Comparing the Economics of Dense, Mixed-Use Areas versus Car Dependent Burbs (Urban3)

Рет қаралды 1,594

Күн бұрын

In this episode, I reconnect with Joe Minicozzi, founder of Urban3, to discuss why our traditional development patterns were and are more productive financially and how that relates to Strong Towns and creating more Active Towns that promote a culture of activity.
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Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
- Urban3 website: www.urbanthree.com/
- Strong Towns website: www.strongtowns.org/
- Ep 90 Chuck Marohn, Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: www.activetowns.org/2021/09/0...
- Conversation with an Engineer video: • Conversation with an E...
- Congress for the New Urbanism: www.cnu.org/
- My Episode with Steffen Berr: www.activetowns.org/2023/11/2...
- Steffen’s LinkedIn Post: bit.ly/3vwhdK1
- Strong Towns National Gathering: www.strongtowns.org/eventspag...
- Amsterdam's new underwater bike parking by De Filmende Fietser: • Short video: A walk th...
- My episode with Donald Shoup: www.activetowns.org/2020/09/1...
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Credits: Video and audio production by John Simmerman
Music via Epidemic Sound: bit.ly/3rFLErD
Resources used during the production of this video:
- My recording platform is Ecamm Live: bit.ly/3rwsUup
- Editing software Adobe Creative Cloud Suite: bit.ly/35DBDDU
For more information about the Active Towns effort or to follow along, please visit our links below:
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Background:
Hi Everyone! My name is John Simmerman, and I’m a health promotion and public health professional with over 30 years of experience. Over the years, my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization in how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.
Since 2010, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be while striving to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."
The Active Towns Channel features my original video content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.
Thanks once again for tuning in! I hope you find this content helpful and insightful.
Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2024

Пікірлер: 26

@pavld335 4 ай бұрын

This was very educational. Thanks John for the interview!

@ActiveTowns 4 ай бұрын

You are quite welcome! So glad you enjoyed it. 🙌

@JustClaude13 5 ай бұрын

I always love hearing Joe Minicozzi's presentations. If the gathering is going to be in Cincinnati, maybe they can go tour the subway. A fascinating bit of failed history.

@ActiveTowns 5 ай бұрын

Thanks for tuning in and for the tip. From Wikipedia: "The Cincinnati Subway was a partially completed rapid transit system beneath the streets of Cincinnati, Ohio. Although the system only grew to a little over 2 miles (3.2 km) in length, its derelict tunnels and stations make up the largest abandoned subway tunnel system in the United States." Wow! And the Great Depression brought construction to a halt. Yes, genuinely fascinating stuff. Cheers! John

@JustClaude13 5 ай бұрын

@@ActiveTowns I think inflation was the big killer. Construction was halted by the Great War to End All Wars (Part one, before the Encore in 1938 and the subsequent Road Trip edition) and when they came back in 1919 everything cost a lot more, so it was paused while they raised funds. By the 1930s they had to admit that they couldn't do it without outside help, and when the freeway program started up they donated the land for interstates. Not a good deal, if you ask me.

@vincewhite5087 5 ай бұрын

In calgary the Province set the rate for all cities & towns. My city doesn’t plow residential unless it’s on arterial roads for cars & your driveway & all sidewalks the residents shovel or face fine.

@ActiveTowns 5 ай бұрын

Yep, seems like a pretty standard North American approach.

@colleenharrison2942 5 ай бұрын

WOW, that is a lot to think about when purchasing housing and where the taxes are spent. Great discussion!

@ActiveTowns 5 ай бұрын

It sure is... Thanks for watching! John

@buildthelanes 5 ай бұрын

*peeks around the corner*

@ActiveTowns 5 ай бұрын

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention to you that you had a shout out 😀

@knarf_on_a_bike 5 ай бұрын

Great discussion!

@ActiveTowns 5 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks so much for tuning in. Have a wonderful weekend. Cheers! John

@nogi7028 5 ай бұрын

Can someone recommend a book similar to Joe Minicozzi's presentation? That directly covers local government taxes and infrastructure spending

@ActiveTowns 5 ай бұрын

Definitely Strong Towns as mentioned in the episode, if you haven't read it yet. I'll check with Joe additional recommendations. Thanks for watching. Cheers! John

@josephminicozzi3830 5 ай бұрын

Start with "Strong Towns: A Bottom Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity" by Charles Marohn. There are numerous routes to go from there. I think I mentioned the "Cost of Sprawl" book from the 1970's, and that book has been refreshed by different authors. For me, it's less about those books, and more about visualizing the information so that people understand the information. To paraphrase Malcolm Gladwell, 'We are swimming in information. What we lack is an understanding of the information." Most cities have all the information you need, but it's rarely constructed or visualized to demonstrate understanding. The other reason I like Gladwell (and his books) is that he demonstrates how we ask the wrong questions when we approach data. I like his book "Outliers" and "Tipping Point" for that. Also, Michael Lewis' book "Moneyball". Our work is essentially 'moneyball for cities'. We have a lot of presentations on our KZfaq site (www.youtube.com/@urban3), and those have books worth of information within them. Though, I think Not Just Bikes has the best compendium of Strong Towns and our work here (kzfaq.info/sun/PLJp5q-R0lZ0_FCUbeVWK6OGLN69ehUTVa). It's an 8 part series.

@stacyliles5534 5 ай бұрын

Hey John. Has Denver done a cost benefit assessment like this?

@ActiveTowns 5 ай бұрын

No clue… I’ll have Joe respond. Thanks for watching. Cheers! John

@josephminicozzi3830 5 ай бұрын

I don't think so. The key thing that we use in our method is incorporating lifecycle costing as well as geospatial consequences. Not many places consider those effects (but they should)@@ActiveTowns

@scb2scb2 5 ай бұрын

Very interesting i wonder what this will show if its done on a city and its out areas of Utrecht/Netherlands. Esp. given the building of the new part of town and its second city center. I kind of assume the more stable/mixed building of homes would give better results and the lesser amount for parking (cars not bicycles) will effect the numbers. But end of the day i also would not be shocked if there is a unbalance but we just accept it more for the 'commons'. Now money flows are different anyway and we need to pay for different taxes like waterworks to keep us all dry.

@ActiveTowns 5 ай бұрын

Yes, stay tuned... Joe may have some insights from The Netherlands soon(ish). 😀

@AustinSersen 5 ай бұрын

I simply don't get how the general public isn't aware of this (particularly South Bend's pipes), and how they fight tooth and nail to ignore its existence. "But we have the cities we have because people chose this" No one in their right mind would choose this if they understood all of the externalities. "But people like cars" People only like cars because their infrastructure (roads and parking) takes up 50% of land within cities. It's like with the carbon tax in Canada who just did their quarterly payout today (Hello $193 in my bank account!). If people could simply grasp that the majority of people get back more than they put into the system, there would be no qualms. Instead, people are saying that they pay all year and only get back crumbs which is 100% false. I directly contribute maybe $50 a year into the system from heating/electricity bills (split amongst 5-6 roommates) and get back almost $800 a year because my primary transportation is a bicycle instead of car.

@ActiveTowns 5 ай бұрын

Yep... it's pretty amazing.

@vincewhite5087 5 ай бұрын

One mistake Joe makes is assuming infrastructure comes from downtown. In my city ‘Calgary’ the historic downtown did not provide infrastructure. The water treatment & intakes & sewer plants were at the onset were set far away in a suburb. The cost was to push services to the down town. Not the other way. Just because scum city halls and its poison is down town & court, there is no reason to go there. If my office isn’t downtown, there are years I never even go near it. Most of city hall things I can do from home. I live most of my life within 7 miles or less from my home. Now city is paying to convert empty office towers. Don’t like work downtown. Like remote.

@ActiveTowns 5 ай бұрын

Fascinating case. Thanks for sharing.

@bigswings2414 5 ай бұрын

I think you have it backwards man. Many sewage treatment plants and electrical grids are located pretty far. The issue isn’t how close you live to the area but rather if your community can actually cover the cost of the infrastructure. The total taxable area of a suburb isn’t even close to a mixed use downtown area the suburb leeches off the extra value of the mixed use downtown. Joe has done this kind of work for years. I’m pretty sure he knows that different cities place their utilities in different places. I have done a similar analysis on my city of Kalamazoo and the downtown blows the suburbs out of the water.