Mobility Districts

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Fiscal Performance Mapping is helping cities

understand where their tax revenue is coming from

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First, some background on what’s

going on with cities:

Where would you put these high value places?

In downtowns…?

Yes… And in many small cities like Sarasota, one finds significant capacity for larger buildings.

Where else do you put these high value places? Hint: Not on big arterials…

You put them near transit.

Pike & Rose: The former Mid-Pike Plaza

Preconstruction: $880,000 in taxes

Phase I completed: $3.4 million in taxes

Full build out: Full build out: $15 million in taxes

The problem with TOD:

You need the transit!

You have to spend

millions to make billions

That can be a heavy lift

in smaller places

A new form of urban

alchemy…

The New Mobility

alchemy…

to be the right market response.

What we need to do is change the way we think about non-motorized transportation andtransit. When freight railroads were reshaping America and when, later, highway buildingdid the same, we witnessed the power of transportation to shape our economy, our cities, andour concept of mobility.

I would suggest that walking, biking and transit are about to become the next wave oftransportation to shape our urban areas. And that combined, they are a new mode oftransportation. Looking at the location and lifestyle preferences of Gen X and Y, as well asthe preferences of aging boomers, it seems clear that a distinct advantage is going to go tourban areas that can meet that market demand. However, we are still captive to the notionthat these modes are fringe, “green” and non-essential. and “soft”. A hundred years ago theautomobile was considered a rich man’s toy that was unreliable and scared the horses.Change is a constant in transportation.

So, how do we begin to think about this new mode as an economic development tool, in thesame way we use to think about highways? If the transportation component of your localeconomic development planning is uninspiring, if it puts vague hope in some new roads, if itignores transit, and if less than one percent of your combined transportation investments arein the growth modes of biking and walking, you do not have a transportation component toyour economic development strategy.

If you think about this as an economic competition for the location choices of two of thelargest generations in American history, then you can begin to ask questions. Transportationfor what? Transportation for whom? What about transportation cost effectiveness? New YorkCity is betting its transportation (and economic future) on a new way of looking at mobility.Portland, Ore., has created an entire economy at the regional level by thinking in new waysabout light rail, biking and walking. I was recently in Amsterdam where more than 50percent of the population takes transit, bikes or walks to work every day. These places madethose decisions not because they felt good. They made them for rational economic reasons.

It ultimately comes down to how we think about the use of the public right of way. Mostsuccessful regions start with mapping the way people are walking, biking and using transit inthe same way we used to count cars: Look at the flow and the demand. Plan sidewalks withwalking in mind. Repair the sidewalks that are falling apart. (It is actually pretty cheap todo.) And how about transit that allows riders to track buses and trains in real time on theircell phones? How about bike accessible transit? How about signal coordination for buses?

Demographics as Destiny

TOM DOWNS / SEP 03 2011

For Release Saturday, September 3, 2011

Citiwire.net

The new demographics are found in two generations deeply influenced by

suburbia. First there’s the 20-30 something’s who grew up in suburbia and,

like all generations, do not want what their parents wanted. The second

demographic are their parents, who are now becoming empty nesters with a

five-bedroom McMansions in the suburbs.

According to housing and location preference surveys, the younger crowd

wants to be in the center of things — downtown. They want cafes, restaurants, entertainment,

and other young people to socialize with. They want walkable communities with parks; they

want bike trails; they want to bike to work; and they want transit.

At the aging boomer cutting edge, what are we interested in? For boomers, preferences split

almost down the middle. Half of the 50-60 somethings want to move to a larger house in a

semi rural area. They wanted to build their “Dream House”, the house they wanted all their

life, but deferred it to raise their children. The other half want to move to a central urban

area with a walkable, transit- accessible life style. They want easy access to shopping, food,

music, art, and health care. I always thought that this split speaks volumes about my

generation. I do not know what impact the great housing collapse has had on those dreams,

but my guess is that they are still the same, only deferred.

Where might we see these generations going after we recover from this housing collapse?

Further out suburban growth seems handicapped by long-term increases in energy prices

and no market mechanism to create the capital to build new suburbs. There actually seems to

be an over supply of McMansions. Energy costs and maintenance costs make them

unattractive. Denser development, more walkable neighborhoods, better small-scale retail,

sophisticated transit, and neighborhood amenities like parks, and the “new” libraries, seem

Citiwire.net

Asheville, NC

$34M, 0.7 acres, 9 stories, 70 units

$24M, 5.2 acres, 12 stories

$34M, 0.7 acres, 9 stories, 70 units

$24M, 5.2 acres, 12 stories What if all the buildings performed like this one?

$34M, 0.7 acres, 9 stories, 70 units

$24M, 5.2 acres, 12 stories It performs better because it has NO parking!

$34M, 0.7 acres, 9 stories, 70 units

$24M, 5.2 acres, 12 stories Downtown “Mobility District”

$34M, 0.7 acres, 9 stories, 70 units

$24M, 5.2 acres, 12 stories This would add millions to the tax base!