Neighborhooding our Cities and Suburbs

Granary District Beets and BBQ

jamesalfandre — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:12:24 +0000

Come join us this Saturday for our next Granary District neighborhood event. Prizes for best beet-inspired dishes! More details here.

Granary District movie night!

jamesalfandre — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 19:19:46 +0000

We’re showing Goonies in the backyard of the Utah Pickle Factory on Tuesday,September 13th @ 7:30pm!

Continuing our efforts from the Block Party to build a Crowdsourcing base to resurrect the Granary District into great neighborhoods.

Come join us on Tuesday and in the future!!

The Granary District mural is complete (almost)!

jamesalfandre — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 19:19:48 +0000

The Granary District mural that was painted during the Block Party is pretty much complete, thanks to Captian Captain studios and Trent Call!

Can you decipher what it says?

Block Party video!

jamesalfandre — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 21:21:37 +0000

Overall, it was a great success— neighbors, local businesses and citizens came out and enjoyed themselves while seeing what living in a diverse, urban, walkable neighborhood could be like.

What did you like about the Block Party? What could we have done better? Please join the discussion here.

How the temporary neighborhood at the Block Party will get built

jamesalfandre — Wed, 18 May 2011 15:20:51 +0000

This is a little premature since we actually haven’t had the Block Party yet, but it’s coming up — 3 days to be exact.

This video outlines the process for how a District, like the Granary, can be resurrected. This video will evolve and become more precise in the approach and economics, but it for now it serves its purpose.

Did we miss anything major? Does the approach make sense to you?

Here’s the video explaining the reason for the Block Party.

One week until the Granary District Block Party!

jamesalfandre — Sat, 14 May 2011 20:34:28 +0000

It’s getting close— the Granary District Block Party! Here’s the blurb …

Come to the First Annual Granary District Block Party! We live, work, and play in the District (or want to) — and we’re imagining a new and better neighborhood! Come on down for an afternoon of street performance, live art, music, and food! Fun and free!
Live music, face painting, food carts, local artists, & more!
Bicycle parking!
Come rain or shine!
Major Partners:

Frida Bistro, Cruzin Sushi, Madame Macaron, NeighborWorks, M Flores Produce, Captain Captain Art Studios, Kilby Court, Exigent Records, Western Gardens, & Restore!

Check out the Block Party video here, from our Block Party Kickstarter project (we’re fully funded!)

It’s going to be a great event so please come on down! You can RSVP and spread the word through our Facebook event page.

Opportunities galore!

jamesalfandre — Wed, 04 May 2011 05:20:36 +0000

South Salt Lake has a tremendous opportunity to capitalize off the planned streetcar to make incredibly valuable (social, economic, quality of life) neighborhoods (see previous posts here and here)

Instead, they’re setting the precedence of the redevelopment of the streetcar line by bringing in a conventional developer who is going to wipe out all the existing buildings on a block of City owned propepry (some rightfully so, but not ALL) to build…… wait for it…… BIG BOX retail! Hooray! Now, you really can’t blame South Salt Lake— big box retail is the end to all ends for increasing a city’s tax base— or is it? Check out the article ‘Best bet for tax revenue: mixed-use downtown development’, here.

I loose sleep at night over the thought of ruining the streetcar line with roads, parking lots and secluded streetcar stops. Seriously. My generation doesn’t want to shop at big box retail. We don’t want to drive cars everywhere. We want to live in work in human-scaled, walkable, compact, mixed-use environments.

Conventional development isn’t going to cut it. We have to start thinking about the future and who the end users are going to be. South Salt Lake City and Salt Lake City have a tremendous opportunity to encourage and implement neighborhoods that increase tax base, are human-centered (not auto) and capitalize on the fantastic opportunity of a revitalized streetcar corridor.

Salt Lake City Streetcar Opportunity Part II

jamesalfandre — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:35:43 +0000

In my previous post I talked about the incredible opportunity the City of South Salt Lake and Salt Lake City have with the streetcar corridor.

Here are some more visual ideas for how the corridor could be transformed into a vibrant pedestrian/ bicycle/ streetcar corridor.

Converting warehouses like these ones …

Into this …

And the insides of the warehouses from this …

To this …

And from this …

To this …

Turning these old warehouses into a local market, or some other neighborhood-based use would catalyze the streetcar corridor as a place for transit-oriented, diverse neighborhoods to grow.

The same kind of thing happened in the Chelsea neighborhood in lower Manhattan. There is an defunct elevated rail line that has been converted into a highly successful open space and neighborhood asset (similar to the Salt Lake streetcar corridor potential).

Now, condos are being built and warehouses are being converted into great retail space like the old Nabisco factory (where Oreos were first produced) that is now Chelsea Market.

High Line park New York, NY

Chelsea Market

Potential abounds for the streetcar corridor spanning South Salt Lake and Sugar House. What will it’s outcome be? I’m hoping for less conventional development and more creative, neighborhood driven growth.

Thoughts?

Salt Lake City Planned Streetcar Corridor Opportunity

jamesalfandre — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:44:01 +0000

Salt Lake City, UT, and the City of South Salt Lake, UT (kind of confusing, but two separate cities) have a very unique opportunity to create a streetcar corridor that runs from the Trax stop in South Salt Lake up to Sugar House totaling 2.74 miles of track.

Existing Streetcar Corridor

Both Cities are trying to figure out the best way to capitalize off the streetcar line. What will the engineering be? Can developers front buildings to the tracks and have the auto loading in the back like it currently is?

There are a lot of questions to be answered, and it’s going to be an uphill battle, especially working with the Utah Transit Authority (UTA)— who is really good at what it does— projects on-time and under-budget, but seem to be rigid with safety requirement— big, tall chain link fences.

Don’t get me wrong, safety should be a top priority. But streetcars are slow people movers that extend the walking distance as opposed to getting people from point A to B as quickly as possible. The tracks are meant to be crossed easily, to promote access and street vibrancy.

If I owned all the land along the streetcar corridor, especially in South Salt Lake City where there are more warehouses and industrial spaces, I would turn this …

Existing streetcar corridor

To this …

South Salt Lake streetcar-activated corridor

How amazing would it be to have (in parts of the corridor where appropriate) a strictly pedestrian/ streetcar/ bicycle corridor with all buildings facing it?

If I had property to develop along the line, I would see tremendous value in this kind of neighborhood identity, density and the corridor amenities. It would be unlike any other place in America— urban, mixed-use neighborhoods sans automobiles (along the streetcar the corridor)!

Do you think this is possible and would you want to live somewhere like this — a human-centered, compact, walkable mixed-use neighborhood?

We do, and we’re trying to help make it happen.

Neighborhooding a (The Granary) District

jamesalfandre — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:45:42 +0000

One piece at a time. That’s all it takes. A grocery store, a drug store, a WiFi coffee shop, some bars, restaurants, bike shop, cupcake shop where Jerry the owner lives down the street in the new block of 3-bedroom flats. And he and Marlene talk across their terraces about the new health food coop downstairs that lets you work a couple hours a week for credits. Then all of a sudden you have Estelle and Greta, camerawomen of Hogberry Tie Films bugging Anne and Scott to move the studio into the upstairs of the Pickle Factory, or for Heaven’s sake that old warehouse sitting empty with enough space inside to work on an airplane. We can shoot, edit and distribute out of that!

Then Manny wants in with another of his signature vinyl record shops. While rumor starts to get around town that the best gourmet sandwich place next to the taco truck is tucked in two blocks from the old Cement Plant. The Frontrunner stop’s a block away. A street in the Granary District. Compact, Connected, Complex (old, young, rich, poor), Complete (da grocery). Healthy. Prosperous.

More info here.