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Geography. Environment. Urbanism. And other stuff.
Browsing All Posts filed under »St. Petersburg«
So Walmart kills local businesses … um, didn’t we already know this?
Stories of local, mom & pop businesses going under in the wake of a newly-opened Walmart are old hat by now. But even so, all those anecdotes – numerous though they may be – lack a certain amount of concrete-ness (which is why the plural of anecdote is not data). But no longer. Now we […]
“Walkability” has to extend past the end of your driveway
September 13, 2012
After four or five years of relentless pessimism and negativity, the real estate market in the Tampa Bay area has finally been getting some good news lately. Sales are picking up, inventory is falling – and even though prices are still flat, at least the free fall is over. I’ve heard people speculating that this […]
Transit stinks
August 23, 2012
In a city like St. Petersburg, there are actually legitimate reasons not to use transit. The buses don’t go where you need them to. They don’t come frequently enough. The city and county are so decentralized that if you have to go any appreciable distance, you’ll spend half your day on the bus. Some of […]
Will we see light rail in Pinellas County?
August 14, 2012
Back in 2010, Hillsborough County residents defeated a referendum that would have given the go-ahead to financing and building a light rail system between the city of Tampa and its outlying suburbs. Here on the other side of the bay, we may be gearing up for our own referendum on the subject, with an actual […]
And no, we won’t be calling it the Matlock Pier either …
June 11, 2012
The problem with public participation in the planning process is that it’s so … democratic. Or at least, that’s what I would have been thinking if I’d been an architect in St. Petersburg last week, when the city held a public meeting to discuss the future of The Pier, which has been a St. Pete […]
What should be downtown?
May 29, 2012
In a lot of cities, you can get a good sense of the character and strength of the urban economy simply by paying attention to what is downtown. For example, a lot of art galleries and funky shops suggests that an urban revitalization is probably well underway, and that it’s more or less an organic […]
Less is more?
May 21, 2012
I have a friend who recently moved to St. Pete’s south side from a more suburban part of the Tampa Bay region. After a coworker of his got a DUI, my friend started seriously considering using transit to get to his favorite watering holes downtown. But after looking into it, he decided it probably wouldn’t […]
Problem streets, part one: the “alternate route”
May 9, 2012
There’s a problem street in my neighborhood. It’s a quiet street, lined with banyan trees, ninety-year-old bungalows and small apartment buildings. It’s a bit wider than most streets in the neighborhood, but it’s not even busy enough for a yellow line between the two lanes. It goes right past the small lake that is the […]
Something is missing here
May 4, 2012
As much as I would love to have all the transit perks that bigger, denser cities enjoy, I know it is simply not to be. St. Petersburg doesn’t have the transit budget – or the commitment to transit use – that cities like Portland or San Francisco have. We don’t have real-time displays at bus […]
Planning the future of my neighborhood
May 3, 2012
How will my neighborhood change over the next 20 years? What will it look like then? What should it look like? These are some of the questions my neighbors and I have been tackling lately, as we work on a brand new neighborhood plan. A rewrite is long overdue: The existing plan is over twenty […]
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September 20, 2012
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