It’s winter again in Boston. Anyone who was there last year during February and March knows what that means. The ability to move about the city could come to a screeching halt in the blink of an eye. . The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA, or the “T”) completely shut down last winter after repeated large winter storms, […]
Tag Archives: Travel
International Urban Development and Transportation
T.O.D. should not only be about transit-oriented development, but about transit-owned development. When I was a child, I was the first in my classroom to notice that the World Trade Center (Tower 1) had been struck, and I later helped to close our windows, watching as it collapsed. The World Trade Center was a transit-owned, transit-oriented development, […]
Enabling Communities to Build Their Own Plazas
All over the country more and more cities are catching on to the idea that public space can be created quickly and cheaply; expensive master plans are becoming a thing of the past. Typically a community partner—a business improvement district or non-profit community organization—can apply through the municipality to transform an excessive roadway into […]
JERUSALEM: Sanctity of Jerusalem in Christianity
This is the second installment of the history of Jerusalem, the first part; Sanctity of Jerusalem in Judaism was posted earlier. The story of Jerusalem is closely tied to the history of the three western religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Originally Jerusalem was a small Canaanite settlement brought out of obscurity to the world stage […]
Value Capture and Joint Development
What does real estate have to do with public transportation? Actually, quite a lot. From Michigan Central Station in Detroit to the Hudson Terminal, Helmsley Building, and Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC, American railroads of the 20th century maintained a profit partly due to the transportation hub real estate assets they developed, owned, leased, and/or maintained vis-a-vis value […]
The MTA’s Missed Opportunity
Long Islanders cheered Andrew Cuomo when he intervened in the recent dispute between the MTA and LIRR workers, who had threatened a strike over demands for wage increases. When negotiations stalled between the LIRR, which had demanded a 14% raise over six years, and the MTA, whose offer to spread the same raise over seven […]
Powers, Identities, Ideologies
Where do you live? A capital city? A planned city? An industrial city? A ghost city? A green city? A colonial city? An authentic city? A global city? A shrinking city? A gentrifying city? A spiritual city? A divided city? An ancient city? Perhaps, a combination of these types? How about a city with powers, […]
Guide to Vienna: Part 3 - Brief History of Vienna
Welcome to Vienna! My in-laws recently travelled to Vienna, Austria, and asked me to give them some advice and a few tips for their visit. My short list of points of interest quickly grew to several pages and included a brief, opinionated, somewhat political, description of Vienna in its Austrian context. Here is a slightly […]
Guide to Vienna: Part 2 - Places to See In Vienna
Welcome to Vienna! My in-laws recently travelled to Vienna, Austria, and asked me to give them some advice and a few tips for their visit. My short list of points of interest quickly grew to several pages and included a brief, opinionated, somewhat political, description of Vienna in its Austrian context. Here is a slightly […]
Guide to Vienna: Part 1 - Why I Love Vienna
Welcome to Vienna! My in-laws recently travelled to Vienna, Austria, and asked me to give them some advice and a few tips for their visit. My short list of points of interest quickly grew to several pages and included a brief, opinionated, somewhat political, description of Vienna in its Austrian context. Here is a slightly […]
