From: Peterson, Nils
Sent: Friday, October 09, 2009 11:55 AM
To: Scarfo, Bob
Subject: Rail connection between Spokane and Moscow
Bob,
I've been following some of your work to get the communities to imagine
a
rail link to Spokane.
I have begun exploring doing a development in Moscow's Legacy Crossing
in a
parcel that might be the terminus or just beyond the terminus of the
line
you are proposing. I have been posting various thoughts, including some
site analysis here
http://greenmoscow.blogspot.com/2009/09/developing-in-legacy-crossing.ht
ml
This is a note to explore if there is a conversation that you and your
students might want to have regarding your project and the site I'm
exploring
---
Scarfo replies
Nils, you're working on some very exciting stuff. I have forwarded your
email to the students working on the Moscow, ID rail station design.
Part of what they are doing is trying to determine a good location for a
potential station.
I told them to contact you and see about meeting and talking with you.
There has been so much interest in the idea of reintroducing passenger
rail that I have been poking around trying to find some funding for a
one-day working session with a broad a group of people as possible. I'd
like to see us walk away for such a meeting with a strong strategy of
how to incrementally move for where we are today to a point in time when
passenger rail is an integral part of the Palouse, eastern WA and
western ID regions.
When I get this meeting established I will definitely let you know so
you can participate.
Thanks so much for reaching out to me.
Bob
Showing posts with label planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planning. Show all posts
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Monday, November 10, 2008
Green Chain Stores -- and a need to do more
I recall seeing that Pullman WalMart was saying they were delayed while re-designing for a more green building. This item from NYTimes gives more perspective on the green chain store trend.
" Wal-Mart, meanwhile, has taken the most successful techniques from prototype stores and incorporated them into all new stores, and it continues to experiment with “high-efficiency” stores that save 20 to 45 percent in energy costs when compared with more traditional stores."
While I'd like to see P&Z grab onto this trend and institutionalize it. I note that we need to do more structurally to green Moscow, see for example, my comments on a broader vision of how we classify thoroughfares in the new Comp Plan to capture bike and pedestrian ways.
' “There’s no such thing as a green building with a full parking lot,” said Seth Kaplan, vice president for climate advocacy at the Conservation Law Foundation. “That’s just an unavoidable truth.” ' Hear, hear!
(Added Nov 18.) President-elect Obama speaks to delegates at Global Climate Summit, a 2-day event arranged by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to break gridlock on the issue ahead of next month's United Nations Climate Change Conference:
(end addition)
I'd like to see the Mayor latch onto the Obama win and our pressing need to address energy security and the environment in a new way. Less (foreign and non-renewable) energy dependence would help our foreign policy. Less carbon-based energy dependence would help our climate. I'd like to see her require all City departments and Commissions to develop short- and long-term changes to reduce the City's (and its residents') energy consumption.
We have a little bit of this thinking in the Legacy Crossing overlay zone where we require that if there is covered car parking there is also covered bike parking. (And Legacy is also part of the strategy in that it stipulates 3-story buildings, inherently boosting density and thereby reducing trip distances.)
A direction that the Mayor and the Transportation Commission could consider is that the Palouse region needs a region-wide mass transportation system with a common vision and shared goals. Presently the region has some services, offered by three companies and funded by a combination of grants, university contributions, governmental contributions and fare-box collections. This funding mix, combined with the multiple operators isn't very stable or
coordinated, and it fails to serve a number of populations.
A new solution could be built on ideas from the current offerings, but needs a regional vision.
A new vision for the system could be to create a sustainable transportation network that provides practical alternatives to use of the personal automobile for residents of the Palouse Region.
It might be implemented with a series of goal, such as:
* within in Pullman and Moscow, all residents would be within walking distance of a bus stop
* the system would serve communities that have significance commerce/work relations within Pullman and Moscow
* The system would offer to-work transportation for employees/ customers/ students of the 10 biggest destinations in the Palouse region
* the system would offer services to people with disabilities who may otherwise be place-bound
* the system would increase the economic welfare of lower income residents
* the system would connect to other transportation networks, including regional airports
" Wal-Mart, meanwhile, has taken the most successful techniques from prototype stores and incorporated them into all new stores, and it continues to experiment with “high-efficiency” stores that save 20 to 45 percent in energy costs when compared with more traditional stores."
While I'd like to see P&Z grab onto this trend and institutionalize it. I note that we need to do more structurally to green Moscow, see for example, my comments on a broader vision of how we classify thoroughfares in the new Comp Plan to capture bike and pedestrian ways.
' “There’s no such thing as a green building with a full parking lot,” said Seth Kaplan, vice president for climate advocacy at the Conservation Law Foundation. “That’s just an unavoidable truth.” ' Hear, hear!
(Added Nov 18.) President-elect Obama speaks to delegates at Global Climate Summit, a 2-day event arranged by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to break gridlock on the issue ahead of next month's United Nations Climate Change Conference:
(end addition)
I'd like to see the Mayor latch onto the Obama win and our pressing need to address energy security and the environment in a new way. Less (foreign and non-renewable) energy dependence would help our foreign policy. Less carbon-based energy dependence would help our climate. I'd like to see her require all City departments and Commissions to develop short- and long-term changes to reduce the City's (and its residents') energy consumption.
We have a little bit of this thinking in the Legacy Crossing overlay zone where we require that if there is covered car parking there is also covered bike parking. (And Legacy is also part of the strategy in that it stipulates 3-story buildings, inherently boosting density and thereby reducing trip distances.)
A direction that the Mayor and the Transportation Commission could consider is that the Palouse region needs a region-wide mass transportation system with a common vision and shared goals. Presently the region has some services, offered by three companies and funded by a combination of grants, university contributions, governmental contributions and fare-box collections. This funding mix, combined with the multiple operators isn't very stable or
coordinated, and it fails to serve a number of populations.
A new solution could be built on ideas from the current offerings, but needs a regional vision.
A new vision for the system could be to create a sustainable transportation network that provides practical alternatives to use of the personal automobile for residents of the Palouse Region.
It might be implemented with a series of goal, such as:
* within in Pullman and Moscow, all residents would be within walking distance of a bus stop
* the system would serve communities that have significance commerce/work relations within Pullman and Moscow
* The system would offer to-work transportation for employees/ customers/ students of the 10 biggest destinations in the Palouse region
* the system would offer services to people with disabilities who may otherwise be place-bound
* the system would increase the economic welfare of lower income residents
* the system would connect to other transportation networks, including regional airports
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Moscow Climate Change
Back in Feb 2007, as part of the Moscow Cool Cities series of events, I was asked to serve on a panel addressing community design issues impacting climate change. Here is the PowerPoint I developed for that presentation. The key point is that we are making structural design decisions, like giant parking lots and roads that are pedestrian unfriendly and will get in the way of moving to a less auto-intensive society. The piece is dated with references to events in local politics. (I need to learn to make these into voice overs because there is often quite a bit of the message only in the audio track.)
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