JPER, Volume 17, Number 3, Spring 1998

The Privatization of Downtown Public Space:

The Emerging Grade-Separated City in North America

Jack Byers

Abstract

In recent years, public space in many North American cities has been physically and socially layered through the construction of grade-separated pedestrian systems. Case studies of downtown Houston, Minneapolis, and Toronto investigate the emerging geography of the grade-separated city by examining: how the growth of skyway and tunnel systems reconfigures the proximity of downtown activities to one another; how quasi-public space within these systems is designed and controlled by the private sector; and the way that downtown spaces—both on the street and within these systems—are used by the general public. A common set of patterns reveals the challenges to social diversity in the heart of the North American city.

Public Finance and Transit-Oriented Planning:

New Evidence from Southern California

Marlon G. Boarnet and Randall Crane

Abstract

Local governments seem to be continually strapped for funds. While the revenue-generating role of their planners is often discussed, it is rarely investigated in any detail. We address this research gap by considering the fiscal nature of land use policy in transit-oriented development. A massive and influential literature has explored the potential for leveraging rail system investments by locating high density residential developments near commuter rail stations. The feasibility and focus of these strategies have been questioned, however, in the face of evidence that local government support for these projects is mixed at best. To explain this behavior, we examine the role basic fiscal conditions play in the decision to zone land near all existing and proposed commuter rail stations in southern California. The analysis indicates that station-area zoning depends significantly on community public finances. The results underscore how the practice of transit-oriented development must account not only for trav

l behavior and the broader goals of any given urban design, but also for the self-interested nature of municipal planning.

Simplicity and Complexity in Design for Transportation Systems

and Urban Forms

Jonathan E.D. Richmond

Abstract

A metaphor of balance simplifies and guides transportation planning in Los Angeles and Sydney. Striving for balance, it calls for more or less of particular types of systems without examining whether those elements should instead be reconfigured. Urban consolidation plans in Sydney, as part of an effort to bring about this balance, illustrate what Christopher Alexander calls the yearning for the physical and plastic characteristics of the past. The diverse and overlapping urban interaction patterns of the automotive age—which the plans fail to recognize as natural and not to be transcended by physical planning manipulations—show why Sydney needs a more sophisticated approach. Transportation planners must move from attempting to shape lifestyles in ways which cannot succeed to appreciating the many dimensions of how people have chosen to live and interact across space and how this relates to their aspirations for life in the future.

The Outsiders: Planning and Transport Disadvantage

David Denmark

Abstract

The notion of transport disadvantage and how it is addressed by planners in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom are examined in this paper. Key groups of transport disadvantaged people are identified, which leads to a discussion of the importance of the concept of mobility and access for all members of the community. The second part of the paper suggests that the provision of transport can be used as a tool to advance equity in a population. Given that government subsidies are often associated with the promotion of equity, the effects of transportation subsidies are discussed. The third section of the paper examines some possible remedies for transport disadvantage in both an operational and policy sense. Non-mainstream transportation solutions are examined and their place in the overall system identified. The chief strength of much paratransit—its close ties to local planning processes—is compared with traditional transport planning approaches. Finally, a case is made for more public participation in transport planning and the development of local planning processes.

San Francisco Bay Area Edge Cities:New Roles for Planners and the General Plan

Patrick S. McGovern

Instruction

Transatlantic Lessons: Developing Planning Degree Programs in Provincial Russia

Ann Forsyth and Meir Gross

Comment

A Well-Wisher’s Comments

E.R. Alexander

Report

1997 Chester Rapkin Award for Best Article in Volume 16: Acceptance Speech