Haverhill, Massachusetts

 

Although it's a state route, the street is narrow which slows traffic. On street parking is a physical barrier between pedestrians on the narrow sidewalk and moving cars in the street. This part of Haverill survived the "urban renewal" demolition that affected other parts of town. Three to four story buildings. Built to the front property line. Limited on site parking. Traditional architecture and building materials.  Small town urbanism.

Related: Why walkable streets are more economically productive.

Buffalo Row Houses

Row houses in Buffalo, NY. Side by side. Shared walls. Front stoops. Beautiful materials and details. There are four to five levels of living space in each of the houses. Some have probably been subdivided into apartments. It's a shame the street is so wide. Imagine a narrow street and wide sidewalks with two rows of trees. 

Buffalo, NY Sidewalk

 

The way the grass and plantings overhang the sidewalk. Trees for shade. Everything is green, but nothing is perfect. Trash cans are out. Trash day today? Maybe tomorrow? Homes with porches built close to the sidewalk. Single family? Maybe Buffalo Doubles? Definitely carriage houses behind. 

Downtown Pomona (Post 2 of 3)

At the western edge of the commercial portion of Second Street in downtown Pomona there are some old brick warehouse/light industrial type structures. This area is separated from the central "Arts Colony" by many empty lots  - some of the many "missing teeth" in downtown Pomona. There were multiple "low rider" displays on this end of Second Street during the monthly "Second Saturday" art walk. Cars, children's bikes, and a photo exhibit of low rider culture. 

 

Great old sign.

 

Gallery/realtors office. 

 

Two story live/work in an old warehouse. 

 

Letting public safety folks know. 

 

Skaters

 

Detail of the front door to a beautiful historic building on Second Street. There are several buildings like this among the "missing teeth" on Second that, when rehabbed, will be a great foundation for reviving the rest of the neighborhood.

Downtown Pomona (Post 1 of 3)

Downtown Pomona has all the basic elements of "new urbanism" which, as I've mentioned in a previous post, is really just old urbanism rediscovered. Downtown Pomona, like many original downtowns in Southern California's "suburbs" provides a case study in how to redesign and retrofit the sprawl that surrounds it. Like many American cities in the 1960s Pomona pedestrianized one of their downtown streets (Second Street) in an attempt to compete with suburban malls. And like most other pedestrian malls, it failed. A couple decades later Pomona, like most of the other cities, reopened Second Street to vehicular traffic. One end of the street is called the Arts Colony and the other is Antique Row. Second Street seems to be the heart of downtown and you can see the great potential in the many old buildings to form the basis of a full fledged revival.

  Welcome to downtown Pomona! Sorta...

 Arts Colony entry

Arts Colony entry later in the evening. 

Second Street. On-street parking, tree-lined, historic buildings built to the sidewalk, and patio dining. 

 

Second Street later in the evening. 

 The other end of Second Street is Antique Row, which I wish they would drop because it sounds lame. They should consider a name change. "Second Street East"or something like that. Notice that although they've reintroduced vehicular traffic to the street, there are still driveways that signify to visitors that this is a shopping center rather than part an urban setting.

Metrolink Station provides connection to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. One of the challenges for downtown Pomona is that this is also a freight route so there is a god deal of train noise. I suspect this might be one of the reasons that the residential development is practically non existent.

More on downtown Pomona in the next two posts.

Mexican War Streets Steps

These are row houses in the Mexican War Streets neighborhood of Pittsburgh's North Side.  The style of these homes and the materials used to build them are both things of lasting value and they are worth renovating because of that.

Old Urbanism

A few shots of Old Towne Orange, California. This downtown reflects many of the ideals of today's "New Urbanism." It's not a perfect place. There's a lot of cut-through car traffic and not too far from the center it peters out into typical auto oriented southern California land use patterns. Orange's downtown is large enough, however, to be a good reference point for the city's residents when developers or planners want to convey any idea. "Do you like downtown? That's what we want to replicate." Or conversely, "We intend for this to be nothing like downtown." My favorite picture is the one of the circle with the fountain in the center.