Lessons from unexpected places. Author: Alan Durning September 21, 2017 “You can’t build your way out of a housing affordability problem.” That’s conventional wisdom. I hear it all the time: Prosperous, growing, tech-rich cities from Seattle to the Bay Area and from Austin to Boston are all gripped by soaring rents and home prices. But what…
Eight reasons why impact fees thwart the creation of equitable, sustainable cities. Author: Dan Bertolet September 28, 2017 When people make a mess we expect them to clean it up. If a private business harms others, we demand it pay the damages. These norms stoke the allure of impact fees—charges levied on homebuilders to compensate for the…
“…the City Council decided to eliminate minimum parking requirements on new development in downtown Santa Monica.” “Here’s why: Parking has a much broader impact on a city than you might expect. It’s expensive to build, it incentivizes car travel over public and active transportation, and it’s been built with abandon, especially in Southern California.” “By…
A lot of great examples for building a protected bicycle network here in Oxnard. Take the under 4-minute tour and enjoy.
NO more sprawl. When our urban core and corridor areas and nodes – are suburbanized and underutilized, why would Oxnard decision makers consider areas protected by SOAR for suburban expansion? It was suggested that some future Oxnard expand into the area east of Rice and south of PCH and wrapping around to Pleasant Valley Road…
Don’t let people park for free Apr 8th 2017| AMSTERDAM, BEIJING AND TOKYO EVEN if the new headquarters that Apple is creating in California does not prove to be “the best office building in the world”, as Steve Jobs boasted shortly before his death in 2011, it will be an astounding sight. The main building…
Oxnard Boulevard is key to downtown revitalization success. We must not forget Oxnard Boulevard. Oxnard City revitalization must not ignore Oxnard Boulevard and only concentrate on the areas around Plaza Park. I strongly feel that only when Oxnard revitalizes Oxnard Boulevard, will Oxnard’s downtown come fully alive: Remove the medians from 3rd (where Oxnard Blvd widens going south)…
The following is a VERY informal phone survey conducted by Roy Prince [ OxnardRENAISSANCE.ORG ] in early September 2017. While most Ventura County (VC) cities have about one planner per 10-12,000 – Oxnard has one planner per 34,000 people. Other VC cities have about three times the number of planners per resident than does Oxnard….
ROBUST GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT MANDATING PARKING What happens when you get rid of minimum parking requirements in a downtown district while also adding 4,500 people to the downtown? Many would suggest that adding so many people in a short time while removing parking minimums would be bad for businesses because parking spaces would be…
Oxnard Community College District Sounds great, doesn’t it. The VCCCD is building a beautiful new Ventura campus like gangbusters – yet our style conscious Oxnard youth are being shortchanged with an unappealing campus and limited class offerings. WHY? There are many more Oxnard CC students than in any other part of the county – yet the technical…