New Haven’s Downtown Crossing Project aims to reconnect the downtown district to its medical district and Hill neighborhoods by redeveloping the city’s uncompleted highway, Route 34 East, and its surrounding 10 acres into a livable, walkable community. In March 2016, the first phase of the project was completed, which included the 14-story, environmentally-sustainably headquarters of Alexion Pharmaceuticals (which brought approximately 960 jobs to the area). The second phase will redevelop the site where the city’s Coliseum once stood into a 1.1 million square foot mixed-used development. The ten-year project is expected to create 4,700 construction jobs and 2,800 permanent jobs at completion.
Promoting Opportunity through Equitable TOD: Making the Case, the first of three reports that cover different aspects of eTOD, provides a non-exhaustive review of the evidence and literature that demonstrates the importance of eTOD. A second report will illustrate barriers to eTOD and best practices for overcoming them, while the third will address the federal role in supporting eTOD.
Developed by City Wide CDC and Catalyst Urban, Lancaster Urban Village is a mixed-use project directly across from a rapid transit station and Veterans Administration Medical Center, the second largest VA hospital in the nation. The development includes 193 apartments—100 of which house tenants with incomes 80 percent or less of the city median— in three-story, LEED certified buildings that include 14,000 square feet of local retail and offices on the ground level. The project also includes a 50,000 square foot expansion of the Urban League of Greater Dallas & North Texas facility, which will add space for trade skill and workforce development classes.
The Coalition for Smarter Growth promotes walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities throughout the Washington DC region, and the land use and transportation policies and investments needed to make those communities flourish. One current focus is the McMillan redevelopment—a fenced-off, 25 acre site owned by the District that the Coalition is partnering with other city groups to help transform into what would be the city’s largest park and a vibrant, walkable neighborhood along reliable public transit options. Read more about Coalition for Smarter Growth...
To encourage sustainable economic growth and create a more livable downtown, Rochester is reconstructing a 2/3-mile stretch of the eastern segment of its Inner Loop—a sunken expressway that surrounds the city’s Central Business District, cutting off the downtown area from adjacent neighborhoods— into a new, at-grade street. The $21 million project will include wide sidewalks and dedicated bicycle facilities to encourage bicycle and pedestrian activity, and is expected to open six acres of land to mixed-use redevelopment, creating 430,000 to 800,000 square feet of new commercial and residential space. Construction began in November 2014, and is expected to be complete by December 2017.
Ride New Orleans aims to enhance the quality of life in the New Orleans region by promoting safe, convenient, and affordable transportation options. Current work includes catalyzing a grassroots organizing and advocacy campaign to improve the CBD Transit Hub, an intersection through which 5,000-7,000 transit riders pass through on a daily basis. In terms of transit-oriented development (TOD), the organization advocates for increased density around transit stops, walkable streets, a vibrant mix of residential and commercial land uses, and zoning that promotes affordable, TOD around the ci Read more about Ride New Orleans...
Based in Oakland, TransForm aims to promote walkable communities with excellent transportation choices to connect people of all incomes to opportunity, ensure California is affordable, and address the nation’s climate crisis. To do so, its work focuses on three core fronts: 1) engaging communities in planning; 2) developing and disseminating innovative programs; and 3) affecting policy change. As a nonprofit founded in the Bay area, TransForm aims to make the region a model and testing ground for solutions that will foster more abundant, affordable transportation choices. Read more about TransForm...
The City of Oakland Broadway Shuttle is a free and green transit service linking the city’s key commercial districts and transit hubs. Launched in 2010, the Shuttle aims to support local businesses, facilitate connections across the city, and reduce greenhouse gases. About 2,700 people ride the shuttle on a daily basis. Read more about Broadway Shuttle...
Founded in 1978, the Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) aims to promote more livable and sustainable urban communities. CNT works across disciplines and issues, including transportation, community development, energy, water, and climate change, and encompasses three core activities: 1) research, 2) coalition building to advocate for public policies, and 3) economic development demonstration projects to address urban sustainability in innovative ways. Read more about Center for Neighborhood Technology...
This report from The Center for Social Inclusion examines the effects of housing, school, land, and wage policies on access to healthy food in communities of color. It offers recommendations to surmount these challenges, such as investing in cooperatively owned food enterprises and leveraging dollars from the Affordable Care Act’s community benefit requirements for nonprofit hospitals. The report also includes several reference guides to help community groups identify and confront the particular institutions, policies, and practices that promote structural racial inequity in their food systems.
To help spur denser, mixed-use development, enhance the city’s walkability, and decrease development costs by reducing the need for parking, the City of Cincinnati is in the process of developing a new streetcar system. The project’s first phase is a 3.6-mile loop through the urban core that is expected to be completed in 2016. Read more about The Cincinnati Streetcar...
Cleveland’s HealthLine Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) connects Cleveland’s two major economic hubs:the downtown district and University Circle, which includes a cluster of universities, hospitals, and cultural institutions. The BRT line is a centerpiece of City efforts to use transit to support development along Euclid Avenue, which connects the two employment districts.The transit agency has estimated that the $168 million project has helped support broader economic activity to the tune of $4.3 billion.
