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Photo from Angeleno Magazine, photographed by Spencer Lowell, Michael Todd.
Article from Angeleno, a Modern Luxury magazine.By Gary Baum, Jade Chang, Marissa, Gluck, Alexis Johnson and Degen Pener.
In the August 09 issue of Angeleno magazine, staff writers report on five neighborhoods are good investments that will hold their value, even if they aren’t the talk of the town.
Photo and article from New Geography. Article by Michael Scott.
There’s been a torrent of spirited banter lately about the reemergence of downtown central-cities. Much of this raucous debate is between advocates of urban revitalization, who offer an assortment of anti-sprawl messages as justification for this movement, and those who see suburban growth options as essential to quality of life in America. Adding to the fray are environmentalists who see housing density and alternative forms of transportation as the panacea for confronting our carbon-choked world. Downtown central-cities, they say, will incentivize citizens to relinquish their cars in favor of bikes and walking paths.
These discussions largely ignore a greater significance to the reemergence of central-cities; namely, the recognition of downtowns as the epicenter of civic and cultural activity. This represents a shift away from the traditional concept – barely a century old and now antiquated – of downtown as predominately an economic and job center hub.
From Bloomberg.com by Courtney Schlisserman and Bob Willis
July 27 (Bloomberg) — Purchases of new homes in the U.S. climbed 11 percent in June, the biggest gain in eight years, underscoring evidence that the deepest housing slump since the Great Depression is starting to stabilize.
Sales increased to a 384,000 annual pace, higher than every forecast in a Bloomberg News survey and the most since November, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The number of houses on the market dropped to the lowest level in more than a decade.
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists said today’s figures signal an end to the slide in home construction and sales. While that means the drag on economic growth will turn to a stimulus in the second half of the year, property values are likely to continue falling and rising unemployment will temper the recovery, analysts said.
From Planetizen by Amber Hawkes and Georgia Sheridan
Streets aren’t just for driving, and cities are starting to realize it. Amber Hawkes and Georgia Sheridan explain why street design matters and where we are today in terms of designing the “street space.”
Reclaiming the Street
In October of 2007, the South Tyneside Council, a small cluster of communities in northeast England, published a Street Design Manual, setting a new agenda for the City to reclaim the street space. The manual notes that city government has been responsible for the creation of:
