City Lights | Intercer Adventist News

The ‘New’ Urbanism

April 21, 2016 By admin

Photo: Sanja Gjenero

Imagine buying a city. Completed in 2004, the sale of the Rouse Company included the city of Columbia, Maryland, and 37 malls. The cost was $7.2 billion.

Actually, according to the June 19, 2006, Washington Post article, “[The new owner] General Growth owns 246 of the 493 acres that make up Columbia’s town center, including 65 undeveloped acres. It makes money by selling land to builders, collecting rent from offices and restaurants, and redeveloping its properties.

“David Fick, an analyst at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. in Baltimore, said the planned-community division sets General Growth apart from its rivals because few companies build entire cities.

“Fick is so sure that Columbia Town Center will prosper under General Growth, he moved there after selling his house in the county’s priciest neighborhood. His townhouse is on a road that rings the [Columbia] mall, overlooking the Cheesecake Factory.”

Columbia is a planned city that the Rouse Company started in 1967. An early brochure waxed eloquent about the new approach to building a community: “The heart of the city will be the home of art and music schools, theatres, museums and galleries. By day, one edge of the lake will be a park with restaurants, coffee shops, carousels and entertainment; by night, it will be transformed into a gay and playful wonderland for people of every age.”

A Reconfigured Community

That same year, another planned community was begun by a company in northern Virginia: Reston Town Center. Since then Reston Town Center has had four owners as compared to the two owners of Columbia. Each of the owners of Reston Town Center has implemented new concepts, with “new urbanism” shaping the most recent reconfiguration. While it has a mall, restaurants, and some office complexes, Columbia currently is not configured as a high-density town center.

In reaction to suburban sprawl, community development in the 1980s began to follow a model dubbed “new urbanism.” Such communities have a carefully planned mix of high-density residences (such as condos and townhouses) and high-rise office properties linked by pedestrian-friendly areas such as wide sidewalks, fountains, and pocket parks. A mixture of retail, entertainment, and restaurants within walking distance of the homes and offices evokes small-town America during the early 20th century. Each town center has a different density in line with local zoning ordinances.

Is this new concept of urbanism the answer for communities today?

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Read more at the source: The ‘New’ Urbanism

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from City Lights.

Cody’s Closes

April 15, 2016 By admin

Photo: Hemera

Cody’s Books opened on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California, in 1956. It soon became a neighborhood cultural institution of the type that helps to give a community real character. While many cities are seeking local businesses of this type to make the kind of ambiance that attracts creative and affluent people to urban neighborhoods, Cody’s is closing and Berkeley leaders are concerned.

This is really a historic shop. It is the place where Allen Ginsberg read his “howl” poem. Mario Savio was a student employee before he led the campus revolution of the 1960s. Salman Rushdie showed up unannounced and read from his work in defiance of a fatwa. Countless other discussion forums, lectures by authors and poetry readings made this more than just a place to buy books.

In recent years big-box stores like Borders have been causing the demise of many small, independent bookstores. The corporate influence has reached all the way to left-wing Berkeley where Cody’s owner—Andy Ross—told the New York Times last week that he has been losing money for years. He simply cannot afford to keep going.

Changing Times

The neighborhood has changed over the years and so has the campus. Today’s students are less interested in political action and social change, and more oriented toward success in business. The “mix of freedom and unpredictable grit” that has always marked Telegraph Avenue is beginning to mellow or at least be out of favor with new generations.

What local businesses shape the character of the neighborhood where you live? How are they impacted by changes in the economy and culture? What important values do they bring to your community, and how can those values be preserved and the character of the neighborhood protected or even strengthened? Those are questions that require neighbors to get together, talk through the issues and then take creative action. If everyone is too busy or too preoccupied with their own individual and family needs to ask these questions, then the day will come when important community institutions, just like Cody’s Books in Berkeley, will close in your neighborhood.

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Read more at the source: Cody’s Closes

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from City Lights.

Bergen Heritage

April 15, 2016 By admin

Photo: Jouko Rautanen

The city of Bergen, Norway, is one of 800 sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Bergen was one of the main centers of the Hanseatic League, the powerful trading network that for nearly 400 years linked northern Europe’s major ports in an economic alliance.

Implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage List began in December 1975, three years after the concept was approved by the United Nations. Since then 180 countries have signed the U.N. Convention. As a result, more than 800 cultural and natural properties located in 135 countries are now under protection. This is a list of the treasures of this planet, the legacies of civilizations and natural wonders.

Bergen is one of 400 properties designated an irreplaceable part of the architectural and artistic heritage of humankind. Established by King Olav Kyrre around 1070, Bergen was the only shipping port for Norway, with fish being the only Norwegian product exported for at least four centuries.

By the 13th century, the Bergen wharf was the economic center of the city. About 30 warehouses held imports such as grain, pottery, glass, fabrics and wine from the Rhine Valley and the dried fish for export. In 1360, Bergen was chosen as a trading port (“Kontor”) for the Hanseatic League (along with Novgorod, Bruges, and London), a coalition of German traders that dominated trade throughout Europe for about four centuries.

The Bergen Kontor was a community of German men—women were not allowed in the wharf area except between spring and autumn. For the rest of the year, they returned to their villages. Eventually the population grew to about 1,000. A variety of rules governed life in this community, especially the ban on lighting fires in order to avoid fires sweeping through the closely packed wooden buildings. Periodically, in spite of the rules, fires did destroy some buildings. Because of the pace of shipping, the community followed the same design as it rebuilt the wooden buildings—two or three stories with wood planks serving as walkways between buildings. German control of the wharf began to wane in the early 1600s. By 1754, Norwegians permanently regained control of the wharf; however, they kept the same buildings, regulations, and the common trading language of German.

Today the world’s oldest trading center contains only 58 structures which have been partly rebuilt following the original criteria. They house restaurants, art galleries, and the Museum of the Hanseatic League.

For more details, see “The Great Book of World Heritage Sites,” written by Marco Cattaneo and Jasmina Trifoni, VMB Publishers, White Star, Italy (ISBN: 88-540-0365-4)

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Read more at the source: Bergen Heritage

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from City Lights.

Job Growth Slows

March 17, 2016 By admin

Photo: Tom Denham

Trends in hiring and hourly wages indicate mixed news about the U.S. economy and the possibility of inflation. The U.S. Department of Labor report for May 2006 indicates that the economy is cooling. While unemployment fell from 4.7 percent in April to 4.6 in May, wages stalled and job growth has slowed.

Rising energy prices, lower auto sales, a softening housing market and less manufacturing during May means a loss of momentum for the U.S. economy. While 75,000 jobs were added by employers, this is the lowest number since last fall after several hurricanes devastated the Southern coast of the United States. After a 10-cent gain in April, hourly wages in May only rose one cent. The average hourly rate now stands at $16.62. However, the number of worked hours fell slightly during May.

Airlines, automakers, hotels, and retailers were among those eliminating jobs, with a flattened rate of hiring by the construction industry—a source of about 300,000 jobs each of the previous two years. The education, health care and business services sectors added some jobs.

Not all of it is bad news—the unemployment rate is the lowest it has been since 2001. Since the department began collecting data in 1973, the jobless rate among Hispanics and Latinos is at the all-time low of five percent.

It remains to be seen whether or not the Federal Reserve will raise short-term interest rates in an effort to dampen inflation. If this delicate balance cannot be achieved, the U.S. might experience a slow growth-high inflation economy similar to what took place during the 1970s. At this point, many different analysts believe that during the third quarter of 2006 the economy growth will be about 2.5 percent as compared to 5.3 percent registered during the first quarter.

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Read more at the source: Job Growth Slows

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from City Lights.

St. Louis Blooms

March 17, 2016 By admin

Photo: Melissa Lien

St. Louis is an urban renewal case study in progress. Known as the “Gateway to the West,” St Louis anchors the eastern side of the state of Missouri. Symbolized by the 630-foot-tall Gateway Arch, the city was a center of manufacturing thanks to its location on the Mississippi River.

However, during the latter half of the 20th Century, the city went into a decline, losing more than half of its residents. When the new millennium dawned, the St. Louis population had just a little more than 348,000 as compared with more than 856,800 citizens in 1950. Factories closed, and deteriorating buildings soon dotted the once thriving downtown.

In the past five years, the population has inched up to 352,600. Changes are taking place. While on a visit last summer, I talked with the owner of a small restaurant as I enjoyed freshly prepared food. She talked with pride about her family’s new business venture and shared her enthusiasm for their new (and affordable!) condo just a few blocks away. They were among the first wave of urban pioneers, those who were committed to renewing the vitality of St. Louis.

Her sunny outlook about the future was based on a number of factors such as a new downtown stadium, refurbishment of historic buildings such as the old Post Office building, and restoration strategies that have worked in other cities, including extensive use of federal and state tax credits for rehabilitation of older buildings.

Downtown Renewal

An article in the May 11 issue of USA Today profiled the remarkable restoration taking place in St. Louis. After 50 years of migration to the suburbs and a population exodus due to racial tensions, more young professionals have started moving downtown. According to the article, W. Thomas Reeves, executive director of Downtown Now, “More than $3.5 billion has been poured into the area.” By 2008, nearly 8,000 apartments and condos will be built, along with an increase in new hotels, office towers, restaurants, and services. Several neighborhoods are starting renewal projects, with one being renamed as part of the effort to reverse its reputation as a gritty, violent part of town. Even the international airport has started a $1 billion expansion.

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Read more at the source: St. Louis Blooms

Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from City Lights.

The ‘New’ Urbanism

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Cody’s Closes

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Bergen Heritage

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Job Growth Slows

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St. Louis Blooms

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