When Andrea Chervenak received a letter earlier this year from the Town of Irondequoit notifying her that a sidewalk was being proposed for her street, she was thrilled. Unfortunately for Andrea, her neighbors’ front lawns are more important than her children’s safety. To hammer this nonsensical point home, some people even made lawn signs…
Posts Tagged ‘suburbs’...

Not In My Front Yard
Sunday, September 11th, 2016Tags: Active Transportation, Andrea Chervenak, Irondequoit, Oakridge Drive, Rochester NY, Safe Routes to School, sidewalks, suburbs, West Irondequoit School District
Posted in Opinion, Rochester Images, Rochester News, Transit + Infrastructure | 6 Comments »

Put Your Best Face Forward: Parking Belongs in the Rear
Monday, October 14th, 2013There’s a new development called I-Square being built right now in Irondequoit. It’s one of those “new urban” designs with mixed-use buildings placed along the sidewalk and a little public space in the center of it all. Where’s the parking? Right where it should be, behind the buildings, hidden from the street. The end result will be an attractive street front and a destination for people to come and walk around – maybe spend a little time and money. Very exciting.
But right around the corner, on Hudson Avenue, is a proposal for a new Aldi grocery store. It’s the exact opposite of I-Square – a more typical, drive in & drive out, sub-urban design. This got me thinking…
Tags: Aldi, Aldi's, development plans, grocery store, Hudson Avenue, Irondequoit, Irondequoit Plaza, planning, suburbs, Town of Irondequoit, urban design, urban development, urban planning, walkable communities
Posted in Opinion, Rochester News, Urban Development | 16 Comments »

Gas Stations Pose Urban Design Challenge
Saturday, May 16th, 2009On Monday evening, June 8, 2009, the Rochester Regional Community Design Center will go before Rochester’s City Planning Commission and appeal the decision to allow a Fastrac gas station to be built on Main Street next to the Main/University Inner Loop on-ramp
. Roger Brown, Creative Consultant at RRCDC explains, “Though we don’t agree with the Zoning Board’s decision to allow a gas station at that site … much of our case will be about the urban design of the building and how it needs to be designed according to the Center City Design Standards for Main Street.”
I’ll talk more about those “urban design standards” and how you can help. But first, there’s a virus spreading across America…
Tags: architecture, Center City, city, city planning, design, design standards, downtown Rochester, Exxon Mobil, eyesore, fast food restaurant, franchise, gas station, infrastructure, Main Street, McDonald's, mixed-use, Monroe Avenue, Monroe County, multi-use construction, ordinance, Pittsford, Rochester Regional Community Design Center, Roger Brown, RRCDC, sidewalks, suburbs, sustainability, urban design, urban planning, urban renewal, Walmart, Webster, zoning
Posted in Rochester News, Urban Development | 2 Comments »

Jacky Grimshaw to Give Lecture on Transit-Oriented Development
Friday, May 8th, 2009Jacky Grimshaw, Vice President of Policy, Transportation, and Community Development at the Center for Neighborhood Technology
in Chicago will be in Rochester this Wednesday, May 13, to discuss neighborhood revitalization and the importance of transit-oriented development. RocSubway followers do not want to miss this event. It’s also the final lecture in this series entitled Reshaping Rochester hosted by the Rochester Regional Community Design Center
.
UPDATE: Listen to the lecture here…
Tags: city planning, development, global warming, human-scale lifestyle, Jacky Grimshaw, lecture, public policy, quality of life, rail, Rochester Regional Community Design Center, RRCDC, suburban sprawl, suburbs, sustainability, transit, urban planning, urban renewal, urban revitalization, walkable communities
Posted in Events, Transit + Infrastructure, Urban Development | No Comments »

Daddy, Tell Me About the Subway.
Saturday, January 10th, 2009I grew up on the south shore of Long Island — about a half-mile walk from a Long Island Railroad station. As a teenager without a car I could leave my sheltered suburban Cape Cod style house, and in less than an hour be smack dab in the center of Manhattan. Not only that, but for just a dollar extra I could reach just about any corner of New York City’s five bouroughs by hopping on a subway car. Can you imagine if New York City had scrapped it’s subway in favor of a highway?!
Tags: automobile, bus, bus-stop, car, city planning, commute, Elmwood Ave, I-490, Long Island Railroad, New York City, Ontario Beach, railroad, Rochester History, sprawl, suburbs, subway, traffic
Posted in Opinion | 6 Comments »
