months, machines and hardhats have been swarming the former entry plaza at that selfsame Vermont-Wilshire station and have in fact torn it up and replaced it with a sixty-foot-deep hole. (Signs warn we'll have to detour to the back entrance of the station for a couple of years.)

It turns out that there had always been plans to build right over the stations: this one will receive a high-rise complex incorporating apartments and condos, offices, retail, and a school!

Apparently many of the stations will be developed in this way...a perfect synergy: providing customers for the subway, providing easy access to services for subway riders, and providing handy rent payments (presumably) to the MTA to help keep things running smoothly.

Twenty years ago, I would never have thought that transport policy in LA could make so much sense. (Or any sense at all, for that matter.) Looks like we've grown up a little bit after all. Thank you, La-La Land!

Richard Risemberg on 03.30.05 @ 09:35 PM PST [link]  

Apparently a British artist succeeded in smuggling his paintings into the New York's top museums. It seems the move was as much a war protest as a self-promotion. Interesting in itself, but this wire story lead me to a great site about street art.

What does this have to do with Chinese poetry? Glad you asked.

Eric Miller on 03.25.05 @ 07:00 AM PST [link]  

The world's destination for city living has a wide array of city-related items for you--now at lower prices. ENTER THE MARKETPLACE

Eric Miller on 03.24.05 @ 05:16 AM PST [link]  

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) has approved a Historical Marker recognizing the area around Independence Hall as the site of the first organized and annual gay and lesbian civil rights demonstration.

Equality Forum prepared the application with advice from Gay Pioneers Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings, who helped organize the first demonstration. The demonstration was held at Independence Hall on July 4, 1965. Governor Rendell is expected to unveil the Historical Marker at the National Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the GLBT Civil Rights Movement on Sunday, May 1 at Independence Hall.

Eric Miller on 03.24.05 @ 04:17 AM PST [link]  

Demand for two types of housing prevalent in urban areas--condos and rentals showed signs of being in strong demand according to a recent report. Rental apartment homes continued to gain momentum in the fourth quarter of 2004, according to the latest Multifamily Market Index (MMI), released by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Meanwhile, the same survey showed no signs of the hot condo market cooling off.

Continuing the previous quarter’s trend, all classes of rental apartments showed gains on the index gauging demand in the fourth quarter of 2004. The biggest increase in demand was reported for the mid-range rent category which jumped 8 points from a year ago to its current index value of 50.8. Demand for luxury units rose 5 points during the fourth quarter of 2004 over the previous year’s fourth quarter, while demand for low-rent communities rose about 7 points during the same period And survey respondents expect that rising trend to continue over the next six months.

The index tracking the number of apartments available for rent continued its downward trend, registering a 13.2-point drop from 69.6 in the final quarter of 2003 to 56.4 in the fourth quarter of 2004. During that same period, the index tracking the volume of calls from prospective renters increased, rising nearly 4 points to 50.0, up from 45.9. The current average vacancy rate for rental apartments is 7.8 percent, down from 8.5 percent in the previous quarter.

On the supply side, market-rate apartments showed the biggest gain, with the supply index for that category up more than 4 points to 49.3 for fourth quarter 2004, from 34.7 during fourth quarter 2003. Builders participating in the MMI survey said they expect even greater gains over the next six months. Condos continued to be the strongest category; although the 57.1 index during fourth quarter 2004 is down from the 59.5 reported a year earlier, any value above 50 reflects market strength.

Eric Miller on 03.23.05 @ 02:35 AM PST [link]  

I guessed I had always assumed most of the "fixer-upper" properties were located in the cities. The recent experience of trying to find a house for my sister to match her criteria--criteria that could only in most cases be provided in the suburbs--has led me into the new world of suburban fixers.

Yes, it stands to figure. A large portion of these homes were built between 1940 and 1970, so they are at minimum 35 years, and some 65 years old. Many of them have all the plaster cracks, sloping floors and even structural problems of houses from Victorian times. The difference it seems to me is that many urban neighborhoods have a majority of these fixers, while in the suburbs they are currently a minority. Give it 10 more years... It also seems a fixer in the city can be had for a fraction of one in the suburbs.

Anyway, I mentioned Baltimore in a post a while ago. Certainly less fixers there every day. Read More

Eric Miller on 03.22.05 @ 07:50 PM PST [link]  

US suburbanites usually react with honest horror at suggestions that increasing population density can improve their lives. (Even as they complain ceaselessly about the long commutes and traffic congestion that low-density development inevitably engenders.) Almost always, some crank will throw in lines about "tenements" or being "packed in like sardines in high-rises." And yet high-density development in no way requires any of this, and has rarely actually involved either paradigm--both tenements and high-rises being the results of efforts to maximize ROI, not quality of life.

Think on these things, O fearful lawn-slave:

Paris, France--yeah, the place you paid so much to enjoy on your vacation--has twice the population density of New York City. Yet it's a lively, pleasureable place, with almost no buildings over 4 stories tall....

Shinjuku subway station in Tokyo moves 4 million people through every day--peacefully, politely, with little stress. How would your neighborhood look if the local freeway interchange had to accommodate 3.7 million cars per day? Would it be a lively Times-Square like area with hundreds of thriving shops and cafés and plenty of street life, or a smoky metallic hell of quivering steel?

More US teenagers die (per capita) in the suburbs from car wrecks than in the worst ghettoes of the country from violence. If you want to improve your children's chances of living to productive adulthood, you should move to the inner city now!

Speaking of gun violence: Littleton, Columbine, West Paducah...how come nearly every mass school shooting involving the usual ostracized boy or boys takes place in suburban bedroom communities? Could it be that without enough people, and enough diversity of people, and enough public spaces where people of all sorts can mix, you can't have a healthy environment for growing souls?

I often wonder about these things, as well as others, O lawn slave. Maybe you should too....

Richard Risemberg on 03.21.05 @ 01:46 PM PST [link]  

A mockingbird is singing outside my window, so it's Spring by my own personal calendar, though a wee bit early by the official one.

He's singing outside my window even though said window is in one of the densest and most urbanized neighborhoods in Los Angeles, the Miracle Mile district. And across the street from me, as I look out another window, I see the bright yellow-green of new leaves on the jacaranda trees that grace the tiny front lawn of my old building, the one where I lived in my "room in the sky." Below my own window are fresh buds poking out of bare branches, and soon the hummingbird will make her stop at the tiny blossoms of the rosemary we keep in pots just outside.

Last night, as I walked between my mother's house in Hollywood and my apartment, I enjoyed a symphony of fragrances as I passed by garden after little garden--roses, jasmine, a hundred flowers sweetening the shadows of twilight, perfumes for the little tables set on porches a mere arm's-reach from the street.

In the distance, the hills made velvet silhouettes against the last light of the sun--silhouettes bejeweled by streetlamps and high windows. Overhead, the first stars shone.

And in the far suburbs, where some friends and relatives still live, people drove into garages and trudged from the garages to their television rooms. I've seen the empty streets, the flicker of blue behind drawn shades. I walk my own streets, passing neighbors who, most of them, own cars but aren't owned by them, out on foot enjoying the first real day of spring, and I wonder who is really closer to nature, after all.

Richard Risemberg on 03.17.05 @ 07:02 AM PST [link]  

Luxembourg ranks as the world’s top city for personal safety and security, according to a quality of life survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. The city scores 122.5 followed by Helsinki, Bern, Geneva, and Zurich which take joint second place with scores of 120.

Cities are ranked against New York as the base city, which has a rating of 100. The analysis is part of a worldwide quality of life survey, covering 215 cities, to help governments and major companies to place employees on international assignments.

The Japanese cities of Omuta, Kastuyama, Tsukuba, and Yokkaichi score highest in Asia (joint 14th place with scores of 112.5), while Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver rank top in North America, in joint 18th place (score 112).

“The top-ranking cities for personal safety and security are in politically stable countries with good international relations and sustainable economic growth,” said Slagin Parakatil, Senior Researcher at Mercer. “Most of the low-scoring cities are in countries with civil unrest, little law enforcement, and high levels of crime.”

The world’s least secure city is Baghdad (Iraq), with a score of 5 due to ongoing civil unrest and threats of attack in the city. Other low-ranking cities include Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, Bangui in Central African Republic, and Port Harcourt and Lagos in Nigeria , which score 24, 26.5, 32.5, and 32.5 respectively. These countries continue to experience political turmoil and low economic growth.

In the US, Honolulu, Houston, Lexington, San Francisco, and Winston Salem rank highest in joint 45th position with scores of 104. Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Portland, and New York all follow in 58th place with scores of 100. The lowest scoring city in North America is Atlanta, ranked 90 with a score of 90.5, due to street crime and burglary.

Eric Miller on 03.16.05 @ 08:35 AM PST [link]  

Hey folks, just a reminder that we are in the process of providing our articles and essays in book format. The first volume of The New Colonist's URBAN READER is available. Actually, I received my first copy yesterday and I am very pleased with the result. Order yours and take it on the subway or to the coffee shop. The price is right too! Click to shop

Eric Miller on 03.15.05 @ 05:23 AM PST [link]  

Transportation congestion, rising health care costs, uncertain economic development programs, inadequate housing and growing unemployment are at the top of the list of issues facing America's city officials, according to a new survey released today by the National League of Cities. The State of America's Cities Survey found that half of city officials are more pessimistic about the direction the country is heading. Not since 1995 have 50 percent of officials held this view.

NLC President Washington D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams released the report at the opening press conference for the NLC Congressional City Conference, where he discussed the importance of partnering with the federal government to reverse these growing trends and cited the importance of positive Congressional action in support of programs that help cities.

"Six years ago, the Nation's Capital was struggling under a mountain of debt. Our downtown was rife with boarded-up stores and parking lots." Williams said, "Today, we're a changed city. Gone are the deficits. We've had eight balanced budgets. We have $34 billion in economic development pouring into our city. Our progress came from hard work, but also from supportive programs like the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Section 8, and the Community Oriented Policing Program (COPS)."

All of these programs, NLC officials noted, are under fire in the President's proposed budget.

"When you look at the proposed FY 2006 budget, we see that it may adversely affect cities and towns of all sizes, precisely in those areas where we need federal assistance the most," said James Hunt, NLC First Vice President and Council Member from Clarksburg, West Virginia.

The report also cited health care as a major source of concern for many local elected officials. A majority of city officials (55 pct.) cite the cost and availability of health services as a condition in their city that has worsened over the past year. During the past few years, the cost and availability of health services has consistently ranked as a top deteriorating condition (21 pct.), one that poses a "major problem" for city officials (35 pct.), and that needs to be addressed in coming years (15 pct.).

City officials also saw growing unemployment as a major source of concern. Six in 10 city officials note that unemployment is either a major or moderate problem (18 pct., 42 pct.) in their city. It is ranked as one of the top ten conditions that city officials say have worsened in their communities during the past five years (15 pct.) and needs to be addressed during the next two years (14 pct.). When city officials were asked in 2000 how unemployment had changed in the past year, only six percent responded that it had worsened. In 2005, nearly one in three city officials said that unemployment had worsened in the past year.

Another significant finding is that four in ten city officials saw an increase in the need for survival services for people in their city, including food, shelter, heating, clothing and healthcare.

Other major concerns cited by local elected officials in the survey were the impact of unfunded mandates and preemption of local authority, the availability of quality affordable housing, and racial and economic inequalities.

Fifty percent of city officials are pessimistic about the general direction the country is heading (up slightly from forty five percent in 2004). Despite the national concerns, city officials are generally optimistic about the state of their individual cities. The survey revealed that 90 percent of respondents feel that services are being adequately provided, that community and quality of life factors are improving, and that there is the potential for better relations with other levels of government through positive impacts of federal and state government, and through collaboration with other local governments in their region.

"These and the many other critical issues facing local governments require a deliberate and effective partnership and a collaborative spirit between Washington DC and Main Street USA," said NLC Second Vice President Bart Peterson, mayor of Indianapolis, Ind. "We are here in Washington to extend our hands to Congress and the Administration and to begin the work that needs to be done."

Eric Miller on 03.12.05 @ 05:49 PM PST [link]  

A second mayoral candidate is talking about connecting two of the state's biggest transit hubs by rail. This has been studied since the turn-of-the-century (20th) mind you, so don't be surprised if it's mostly hot air.

Just after the leading candidate, an old-machine, blue Democrat named Bob O'Connor suggested connecting downtown to Oakland by streetcar, candidate Michael Lamb suggested connecting the two hubs using self-propelled diesel cars on existing Amtrak right-of-ways.

Not a bad idea, but these lines were built to avoid the places in-between these trains can serve. It could provide a damn-good express service however, though I'm not sure of the proximity quality for an Oakland transfer point.

Anyway, Lamb also said a highway under construction would do more harm than good rather than provide economic development. Right-on! At least everyone's talking about it and they're talking about the kind of public transit that does help in terms of urban quality-of-life, rail.

Eric Miller on 03.11.05 @ 08:24 PM PST [link]  

Pittsburgh Mayoral candidate Bob O'Connor has come up with a daring new proposal: bring back the streetcars. That's a grand idea. He suggests using them to connect Downtown and Oakland. Another grand idea.

The thing is, Streetcars, as in the historic variety, are back in fashion and used primarily to connect tourist destinations. A streetcar line connecting Station Square with PNC Park would be an even better idea. A "T Connection to Oakland would be an absolutely superb idea and a T connection to Oakland and a streetcar line from PNC Park to Station Square would throw my vote to O'Connor.

Of course we're already hearing the usual jibberish we get around these parts that responds with "buses are cheaper." In Pittsburgh we still cling to the idea that public transit is only for people without cars and there's no use spending money on systems that people would actually want to ride--if even only for the sake of riding it (as opposed to getting somewhere).

My hat is off to O'Connor in any case for bringing the idea to the public.

And, Mr. O'Connor, if Historic Streetcars would be in the works, perhaps PAT could contract with the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum
to supply and maintain the fleet, similar to the Market Street Railway in San Francisco.

Eric Miller on 03.11.05 @ 07:48 AM PST [link]  

Question: People in San Francisco, Boston and New York think it odd to see a real estate listing for under $150K. Is it true in some cities it is possible to purchase a home for less than $25,000? Less than $10,000? Less than $5,000?

Answer: Yes. From the extent of my knowledge, two places you can come across prices like these are Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Here is one listing I pulled up in Baltimore listed at $5,000. I understand that the market in Baltimore has increased significantly in the past few years and listings at these prices are becoming fewer.

Most central cities in the U.S. have seen an increase in population since 1990. Located between Philadelphia and Washington, having great transit access and great housing stock, I don't personally see how Center-City Baltimore's future could be anything but bright.

Pittsburgh is experiencing similar trends. Unlike Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, Pittsburgh has less housing stock located in the central city. The neighborhoods that are within walking distance are the Hill District and the Northside. Being familiar with the Northside, I know the cost of housing, still available in a wide-array of conditions, has gone up in the past decade, at least in terms of listing and selling prices.

I also know of no fewer than three properties advertised at less than $6,000. The ones I have toured are far from being in move-in condition. There are houses in the $15,000-$25,000 range that are in need of cosmetic upgrades for the most part and are in livable condition.

For more information on homes in Pittsburgh, feel free to call me at 412-322-2842 or visit DunnRealtor.com

You can also visit an Urban real Estate email group at: Urban Real Estate Opportunities

Eric Miller on 03.09.05 @ 12:05 PM PST [link]  

The world's population is growing older -- bringing a wide array of challenges to both rich and poor countries. "Global Aging: The Challenge of Success," a new report by the Population Reference Bureau, points out that people age 65 or older already make up nearly one-fifth of the population in many European countries, and that the share is rising. Authors Kevin Kinsella, of the U.S. Census Bureau, and David Phillips, of Lingnan University, Hong Kong, argue that before long, many industrialized countries may have more grandparents than grandchildren.

Less developed countries are also seeing their populations grow older, ushering in new social problems for societies that have few public support systems. By 2050, 1.2 billion of the nearly 1.5 billion people age 65 or older will reside in less developed countries.

Population aging has been driven by low or falling birth rates that have reduced the numbers of births each year, and improved health and medical care that have enabled people to live longer. Italy is the world's "oldest" major country, with nearly 20 percent of its population age 65 or older. Japan, Greece, and Germany rank close behind.

Many European governments are concerned about the social and economic strains from the rise in ratio of retirement-age to working-age people. But Kinsella and Phillips report that analysts see little hope of slowing the aging process. European and Japanese couples would need to have many more children than they now are to interrupt the demographic momentum of aging. And while immigration can help slow the process, immigration would have to occur on an infeasibly large scale.

Japan and many European countries are among the first to grapple with the various challenges of aging that will soon face all countries, including the United States. The United States is much younger than most other industrialized countries -- one- eighth of Americans are age 65 or older.

And the graying of the U.S. baby boomers will boost the country's elderly proportion to one-fifth by 2030, still well below the projected elderly share in Europe for that year. But this aging presents a growing burden to our social security system and public services, and is emerging as a high-profile political issue in the Bush administration's second term.

Kinsella and Phillips point out that, while many less- developed countries have successfully lowered the high birth rates that fueled explosive population growth over the past several decades, lower fertility has caused rapid aging in some countries.

"In less developed countries as diverse as Malaysia and Colombia, older populations are expected to more than triple in size between 2000 and 2030," write the authors. They add that China is likely to have 349 million people age 65 or older by 2050 -- more than the current size of the entire U.S. population.

Kinsella and Phillips highlight other major trends:

-- The world is seeing a rapid increase in the number of the "oldest old" -- people age 80 or older.

-- Traditional family support systems for older people are eroding in many countries because of smaller families and highly mobile populations.

-- More older people around the world live alone. More than one-third live alone in Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Denmark.

-- Older women far outnumber older men globally -- with just 46 men for every 100 women ages 65 and older in Russia in 2004, and 71 for every 100 women in the United States.

Eric Miller on 03.08.05 @ 02:56 PM PST [link]  

Maybe it's more the accumulation of little signs that signifies insanity...I'm beginning to wonder whether at this point we can say that American culture has lost its collective mind.

I made one of my rare visits to the local corporate market just now. Ironically enough, this one is built to progressive design principles that fit in well with my upscale, extremely dense urban neighborhood: it has fairly limited parking which is underground; it has a beautiful entrance portal better than you'll often find on grand public buildings of the past; and that stunning entryway is right on the sidewalk facing Wilshire Blvd., the real main street of central LA.

Inside, of course, it's the usual story, with stony, overpriced produce and the typical iterations of famous names interspersed with house brands. I needed to pick up a small jar of mayonnaise to take with my fiancée to her parents' house for her father's 81st birthday. They live in deep suburbia, and even the most minor purchase involves a long and tedious automobile excursion. So I walked around the corner to the store.

While I was waiting at the checkout line, I cast my eye on the purchases the fellow ahead of me was putting on the conveyor belt, and I was shocked--shocked!--to see that he was buying two potatoes and a cucumber, and that they were individually shrink-wrapped!

Forget the waste of resources and the multiplication of garbage that this involves: what worries me is that we have, as a culture, become so fearful of the life around us that we must devote considerable energy and resources (most of both taken from others, of course) to wrap our foods in emblems of sterility.

Can you spell "obsessive-compulsive disorder"? Sure you can.

Perhaps we're just trying to deny to ourselves that in America it's brown hands that feed white mouths, but I think it goes much deeper. Our fixation on gated communities, free-standing houses amid moats of lawn, hermetically-sealed cars where the only sounds we can hear are commercial playlists we control; our persistence in believing that the world belongs in its entirety to each of us individually; our penchant for destroying common space because we as Americans cannot bear to share (though we force others to share their labor and their birthrights at disadvantageous rates, and often at gunpoint)...we isolate ourselves deeper and deeper in an solipsism whose imaginary walls not only imprison us in an ultimate and futile boredom, but also confine our public policy so that we force all around us to emulate our insularity. (Why else would zoning variances be required when one wants to build real, traditional neighborhoods?)

The individually shrink-wrapped couch potato: America's man of the future.

It's just plain nuts.

Richard Risemberg on 03.05.05 @ 01:09 PM PST [link]  

Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y. is the nation’s most affordable housing market among major metropolitan areas with populations over one million, according to the newly released National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) for the fourth quarter of 2004. Among smaller markets, Lima, Ohio rated tops for metros with fewer than 250,000 people, while Saginaw-Bay City-Midland, Mich., was the most affordable midsized market with 250,000 to just under one million people.

Buffalo-Niagara, N.Y., was the nation’s most affordable major market and the sixth most affordable market overall – behind the less-populated metros of Lima, Ohio; Cumberland, Md.; Mansfield, Ohio; Saginaw-Bay City-Midland, Mich.; and Canton-Massillon, Ohio, respectively. In Buffalo, nearly 90 percent of homes sold in 2004’s final quarter were affordable to families earning the area median income of $53,600. The median price of homes sold in the market during that period was $79,000.

With nine markets appearing on the “25 Most Affordable Metro Areas” list, Ohio wins the title of the most affordable state in which to buy a home nationwide. Illinois and Michigan tied as the second-most affordable states, with four metros in each appearing on the top-25 list.

On the flip side of the coin, Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif. tied with Salinas, Calif. for the bottom-most spot on the “25 Least Affordable Metro Areas” list. With 19 entries on that list, California was once again the nation’s least affordable state housing market overall. No other state had more than two entries in the least-affordable column.

In Los Angeles-Long Beach, where the median home price was $415,000 in the fourth quarter, only 5.2 percent of homes sold were affordable to median-income families earning $53,500 per year.

Eric Miller on 03.02.05 @ 02:36 PM PST [link]