irishboyinlondon

$Momentum Mag: How Bicycles Bring Business Interesting read! In the minds of many business owners, though, there’s still a direct correlation between cars and customers. Too often, the opposition to bicycle infrastructure is led by retailers who believe ample car parking space is critical to their customer base. But that belief could be depriving businesses of their best potential patrons: cyclists. Just this summer, the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives did a travel study in Birchard’s neighborhood, the Lower East Side. They found that only a tiny fraction – just four percent – of customers arrived by car. In contrast, 23 percent arrived by bike. A study of travel patterns in the city center of Utrecht in the Netherlands showed similar results: customers on bikes significantly outnumbered those in cars (26 versus 17 percent). Even individual businesses are taking stock of how customers get to their door. The East End Food Co-Op in Vancouver, BC, conducted a survey that showed that 24 percent of its patrons usually pedaled to the store – more than the number of people who drove. That’s good news, because a growing body of research shows that people who arrive on two wheels have a bigger impact on the bottom line, too. Recent research out of Portland, OR, showed that cycling customers spent more per month ($75.66) than their car-driving counterparts ($68.56) at bars, restaurants and convenience stores. A 2009 study of Bloor Street in Toronto, ON, found that customers who arrive by foot and bicycle visit the most often and spend the most money per month.$

Momentum Mag: How Bicycles Bring Business

Interesting read!

In the minds of many business owners, though, there’s still a direct correlation between cars and customers. Too often, the opposition to bicycle infrastructure is led by retailers who believe ample car parking space is critical to their customer base. But that belief could be depriving businesses of their best potential patrons: cyclists.

Just this summer, the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives did a travel study in Birchard’s neighborhood, the Lower East Side. They found that only a tiny fraction – just four percent – of customers arrived by car. In contrast, 23 percent arrived by bike. A study of travel patterns in the city center of Utrecht in the Netherlands showed similar results: customers on bikes significantly outnumbered those in cars (26 versus 17 percent). Even individual businesses are taking stock of how customers get to their door. The East End Food Co-Op in Vancouver, BC, conducted a survey that showed that 24 percent of its patrons usually pedaled to the store – more than the number of people who drove.

That’s good news, because a growing body of research shows that people who arrive on two wheels have a bigger impact on the bottom line, too. Recent research out of Portland, OR, showed that cycling customers spent more per month ($75.66) than their car-driving counterparts ($68.56) at bars, restaurants and convenience stores. A 2009 study of Bloor Street in Toronto, ON, found that customers who arrive by foot and bicycle visit the most often and spend the most money per month.

05/2/13

New York Times: Can Mom-and-Pop Shops Survive Extreme Gentrification?

06/7/12

Looks topical! The film examines the conflicts between politicians, developers and communities when it comes to issues such as property development, economic growth, jobs, regeneration, gentrification and community!

dominoeffectmovie:

We are proud to present a sneak peek at The Domino Effect. Coming Soon

The Domino Effect is a documentary film that explores the process of real estate development in New York City. The film digs deep to uncover the complex networks of banks, developers, politicians, and non-profit organizations that shape our cities. During the last decade, the North Brooklyn communities of Williamsburg & Greenpoint, have experienced the negative impacts of excessive luxury development and gentrification, more than any other neighborhood in NYC. Told through the voices of longtime residents, this film conveys the personal impact of real estate development in their community while shedding light on issues encountered by residents of cities across the country. Will your neighborhood be the next to fall? Full release Summer 2012.

03/23/12

Suzanne Hall - LSE Blog: For the future good of our high streets we need a better understanding of the social and economic life of local worlds in the context of global change

Interesting read..

Profound changes are occurring on high streets throughout the country. In order for policies aimed at their planning and stewardship to succeed, a greater understanding of how high streets adapt to changing economic conditions and serve their neighbourhoods is needed. Suzanne Hall argues for a multidisciplinary approach in understanding the social and economic particularities of high streets.

02/16/12

Gehl Architects on the proposed introduction of congestion charging for Copenhagen: If the Betalingsring is the answer, then what was the question again?

Picture: Gehl Architects - Ways to add quality to the design of town centres

The problems that the Betalingsring is trying to solve originate not in our city centre but in our suburbs, we need to improve the quality of the town centers that comprise Copenhagen metropolitan region ensuring they are walkable, bike-able and provide everyday amenities. We need to improve connections and accessibility between these town centers and into the centre of Copenhagen. We need broad investment in a variety of transit options from car-sharing to public transit to ensure high quality alternatives and most importantly we need to consider the suburbs and promote medium density and quality housing. We want a city that works in the center and at the edges…

.…We aim to shift the discussion from mere political grandstanding to what ought to be the key question; how do we achieve good quality of life for all Copenhageners, a question which we all need to take seriously and responsibility for achieving. Improving quality of life and making a better city for our shared future is about more than charging motorists to drive into the centre. It should be visionary, ambitious and holistic in approach…

….Just as we have made our city centre walkable, bike-able and attractive – this should be applied more widely creating towns that provide everyday amenities. In our experience with working in transit hubs in both Gothenburg and Skåne, improving the quality within 1km of the transit hubs including park and ride schemes, reliable wifi connections that support working while commuting and other initiatives that improve convenience can greatly increase the attractiveness of public transport and really affect people’s transit choices.

01/24/12

Inside Housing: Time to roll back the Green Belt

Oh! So that’s the answer…simples! NOT! Seriously I read things like this and shudder…

12/19/11

Mary Portas reviews the future of UK high streets! Some interesting reading. You can read the report here.

Below are her 28 recommendations.

1. Put in place a “Town Team”: a visionary, strategic and strong operational management team for high streets

2. Empower successful Business Improvement Districts to take on more responsibilities and powers and become “Super-BIDs”

3. Legislate to allow landlords to become high street investors by contributing to their Business Improvement District

4. Establish a new “National Market Day” where budding shopkeepers can try their hand at operating a low-cost retail business

5. Make it easier for people to become market traders by removing unnecessary regulations so that anyone can trade on the high street unless there is a valid reason why not

6. Government should consider whether business rates can better support small businesses and independent retailers

7. Local authorities should use their new discretionary powers to give business rate concessions to new local businesses

8. Make business rates work for business by reviewing the use of the RPI with a view to changing the calculation to CPI

9. Local areas should implement free controlled parking schemes that work for their town centres and we should have a new parking league table

10. Town Teams should focus on making high streets accessible, attractive and safe

11. Government should include high street deregulation as part of their ongoing work on freeing up red tape

12. Address the restrictive aspects of the ‘Use Class’ system to make it easier to change the uses of key properties on the high street

13. Put betting shops into a separate ‘Use Class’ of their own

14. Make explicit a presumption in favour of town centre development in the wording of the National Planning Policy Framework

15. Introduce Secretary of State “exceptional sign off ” for all new out-of-town developments and require all large new developments to have an “affordable shops” quota

16. Large retailers should support and mentor local businesses and independent retailers

17. Retailers should report on their support of local high streets in their annual report

18. Encourage a contract of care between landlords and their commercial tenants by promoting the leasing code and supporting the use of lease structures other than upward only rent reviews, especially for small businesses

19. Explore further disincentives to prevent landlords from leaving units vacant

20. Banks who own empty property on the high street should either administer these assets well or be required to sell them

21. Local authorities should make more proactive use of Compulsory Purchase Order powers to encourage the redevelopment of key high street retail space

22. Empower local authorities to step in when landlords are negligent with new “Empty Shop Management Orders”

23. Introduce a public register of high street landlords

24. Run a high profile campaign to get people involved in Neighbourhood Plans

25. Promote the inclusion of the High Street in Neighbourhood Plans

26. Developers should make a financial contribution to ensure that the local community has a strong voice in the planning system

27. Support imaginative community use of empty properties through Community Right to Buy, Meanwhile Use and a new “Community Right to Try”

28. Run a number of High Street Pilots to test proof of concept

12/13/11

Communities and Local Government Committee publishes report on regeneration strategy

A new report published by the DCLG on the current state of regeneration in the UK. The extract below is from the parliament website:

Ministers have no adequate strategy to address the complex problems faced by England’s most deprived communities. If further resources for regeneration are not found, there is a risk that major problems will be stored up for the future, warn MPs from the Communities and Local Government Committee in a new report…

…Launching the report of an inquiry looking closely at the Government’s approach to regeneration, Clive Betts MP, Chair of the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Committee, said:

“The Government has cut public funding for regeneration programmes dramatically and has produced no adequate ‘strategy’ for regeneration sufficient to tackle the deep-seated problems faced by our most deprived communities.

The measures identified by the Government focus overwhelmingly on the pursuit of economic growth. The Government’s measures will not attract sufficient investment for renewal into those communities where the market has failed. There is no sign that the private sector is filling the gap as public resources are being withdrawn. Indeed private investment is only likely to be attracted in partnership with public funding. Without further investment targeted at those places most in need, Ministers will store up serious social, economic and environmental problems for the future.”

..In its latest report the CLG Committee also warns that the cancellation of Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder funding had impacted profoundly upon the lives of people across the North and the Midlands…

“We saw and heard for ourselves what happens when the Government stops investing in regeneration. In Rochdale, we found row upon row of boarded up houses, the direct result of the withdrawal of Housing Market Renewal Funding. We met a family trapped in a half-abandoned street after the promise of a new home was not fulfilled.

We heard similar stories from other Pathfinder areas. People have been left stranded in appalling conditions: many are owner occupiers, often vulnerable people with no other options. The Government must act to help these people and to eradicate the blight that has been left in so many neighbourhoods,” adds Clive Betts.

…The report calls on Government to publish a national regeneration strategy that specifically targets the country’s most disadvantaged communities. This should be based upon a detailed understanding of what worked or failed in the past, incorporating lessons from places like Hulme where a successful regeneration scheme has transformed a deprived area into a thriving community.

“The City Challenge initiative, under which much of Hulme’s transformation took off, secured investment from both the public and the private sectors, encouraged high levels of community involvement, and concentrated dedicated resources upon a specific area. It addressed a full range of issues, including housing, education, employment and the quality of life.

It was also a long term, five year programme - and in the case of Hulme, regeneration continued well beyond the City Challenge period” adds Clive Betts.

The committee also calls for:

Further consideration of how Enterprise Zones could bring benefits to deprived areas, and better use to be made of public land and European funding to ensure they stimulate regeneration.

Community Budgets -pooling resources from public bodies across a given local area - to be used to generate massive efficiencies and bring in much-need private investment for regeneration

11/3/11

Compendium for the Civic Economy

Nesta and CABE have produced the compendium for the civic economy…some great projects reviewed! Huge but really worth reading!

Against the context of rapid economic, social and environmental change, a collective reflection is taking place on how to build more sustainable routes to shared prosperity. In the meantime, an increasing number and wide range of change-makers are already finding ways to imagine and grow a different economy in our cities, towns, neighbourhoods and villages.

This book presents 25 case studies of this civic economy… the remarkable achievements of these 25 trailblazers show why we need to get better at understanding and recognising the role of civic entrepreneurship and enable it to turn ideas into action and impact.

09/6/11

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