I attended the 10th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference sponsored by the Local Government Commission in Charlotte, North Carolina, from Wednesday through Sunday, Feb. 3-5, 2011. There were about 1,300 attendees from all over the United States, a mix of elected officials, local, state and federal officials, planners, public health professionals, developers and others concerned with healthy and livable communities. Vallejo City Council member Marti Brown attended as well but no other Solano officials or staff. This is too bad because many concurrent sessions were on topics of considerable interest including investment strategies for infrastructure, winning bond elections for transportation (light rail, bicycle routes and "complete streets"), locally grown food, and sea level rise.
The conference is co-sponsored by 170 organizations with wide ranging interests, and the major funder this year was the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Justice. Speakers and presenters included high ranking government officials, including former cabinet secretaries and governors as well as people simply doing great work.
As we toured the narrow streets, we saw mixed use (both within buildings and neighborhoods). In Davidson, all commercial property must front a public street - the unexpected benefit of this requirement is that the public safety is better and done by the city rather than private security patrols typical of shopping areas with public streets. Below is a grocery store on a public street. When you drive off the interstate into Davidson, you see offices, restaurants and hotels but you also see green space, homes, schools and shops all accessible by pedestrians. Davidson is the 2004 Smart Growth Award winner for Overall Excellence in town planning and design. (Read More...)
