Last week I put together a quick experiment in crowdsourcing recommendations for bike lanes. The website allows you to draw a line for a suggested bike lane, and the results tab creates a heatmap of the cumulative recommendation from all users. In the week since it has gone live, there have been over 800 new…
A plan to replace a parking lot in Westport with new development is drawing criticism from both ends of the pro and anti-urban spectrum. People on the pro-car, anti-urban side are criticizing the development because it removes parking spaces and increases density, which triggers their ‘where am I going to park/this neighborhood is unsafe’ reflex. On…
Over the past few years, a combination of infrastructure investments, new development, and entrepreneurial energy is revitalizing Rosedale and contributing to Kansas City’s urban renaissance. Since moving to the Rosedale over two years ago, I’ve witnessed a transformation that is quickly accelerating. This is the first post of a series highlighting the improvements as well as some…
True North Hotel Group is working to build a $16 million creepy car cave at 20th and Main. The creepy car cave would feature a dark and foreboding parking lot with a 115 room hotel precariously elevated on stilts above the lot. The design maximizes the amount of space devoted to automobiles along the prominent…
“A Long Road for a Grand Boulevard – Part 2” illustrates how thoughtful design can improve Grand Boulevard for all users. This post highlights a few refinements of this concept from the cyclist perspective. I agree with the overall premise of protected bike lanes and the approach to phasing from paint to full infrastructure. After all, protected bike lanes…