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Segale’s plans to pave more farmland in the Green River Valley

Down in Portland’s suburbs, the Tigard City Council decided that road maintenance fees should actually cover road maintenance costs! I suspect we’ll be seeing more articles on fights like this one: “Grocers to petition street maintenance fee.” The fees will rise from 78 cents to $2.42 per parking space. The kind-hearted big box grocers (Fred Meyer, Safeway, Costco, Thriftway) are thinking of the poor small businesses who “are just barely hanging on.” They suggest raiding gas tax money to pay for local street maintenance. Surely there’s plenty of gas tax money to go around.

I happened across Konstructr 36: Dallas re:vised “about how a city block in Dallas will be the model for the future of land development.” I have to admit I was skeptical that anything useful would be done in the flat, dry, land of highways. Austin, maybe.

I was wrong. John P. Greenan, head of the non-profit developer, has a background in financing and plans to break ground in 2010. One novel idea: since residential buildings are not eligible for some sustainable energy tax credits, split the generating parts of the building off as a separate entity. In the podcast he said these methods could cover half the estimated $60m cost.

I’ll leave you with a thought from his CityWalkTalk blog:

Dallas is a city that likes big ideas and believes that with commitment and hard work anything is possible. People here, from the Mayor on down, don’t see any reason why in ten years Dallas shouldn’t be one of the world’s centers of sustainable technology.

Inspired partly by serial catowner on schools and low-income transit-oriented development, I have a vision of a new U-District high-rise, let’s call it Seattle Tower for the University Community (STUC). It would have housing for all ages and income levels, community features, and a school (preferably public because that’s how I roll). To get really crazy, it could be above University Heights, letting in plenty of sunlight from the south for the P-Patch; if you don’t think that’s possible perhaps you should read about the Louisville Museum Plaza. If that doesn’t fly there are many other locations, such as the 7th Ave NE view corridor along I-5.

This STUC idea would obviously require rezoning but it would be close by existing 10+ storey buildings including the University Plaza, Hotel Deca (Meany Hotel), UW Tower (Safeco Plaza), and SeattleHousing’s University West and University House. Library, grocery stores and farmer’s market, parks, etc. already exist on the ground. The project would easily take a decade, so transit options would include light rail only blocks away. I’m so excited, I would get a shovel and have a groundbreaking immediately if I had a few hundred million dollars.