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Kaid Benfield's Blog

Issues: Green Enterprise

Walk Score incorporates transit, real estate industry takes note

November 6, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably

Tags:
community, neighborhood, realestate, smartercities, smartgrowth, walkability, walkscore

    Walk Score keeps getting better, and it was already very good.  With assistance from the Rockefeller Foundation, the locational rating system has now incorporated transit service data from 40 metro regions into its service, so that its maps...

All aboard: Cincinnati voters emphatically reject anti-streetcar measure

November 4, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming

Tags:
cincinnati, community, measure9, neighborhood, smartercities, smartgrowth, streetcars

      Cincinnati voters have rejected "Measure 9," an anti-streetcar initiative, by a 56-44 percent margin.  The measure was aimed at killing a streetcar plan approved earlier this year by the city council, and would have required further referenda...

Florida county links density & conservation to restrict mining, protect water supply

November 3, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Curbing Pollution , Green Enterprise , Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places

Tags:
agriculture, conservation, density, florida, mining, smartgrowth, sprawl, watershed, wetlands

Lee County, Florida (Fort Myers) is moving forward with an innovative plan to use clustered, dense development instead of large-lot zoning to protect its water supply.  Under current zoning the southeastern portion of the Gulf coast county has been threatened...

An Indy neighborhood could become a model of smart, green revitalization – so where are the enviros?

November 2, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably

Tags:
brownfields, community, indianapolis, neighborhood, redevelopment, revitalization, smartercities, smartgrowth

    Last week I had the honor of being one of seven smart growth types recruited by the American Institute of Architects to work with the city of Indianapolis and community residents on the model revitalization of a distressed urban neighborhood. ...

In improving communities, small steps can make a big difference

October 29, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably

Tags:
bryantpark, community, neighborhood, parks, publicspaces, smartercities, smartgrowth

  Last week, I had the honor of speaking to the Indiana chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects on the subject of sustainable communities.  I enjoy this sort of thing, and when I have time - as I did...

Exemplary smart, green development will complement the historic character of medieval Weilburg

October 28, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably

Tags:
greenbuilding, historicpreservation, smartercities, smartgrowth, sustainabledevelopment

    Medieval cities are almost by definition models of smart growth:  built a long time prior to the automobile age, and built to be self-reliant and defensible, they tend to be highly walkable, dense, and self-contained with many if...

Living smart and well in a “20-minute neighborhood”

October 27, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably

Tags:
20-minute, community, convenience, neighborhood, smartercities, smartgrowth, walking

  A planning concept that is gaining favor as a guide to creating smart, convenient places conducive to green living is the "20-minute neighborhood":  a place where you can meet all of your daily needs within a 20-minute journey, preferably...

More on the Ninth Ward: Musicians’ Village strikes an optimistic chord

October 20, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably

Tags:
community, katrina, musiciansvillage, neighborhood, neworleans, NinthWard, redevelopment, smartgrowth

       Last week's post on the architecture of the Make It Right Foundation's new homes in New Orleans brought some thoughtful comments, and it brought even more when I reposted it on another site that I also frequent. ...

St. Louis leads with model project for smart, green streets

October 19, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably

Tags:
communitydevelopment, completestreets, neighborhood, smartercities, smartgrowth, southgrand, stlouis

    A month-long test of a redesigned "complete street" on one of St. Louis's neighborhood thoroughfares has proven immensely popular with residents, prompting the city to go forward with full construction of the first of four planned demonstration projects...

How to keep smart growth affordable: build more of it

October 15, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming

Tags:
automobiledependence, housingprices, markettransformation, smartgrowth, sprawl

One of the more frustrating challenges for people in our field to overcome is a certain past-is-destiny argument from sprawl defenders who contend that past trends in favor of large-lot, dispersed, automobile-dependent development constitute proof that Americans want more of...

Rebuilding the Ninth Ward: does architecture matter?

October 14, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably

Tags:
architecture, bradpitt, community, greenbuilding, katrina, neighborhood, newurbanism, rebuilding, smartgrowth

      As I'm sure most readers know, Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation has been constructing houses in New Orleans' Ninth Ward, so that residents who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina can return.  That's an undeniably noble endeavor. ...

Bold, smart, green vision proposed for Raleigh

October 13, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably

Tags:
downtown, markettransformation, raleigh, revitalization, smartercities, smartgrowth, transit

Dan Douglas was, until recently, chief downtown planner and director of the Urban Design Council in Raleigh, the state capital of North Carolina.  He is now in private architectural practice, but his passion for the city remains, apparently.  In particular,...

More on Rose Town

October 8, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably

Tags:
community, greenbuilding, neighborhood, revitalization, rosetown, smartgrowth

Following up on yesterday's post, Hank Dittmar of The Prince's Foundation sent three new photos that were taken earlier this week in Rose Town, Jamaica.  Together they capture some of the progress and pride that the project is engendering.  The first is...

Revitalization in the third world: Rose Town, Jamaica explores healing through restoration

October 7, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably

Tags:
greenbuilding, greenjobs, jamaica, revitalization, smartgrowth, sustainablecommunities, sustainabledevelopment, theprince'sfoundation

    A great story is emerging in Rose Town, Jamaica, a community in the process of being reborn with the help of HRH the Prince of Wales and The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment. My very favorite...

Orenco Station found to have more walking, community interaction

October 6, 2009

Posted by Kaid Benfield in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming

Tags:
community, mmarkettransformation, neighborhood, orencostation, portland, smartgrowth, suburbs, tod, transitorienteddevelopment, walking

    As many readers of this blog already know, Orenco Station was built as one of the country's first new, suburban transit-oriented developments.  It's on Portland's MAX light rail line in Hillsborough, Oregon, and comprises some 1,850 housing units...

Kaid Benfield
Kaid Benfield
Director, Smart Growth Program
Washington, DC
Co-founder, LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system; co-founder, Smart Growth America coalition; author, Once There...
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