Downtown Living Doesn't Stop for Storms

[marmar]

CT: Downtown Living Doesn't Stop for Storms

HUGH BAILEY ON JAN 28, 2015
SOURCE: CONNECTICUT POST


When planners promote what is known as transit-oriented development, it's situations like Tuesday's winter storm they have in mind.

In some Bridgeport neighborhoods, where a growing number of people are able to live a life less dependent on cars, events that severely limit options for everyone else can be more or less shrugged off.

"With the bodegas and small grocers every couple of blocks, it's easy to bundle up and head down the street if your fridge needs replenishing," Becca Bryan, who lives in the South End and works downtown, said in an email. "The colder the weather, the cozier the neighborhood becomes."

As described by the Regional Plan Association, transit-oriented development "is a strategy for growth that produces less traffic and lessens impact on roads and highways. Households located within walking distance of transit own fewer cars, drive less and pay a smaller share of their income on transportation-related expenses."

With roads out of the city not an option during the height of the storm, most people not living in a dense neighborhood were stuck. The state told people not to drive after 9 p.m. and bus and rail service were suspended. But that didn't mean downtown was closed. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.masstransitmag.com/news/11819809/downtown-living-doesnt-stop-for-storms

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. The last time Minneapolis had a traffic-stopping blizzard

(no longer an annual occurrence, thanks to global warming), I started to get a bit stir-crazy in the afternoon, so I walked over to a family-owned restaurant whose owners live in the neighborhood. It was packed with people who live in our urban village.