‘Eyes on the street’.  Coined by the legendary urban sociologist, Jane Jacobs in her landmark book, Death and Life of Great American Cities, these are probably four of the most fundamental words when it comes to public safety.

The term is used by neighborhood watch programs across the country and familiar to law enforcement officials as well.  In Jane’s words:

“There must be eyes on the street, eyes belonging to those we might call the natural proprietors of the street. The buildings on a

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While affordability is the biggest issue when finding a place in New York City (our field of study this week), it’s usually balanced against what’s an even larger concern - safety.  The less safe the neighborhood, the more affordable the housing is.

Neighborhoods with high crime rates; where one doesn’t feel safe walking at night, are usually where poverty is most prevalent.  It’s important to empathize that poverty is a natural, harmless condition until it’s allowed to concentrate entirely

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Based on yesterday’s post that affordability is more important than anything in NYC, where does one look for homes that won’t cause sticker shock?  Perhaps something like at the Toy Factory Lofts in Brooklyn that started at $270K last year?  Remember, this is NYC we’re talking about, it’s all relative!

Here’s some advice from a NY native and urban expert, Kristin Russell, PP, AICP:

“I think Astoria, Long Island City, and DUMBO are defiantly “hip” and semi-gentrified areas.  (SEMI being key) 

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I just spent some time studying Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, and I have to admit it’s a great laboratory for creative, urban living, working and entertainment trends that either reflect or predict what’s happening elsewhere.  So… what’s the buzz in NYC?

Affordability, affordability, affordability.

“How much?“  It’s the question when it comes to finding a residence in a progressive New York City neighborhood.  The young creatives and entrepreneurs need affordable residences to

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Hundreds of people, relaxing, conversing, laughing, with a cold beer, chicken wings and potato dumplings, under a breezy canopy of mature trees under a black sky (sorry, no starry skies in New York City.)  That was my evening (minus the wings and dumplings) in New York City’s only outdoor beer garden, the aptly name Bohemian Hall.

By day it’s welcome for kids and parents with a full Czech restaurant menu, and by night it’s abuzz with gen xers and yers, accompanied by live bands on some

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As posted yesterday, affordability and transportation/convenience were long-time Brooklyn assets that did little for economic rejunevation until safety began to improve.  But how and why did these neighborhoods become safer?

As is more than well known by now, it was just a matter of time before the artists began moving in.  The number of designers increased 2.5 times from 1980 to 2000, while authors/writers more than doubled from 1990 to 2000.  Williamsburg, a neighborhood in Brookln, held

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Brooklyn is no mere neighborhood in size.  The fourth largest city in the U.S. with a population of 2.5 million, it’s bigger than San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta and St. Louis combined, a statistic from this past Sunday’s New York Times focusing on the borough’s renaissance:  The New Brooklyns: The Great Awakening.  Check out Brooklyn visually from three residents’ points of view in the accompanying slide show.

How did a veritable city that was completely overshadowed by Manhattan across the

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The previous entry  illustrated the elements a city needs to attract job-creating creatives.  Here’s some of the evidence...

This photo is what’s happening on the floor above The Diner featured yesterday.  As the story goes, a group of entrepreneurs, moving from another creative mecca, New York City, were drawn by the active scene surrounding this now locally-famous 24-hour hot spot, a decision made much easier when the floor above it became available. It was more space than they needed, so

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Depends on where you are.  This photo was taken at 2 am, last week Wednesday night/Thursday morning at The Diner in Adams Morgan, Washington DC.

Since evidence shows that the creative class drives the economy...

Question: Is your city attracting creatives?

Answer:

- Does it have a place like The Diner that looks like this at 2 am on a typical late Wednesday night?
- Is that venue an independent restaurant like this one, and not a Denny’s, IHop, or Ruby Tuesdays?
- Is it in a cluster/main

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Much of the plan for San Francisco’s Treasure Island, a 403-acre man-made former military base below the Bay Bridge, is already laid out.  However, what if the progressive idea of the beta community; future residents and tenants visioning their own neighborhood into reality in partnership with developers and investors, was in full motion today?

We’d perhaps get the proposal for Treasure Island similar to that of urban design students at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design - 20,000

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