Hartford Headlines: The Downtown Stadium Wars Continue

 

Plans for the new Rock Cats stadium in Hartford. (Courtesy of the City of Hartford )

One Team, Two Cities, and None are Happy – The New York Times

After announcing that the city had lured the New Britain Rock Cats, a Double-A Minnesota Twins affiliate, to a new home 15 miles a way in Hartford’s beleaguered North End neighborhood back in June, Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra has withdrawn a $60 million plan that would have financed a new stadium using public funds.

City residents, and members of the Hartford city council, have been openly critical of Mayor Segarra’s plan that would fund a redevelopment project north of I-84 that includes a new 9,000 seat stadium. Now it appears city officials will seek a private partner to finance much of that money, in what Segarra described as a “public-private partnership.”

City officials issued on July 2 a request for proposals for construction of the baseball stadium and downtown retail and residential development. The request indicates that Hartford will open bids on Aug. 1 — the deadline for developers to submit their plans — and award the contract on Aug. 18.

Complete Coverage

• Bloomfield Brewer Eyes Move to Hartford if New Stadium Development Moves Forward – Hartford Business Journal
• Op-Ed: Hartford’s Ballpark Plan an Economic Catalyst – The Hartford Courant
• Official Fears Hartford Stadium Could Harm XL Center Plan – The Hartford Courant

Officials Optimistic about CTFastrak Bus Rapid Transit Line – WTIC Fox CT

Officials involved with the CTfastrak say the 9.4 mile busway from New Britain to Hartford is on track to open in March 2015.  The Department of Transportation estimates construction of the 10-station system is around 70-75 percent complete. Once the busway is rolling, DOT estimates it will eventually generate 16,000 rides daily and 4 million rides a year.

‘Streets’

• Heaven is Here: Hartford’s First Skate Park is Officially Open – The Hartford Courant
• Waterbury: $19.2 Million Investment Package to Continue Downtown Revitalization – The Valley Gazette

Roads/Parking

• Resident Parking Permits Could Become Permanent Fixture in Hartford – NBC Connecticut
• Report: Connecticut Roads Worst in the U.S. – Hartford Business Journal

 Transit

• MassDot Buys Berkshire Line, Major Step Towards Passenger Rail Between NYC and Western Mass – Berkshire Eagle
• CT DOT Aims to Align Operations, Multi-Modal Mission – Hartford Business Journal

Development

• Micro Apartments Coming to Downtown Hartford – Hartford Business Journal
• Chic-fil-A Plans New Locations Planned in Wallingford, Brookfield, Enfield & Danbury – New Haven Register

Urban Planning

• East Hartford Adopts New 10-Year Plan Reflecting Modest Growth and Demographic Changes – The Hartford Courant

Around Connecticut

• Malloy Approves Funding for Second Train Station in Bridgeport – Connecticut Post
• Facing a New Master Plan, Development Interests in Stamford Square Off – Greenwich Time

Austin Headlines: Urban Rail Plan Taking Shape (again)

Source: City of Austin.

Austin’s urban rail unveiled: Highland Mall to East Riverside Drive – Austin American-Statesman

Ben Wear – Officials proposed a nine-mile route that would run from the emerging Austin Community College campus at Highland Mall through the University of Texas, downtown and along East Riverside Drive to Grove Boulevard. The proposal is expected to take final form this summer, where the Austin City Council will decide by August whether to put a bond proposal on the November ballot.

At the moment, there are a host of unknowns: the cost of construction; annual operating costs and what entity or entities would cover those costs; who will run the line; where the train would have its own dedicated corridor; and where stations would be located. A huge question mark is how and when the line will cross Lady Bird Lake. The final recommendation that will be put to the City Council, along with details about stations, train technology, financing and governance of the line, is expected emerge by April.

South Austin’s beleaguered Violet Crown Trail moves ahead despite setbacks – Community Impact

The proposed Violet Crown Trail is a 30-mile network of trails from Zilker Park to south of FM 967 in Hays County. So far, the trail’s first phase — 5 miles of walkways in Zilker Park — has been built. Attention is now focusing on the second phase of the trail, a 7-mile segment that will link Sunset Valley to the Veloway, a popular closed cycling and skating loop, and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Construction is expected to get underway by early summer. For more information, see here.

Austin City Council Votes to Lower Occupancy Limits – KUT News

Council took the issue of so-called  “stealth dorms” to task, passing a resolution to lower the number of unrelated adults allowed to live in a single-family home from six to four. Some argue these living arrangements provide affordability for Austinites because of the rising price of Austin real estate, while others say they lead to parking and trash problems that disrupt neighborhoods and lower property values.

‘Streets’

• Bicycle Bridge Project Begins on Mopac in South Austin – TxDOT
• Permanent food trailer court to open at 1-acre Barton Springs Road site – The Daily Texan

Bicycling

• Twice as many people as anticipated have used Austin B-cycle in it’s first two months – Austin Post

Transit

• Is Capital Metro’s new MetroRapid service leaving bus riders behind? KUT News
• Capital Metro plans to remove nearly all buses from Congress Avenue – Austin Business Journal
• Rail or fail: Austin mayor touts urban rail in final State of the City address – Community Impact

Roads/Parking

• Heading for the hills? West Lake has a vintage bottleneck – Austin American-Statesman
• Transportation planners could add lanes to Highway 183 in Northwest Austin – KVUE
• TxDOT proposes closing Woodland access to I-35 to ease congestion – Austin Post

Development projects

• High-end apartment project set for evolving area of East Austin – Austin American-Statesman
• 38-story high-rise to kick off Green Water Treatment Plant area’s transformation – Austin American-Statesman
• South Austin’s Lamar Union project filling out tenant lineup – Austin American-Statesman

Green spaces/Leisure

• Soccer Watch: A pro team and a soccer-specific stadium in Austin? – Austin Chronicle
• Master Plan: Disc golf upset permanently removed from Pease Park – Austin American-Statesman
• City prepares for Phase 2 of North Walnut Creek Trail – Community Impact

Around Texas

• Judge Strikes Down New Braunfels’ River ‘Can Ban’ – KUT News
• With three new companies, Temple sees fruits of energy boom – Austin Business Journal
• At DFW, a DART Orange Line connection to downtown Dallas mere months away – Dallas News Transportation Blog
• TxDOT to Dallas: Elevated highway separating Deep Ellum from downtown will remain for the foreseeable future – Planetizen
• Turning Urban Blight into Urban Amenity: Houston’s Buffalo Bayou Promenade – Metropolis

Regional Matters

• Company hopes to open high-speed rail service between Houston and Dallas by 2021 – Fort Worth Star-Telegram
• TxDOT’s Oklahoma-to-Mexico passenger rail study advances – Dallas News Transportation Blog

In Brazil, the Pay Phone Lives!

Apparently, the pay phone is not dead. Everywhere you go in Brazil, you will have the opportunity to speak from a pay phone sheltered by one of the best-known examples of Brazilian design: the orelhão (pronounced o-re-LYAO), or big ear. They are literally everywhere, and it’s a striking thing to see in 2012. I was in São Paulo last month and the orelhões on Avenida Paulista had been turned into a temporary exposition I later found out was called “Call Parade”. Each orelhão had been painted by a different artist:

Orelhões are iconic, and unlike pay phones in nearly every other country I’ve visited, seem likely remain a part of Brazil’s built environment for some time. When’s the last time you used or even saw a pay phone?

Belo Horizonte: Architecture in Brazil’s First Planned City

Long before Brasilia, Belo Horizonte was Brazil first planned city. The country’s third-largest, it was developed in the 1890s when the state capital of Minas Gerais was relocated from Ouro Preto. Today it is a sprawling city filled with an eclectic mix of neoclassical, modernist and contemporary architecture.

Parque Municipal, Belo Horizonte’s central park, is located at the city center.

Praça da Liberdade (Liberty Square) is the city’s main square.

Neoclassical Capital City on a Grid
Modern “Beagá” features a mixture of contemporary and neoclassical buildings, and hosts several modern Brazilian architectural icons, most notably the Pampulha Complex. Belo Horizonte was laid out as a neoclassical city, modeled on the grid system, and Aarão Reis sought inspiration in the urban design of Washington, D.C, and Paris. This is evident in BH’s wide, tree-lined avenues and the prominence of parks and squares in urban life. Belo Horizonte has an octagonal urban network cut by diagonals and is “closed” by a circular ring, the Perimeter Avenue.

Museu de Arte de Pampulha, formerly a casino.

Casa do Baile, Pampulha.

Igreja São Francisco de Assis. Photo by Pedro Kok.

Modernist Architecture and International Attention
The 1940s and 1950s witnessed the physical and demographic expansion of the city past the original boundaries envisioned by Reis, which was translated into the creation of new suburbs, such as Pampulha and Cidade Jardim, the residential areas of the elite. In 1941, Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, then the Mayor of Belo Horizonte Brazil, asked his young friend Oscar Niemeyer to design three buildings for a new suburb that Kubitschek wanted to build in Pampulha, a neighborhood named for the attractive lake at its center. Completed in 1943, the project was a trio of buildings set around the lake. The first was Igreja de Sao Francisco de Asis, another a dance hall and restaurant on the lake and the third a large casino. Together they set the tone for the development of that district.

With its hangar shaped design, the Igreja de Sao Francisco de Asis is easily the most impressive. As the first listed first listed modern architectural monument in Brazil, it consists of four undulating concrete parabolas with outdoor mosaics. Niemeyer was inspired by French poet and diplomat Paul Chandel, who called a church ‘God’s hangar on earth.’ The church was not without controversy and would not be consecrated until 1959.

Modern Belo Horizonte.

Urbanization and Economic Growth
Brazil’s third-largest city is well below the international radar compared with Rio and São Paulo. But things are changing in Belo Horizonte, as the economic boom continues to attract major national and foreign investment to the city. The resulting rapid urbanization and economic boom has left its mark on the city’s urban geography, as skyscrapers sprout up around the city and traffic increases.

How Will Luxury Hotels Change Downtown Austin?

Two new luxury hotels are coming to Downtown Austin. The 2,000+ hotel rooms that will come online by 2015 are good news for SXSW revelers, the convention economy and are of uncertain value to nearly everyone else.

The Fairmont Austin. Courtesy of Gensler Architects.

Mayor Lee Leffingwell had been pressing for the two convention hotel, along with the existing 800-room Hilton Austin, saying more hotel rooms are needed to make full use of the expanded Austin Convention Center and to help Austin attract more — and bigger — conventions.

The Fairmont Austin
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is expected to break ground on a new, 50-story, 1,000-room luxury hotel in early 2013. The $350 million project will be at the site of what is now a surface parking lot located on East Cesar Chavez and Red River Streets near the Austin Convention Center.

The hotel will stand at 50 stories, and at 580 feet tall, it will be the second-tallest building in Austin’s skyline when it opens for business in 2015. (after the 56-story Austonian). Fairmont operates another Texas hotel in Dallas, The Fairmont Dallas, its only other location in the state.

The JW Marriott Austin. Photo courtesy of White Lodging.

JW Marriott Austin
Development on the 33-story, 1,000-room JW Marriott is expected to begin this month. The hotel will be replace an existing parking lot on Congress Avenue and Second Street two blocks from the Austin Convention Center. It’s expected to open in 2015.

What’s next
Will Austin become another soulless convention city?

Developing Austin: 47 Stories and a Planetarium

With Austin primed to enter another boom in downtown high-rise construction, news of a new skyscraper in the works is to be expected. After the non-profit Austin Planetarium and developer KUD International announced plans to build a state-of-the-art 47-story mixed-used development last week that will include the “largest planetarium in Texas,” even the most jaded of Austinites took a pause.

Courtesy HOK.

The $240 million Austin Planetarium project would include a 157,000-square-foot facility located across the street from the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum with a planetarium, an interactive science museum and a technology center, as well as residences, restaurants, retail and 1,000 underground parking spaces. The project is awaiting approval by the Texas Facilities Commission for a ground lease on the property located at North Congress Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which is currently a parking lot. Developers are aiming to break ground in late 2013 or early 2014.

The Planetarium development would be by far the tallest structure north of the Capitol, and at 47 stories would be among the tallest in the city. A possible downside would be increased traffic on Guadalupe on the Drag, which has been at capacity for years.

Urban Rail in Austin: City’s Expanded Plan

With a possible vote on the first segment looming in November, the City of Austin has added 10 miles of track to the 16.5-mile, $1.3 billion urban rail system proposal that has long been public. The newest map released by Capital Metro imagines rail lines extending south, west and north of the urban core and Central Business District:

North of the Colorado River, the map shows two westward extensions to MoPac (at 5th St. and 35th. St.), and a extension to the Crestview MetroRail Station in North Central Austin. In South Austin, rail will run down Congress Avenue to Southpark Meadows. Additionally, a line would run east-west on West Riverside Drive past Auditorium Shores. Previous versions have been criticized for being too downtown-centric and for bypassing the vital north-south Lamar/Guadalupe corridor. Here’s what the old map (from 2009):

Proposed Urban Rail System. 2009.

According to the new map, the city intends for rail to cross Lake Lady Bird on a new bridge near Waller Creek. Whereas the plan previously considered using the existing Congress Avenue, Austin Transportation’s Department now envisions a “statement bridge” reserved for trains, buses, bikes and pedestrians.

There are several problems with this proposed route that are beyond the scope of the post (e.g., Lamar Boulevard), and the Austin City Council has yet to release a price estimate. That should happen within the month, at which point the proposed routes will need to be examined more closely.

Detroit in Transition: Whole Foods Comes to Town

Anointed the symbol of Detroit’s comeback by national media, the Midtown area took a big step toward in its gradual transition into another post-industrial hipster haven. Whole Foods announced it would break ground on a new 21,000 square-foot store on John R and Mack, two miles north of downtown.

For Whole Foods, which is known for conducting vaunted market research before opening a new location, Midtown will the first time the upscale retailer has expanded into a distressed, inner-city location.

More significantly, perhaps, is that Whole Foods will be the only name, brand national supermarket chains within the city limits. Called a “food desert” in the media, Detroit’s 700,000 residents are underserved by full-service groceries and the food industry in general. This has begun to change slowly over recent years as new restaurants have opened in Midtown and beyond, but the new Whole Foods will, surely, test Detroit’s demand for kale, grass-fed beef and imported cheese.

For Austin, Wheels in Motion for Bus Rapid Transit by 2014

It’s been a little over two years since MetroRail debuted as Austin’s urban rail. Following a trend that started in Latin America and has spread throughout the world, Austin says it is preparing to break ground on a high-capacity rapid bus. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is coming to Austin.

Thanks in large part to Department of Transportation grant that will fund 80% of the project, construction of a two-route, $47.6 million rapid-bus system known as MetroRapid will begin this fall. The FTA’s Very Small Starts program will cover some 80 percent $47.6 million total cost.

Capital Metro says MetroRapid can anticipate at least 20,000 daily boardings after the service opens. Plans include two high-capacity, rapid bus lines that would run north-south across the city for a total of 37.5 miles. The North Lamar Boulevard/South Congress Avenue line will run for a total of 21 miles from Tech Ridge Park and Ride to Southpark Meadows. The Burnet/South Lamar Boulevard will total 16 miles and will run from North Austin Medical Center to Westgate Transit Center.

Like other BRT systems, MetroRapid will feature sleek, modern buses that are more efficient and have greater passenger amenities on the bus and at the station that a standard bus. MetroRapid’s fleet will consists of 60 accordion-style buses is expected to run at intervals of 10-15 minutes from 5am to 1am – much shorter than anything Austinites are used to.

The buses would arrive by 2014, and the lines would open after completion of 70 stations that would be located every mile or so, on both sides of the street. Each of these “Enhanced Bus Stops” with a bench, system map, standard route sign and a real-time digital display of anticipated arrival times.

Austins’s far from the only city in North America looking to BRT. In Texas alone, both San Antonio and El Paso
expect to open their own BRT systems within the next 1-3 years.

5 Maine Urban Revitalization Success Stories

If you live in the Northeastern United States, chances are you’ve spent some time in Maine at some point or another. The sloganeers call it “Vacationland,” and for many of us who are “from away,” that’s all it is. Beyond Ogunquit, Bar Harbor and Kennebunkport, however, the story of contemporary Maine today is more complex.

Media reports focus on an aging population, economic stagnation and a brain drain; Maine is still recovering from the decline of the once all-mighty paper and pulp industry here, and the state’s riverbanks are dotted with old mill towns in varying states of health.

Upon closer inspection, though, you learn than like most places, Maine is not monolithic. While there are undoubtedly many places hurting, here are five Maine spots that are reinventing themselves for the 21st century:

Lewiston-Auburn

Located on the Androscoggin River, Lewiston and its neighbor Auburn had developed into bustling twin textile towns in the model of Lowell, Massachusetts, by the mid-1800s. The inevitable decline set in by 1970s as the regional paper and textile industries dried up, and it was in Lewiston where I saw prime downtown office space advertised for $3 per square foot. However, population and economic decline was stymied by an unexpected influx of Somali and Bantu immigrants to the area that began in earnest in 2001. Depending on whom you ask, it is estimated that at least 5,000 Somalis and Bantus have settled in Lewiston-Auburn. The stream of new arrivals into this community has been without controversy and tension, but from what I can tell the immigration is cited as a primary factor behind the sustained economic rebound enjoyed by the greater Lewiston-Auburn area over the course of the past decade. Notably, the Sun Journal has credited the new arrivals with revitalizing downtown by opening shops and business in previously shuttered storefronts.

Millinocket & East Millinocket

East Millinocket, Maine.

The quintessential Maine mill town and its smaller twin sister located an hour north of Bangor along the Penobscot River. The Millinocket pulp and paper mill was once the largest in the world, employing thousands to print paper goods like phone books and newspapers – propelling a boom hat lasted into the 1970s. Production and hiring slowed down dramatically and, for the first time, local high school graduates could no longer be assured a well-paying job at one of the local mills. After the Millinocket mill closed its doors in 2009 and East Millinocket followed suit in early 2011, area unemployment soared to 22%. The population had dropped by over half – t0 less than 5,000. However, good news came to the area in November 2011. After a push from Augusta and Governor Paul LePage, it was announced that the The Great Northern Paper Co. in East Millinocket mill would re-open under new ownership at greatly reduced capacity. Even though far fewer will be offered jobs than in the past (and those that are hired will be forced to accept dramatically lower pay), this has a created a wave of optimism throughout this corner of Maine.

Augusta

Maine’s capital city hasn’t suffered as much as some of its peers, but with a nickname like “Disgusta,” it’s hard to exclude from this list. Augusta’s (pop. 19,146) mills were closed in the 1970s and 1980s, but an influx of state dollars has kept the place afloat. In fact, a concerted downtown revival effort has been underway since the 1990s, a process that has included the removal of the Edwards Dam from the Kennebec River in the 1999 and the construction of a waterfront.

Biddeford & Saco

Amtrak Station in Saco.

Located in York County near the New Hampshire border, Biddeford (pop. 21,277) and Saco (pop. 18,477) were among Maine’s first industrial boom towns. The twin towns began a long legacy of cotton production in 1825, when Saco Manufacturing opened the largest textile mill in the country. Over the next quarter century, Saco and Biddeford both expanded cotton production and diversified into other industries and, in the process, was transformed into a leading manufacturing center for New England and beyond – a position it held well into the next century. As the industrial boom began its decline, mills closed, storefronts emptied and both towns fell into decline. Today, however, a major revitalization is underway, as massive brick mill buildings are being converted into office, studio and commercial spaces throughout the area. Saco is in the midst of a green revolution, including a new $2.2 million Amtrak station powered largely by wind and geothermal energy. And while downtown Biddeford may still be a little scruffy, it hopes to profit from a recent influx of artists and students from the nearby University of New England.

Waterville

Waterville Opera House.

The Waterville area was settled in the 1700s, and industrial development began in earnest after 1820 when a dam was built enabling the construction of a grist mill, saw mill, and a carding and clothing mill. Strategically located on the Kennebec River, Waterville (pop. 15,605) was chosen as a transportation hub in the mid-1800s, as railroad after railroad was built to connect the growing city to the rest of Maine and beyond. Most factories had shut their doors by the late 1950s, and the last passenger train left Waterville in 1960 – soon to be replaced by I-95. With Colby College and MaineGeneral the largest area employers by the late 1980s, Waterville sought to reinvent itself as a cultural destination by investing in a downtown revitalization and funding cultural pursuits such as the Waterville Opera in the 1970s, instituting the Maine International Film Festival in 1998 and opening the Waterville Arts and Community Center in the 2000s.