ICSC tells us there is "Nothing Eco about E-tail"

This month’s Shopping Centers Today reported on new research by Deloitte and Simon that offered a comparison between e-shopping and in-person purchases at brick and mortar stores. The takeaway? As the cover probably makes clear, the results don’t favor e-tailing. When fuel, electricity and packaging for bricks-and-mortar and online sales are compared side by side, purchasing the same set of goods at a mall would create 37,710 metric tons of emission versus 40,295 for an online purchase. We offer the additional insight that the differential is likely more favorable for mixed-use downtown environments. Unlike a mall environment where the majority of shoppers arrive by car, office workers who grab a quick lunch or residents who spend in the immediate vicinity of their apartments do not generate additional automobile trips. 

While this seems like it would be good news and offer an opportunity for marketing downtown as a “green” solution, some argue that in the final analysis a customer’s desire for the convenience of delivery will trump a desire to decrease their environmental footprint. One marketing expert who specializes on sustainability who was quoted in the article said “Sustainability was big in the 90’s and 2000s. After the recession hit, it dropped to like 19th or 20th on people’s priority list.” That may be the case for an individual customer, but cities that have policies and benchmarks to reduce their overall carbon footprint, like New York, will be encouraged by these findings. This analysis will only serve to further enhance the argument in favor of downtown mixed-use environments. While this is something that many of us know, it bears repeating with hard data in hand. 

Are we ready for a world where parking requirements decrease by 80%?

Density and car ownership are often at odds. We know density does great things for cities. The concentration of people, businesses and transportation all play a powerful role in economic growth. Yet cars - and the parking they require - undermine that growth every day in a variety of ways. Cars create the need for streets, parking lots, and circulation that do little to enhance the experience of urban living. As a society we further exacerbate that problem by requiring more parking through zoning than we might need if alternative transportation options were more readily available. The issue hit home for me the other day someone asked me how often I drive my car (I live in a very dense, walk able urban community in Queens, NY). I thought about it quickly and realized I only drive  about 2-3 times a month, and mostly to run errands, go grocery shopping at the local warehouse club, or visit family outside the City. The remainder of that time, my car sits unused in an on-street parking spot taking up valuable space in the urban environment.

So what happens when we acknowledge that cars are highly underutilized commodities that are parked 95% of the time? Are there solutions out there that would offer people the convenience of car ownership without the societal burden created by the need for parking?

Imagine yourself driving around in one of these cute BMWs.
This could be the future of  downtown car ownership. 

BMW is among those testing out new solutions through their DriveNow program. The program is already functional in a few European cities. And while the San Francisco program was stalled owing in part to an unfriendly regulatory environment, they are actively looking to expand in the New York market. The concept is this - what if you had access to a fleet of cars that were parked in your building? Assume these cars were at your disposal whenever you wanted - to pick up groceries, visit a friend, go on a day trip somewhere. Studies suggest that one car share vehicle displaces between 10 - 15 owned vehicles. This means that instead of parking, we could build more housing, support more retail, and develop more public space, all of which would make urban environments even more attractive places to live and work. Just think, instead of two lanes of parking, you could have just one lane parking, which would allow for wider sidewalks with more landscaping and amenities like outdoor dining, not to mention provide an additional buffer between the pedestrians and traffic. The impact on our downtown's would be nothing short of revolutionary. And what if these cars were electric cars - which is the BMW model? We could further improve air quality too. Win, win!

However, this solution is not without it's challenges. As they say, the devil is in the details. Part of the problem is that at peak times everyone wants to use the car (say Saturday afternoon), so you need the right volume of car share vehicles to make this work. There are many entrants in this market that are actively working to figure out these details. Besides BMW these include car2go and Enterprise.

For those of us working on downtown issues, we should prepare ourselves for the impact because we will among the first to experience these changes. Car sharing makes the most sense, of course, in dense, pedestrian friendly communities like the ones we serve. New residential development in urban places will provide downtown practitioners some of the earliest opportunities to partner with car share providers. Now the question is, will our cities be prepared with the right regulatory requirements and flexibility to allow for these new technologies? Will banks underwrite loans for buildings with reduced parking? And will retailers accept lower parking requirements when they have little experience with these new models? Clearly, these chapters remain to be written.

Roundup: Queens Boulevard Transformation, Philly's Old City Makeover, NYC's 1 Million Trees, Walmart Pull Out

Transformation of Queens Boulevard

For years, Queens Boulevard in Queens, NY was tagged as the "Boulevard of Death" due to its chaotic nature, unfortunate fatalities, and high traffic of pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles. The city of New York is transforming this thoroughfare with a complete streets makeover. Watch the video.

vimeo.com/153198048

After the Hangover: How Old City Finally Sobered up and Crafted a Grown-up Vision for Itself

Philadelphia's Old City District is turning over a new leaf and shedding its old thick skin by utilizing an organized administration that is engaged with the public in combination with nuisance fighting tactics to make the district desirable for businesses, patrons, and residents.

NYC Just Planted 1 Million Trees. Here's How They Did It.

The story behind how one group managed to succeed where many have failed. Three main reasons why one million trees have been planted in NYC since its inception eight years ago.

Can Cities Afford to Trust Walmart?

After a recent pull out of plans to build a store in underserved Ward 7 of Washington DC and the shuttering of 269 stores globally, some of which were only built within the last five years and inevitably caused smaller grocers or pharmacies to go out of business, city leaders are now becoming apprehensive about striking deals with Walmart.  A small shift with the giant retailer that could cause a ripple effect in the retail market.

Business Improvement District Helps Businesses Go Green

Would any of the businesses in your district elect to to participate in a rebate and incentive program that would lower their energy costs and pay for 70% of the cost of one-time improvements. Sounds like an incredible deal, right? How about if the cost savings could pay for themselves in less than a year? Anything after that is money in their pockets. You would think most companies would jump at the chance to put cash in their pocket in a fairly effortless and low-cost way. So why was the Con Edison power company in New York State struggling to get businesses to participate? Apparently cutting through the din of special offers and phone solicitations was (and remains) extremely difficult, especially when most business owners can smell a sale from a million miles away. There had to be a better way. 

The answer? Partner with the local Business Improvement District of course 

In New Rochelle, Con Ed found a partner in Ralph DiBart, Executive Director of the New Rochelle Business Improvement District. Ralph, a long-serving BID Director who had become a trusted partner and friend to local businesses. His participation was key to piercing through the clutter of sales pitches that so many of his business owners field on a daily basis. Having Ralph provide an introduction turned a cold call into something decidedly warmer. As one participant in the program said, "Given the BID’s track record of presenting downtown business with good programs I decided to go forward." 

Ralph DiBart, Executive Director of the
New Rochelle Business Improvement District

And the results speak for themselves. To date the program has resulted in nearly $100,000 in annual energy savings for participating local businesses. That is certainly not chump change. Not only that, but the ability to define the savings so tangibly helps reinforce the value of contributing to an effective Business Improvement District.

So how does the program work? 
The program created a partnership with Con Edison and NYSERDA and uses select contractors armed with rebates and incentives to encourage main street businesses to make energy efficiency upgrades.  

In an informative write-up, Dibart outlines the key elements that made the program a success: 

• Start small and prove the value with respected local businesses – start by recruiting a handful of active business owners and use their results and experience as your “word of mouth” marketing.

• Make it easy and manage the process for the business owner - usher the process through so that nothing gets complicated – from the energy evaluation, the installation, to the paperwork and follow-up.

• Make it happen in person – A BID representative walks the energy assessment expert into each business with a personal, face-to-face introduction that makes all the difference.

Outcomes

Bryan Heaps, co-owner of Talner Jewelers in
New Rochelle, NY

Businesses are often surprised that energy savings don't have to come at the expense of ambiance  The days of ugly energy efficient lights are over. A local jewelry shop owner who had expressed concern that the lighting would affect the feel of the store, was pleasantly surprised when he saw the options. An added bonus was that the new lights threw off less heat, resulting in less need for air conditioning...and more savings! In the case of the jewelry store, the old bulbs created so much heat that the retailer had to run the AC twelve months a year, nine hours a day. The one-time improvements alone cut monthly costs for this retailer by $500 to $1000. Yes. That is monthly. 

These programs and incentives are not limited to New York - so run, don't walk to find out what your local electric company offers by way of energy efficiency incentives...and get moving to help your local businesses. This might just be one of the most tangible ways you can help their bottom line.  

For more information

For more profiles on participating businesses: http://www.unwasteny.org/biz/portraits

For more on the program and impact: 

http://www.newrochelledowntown.com/downtown-owners-do-well-by-doing-good/

From High Streets to Main Streets...reinvention required

A typical "high street" in England...

In England, "High Streets" are the equivalent of "Main Streets", and their problems are not so different from our own. Many are marred by significant vacancies, and the recent global economic downturn, coupled with fundamental changes in how people shop, has not helped. In a recent article in the U.K's Independent, Phil Wrigley, a prominent fashion retail executive called for the "reinvention" of high streets. He goes on to say that "retailing will never be the same again, but there is much to be gained from facing up to this fundamental, and irreversible, truth. In doing so, we might just create the space in which we can re-cast and revitalise our town centre communities."

Wrigley advocates for shrinking the commercial and retail square footage along high street, and turning these spaces into residential units. There is something to be said for this argument. In many urban areas, commercial zoning has not been updated in decades, and still operates under the assumption that downtown is the regional shopping hub of yesteryear. New commercial square footage, much of it in the form of enclosed malls and shopping centers, has replaced the need for all the commecial square footage that used to be necessary downtown. Yet many downtowns have failed to shrink their commercial districts in a thoughtful way. Instead, the dwindling number of stores are seperated by vacant storefronts - hurting the downtown's overall image and making it more difficult to attract new businesses. This is the "death spiral" that Phil Wrigley speaks. He suggests that a vacancy rate of 20-30% is the tipping point for vacancies that make it difficult for any community to recover from.

Wrigley's recommendations are an excellent strategy to prevent further demise of these districts. With more residentail housing comes more demand for retail and services...so perhaps the "death spiral" should instead be called the "opportunity for reinvention" spiral....

Why Commercial District Revitalization will Reduce our Energy Dependence

Everyone is talking sustainability these days - but what does that mean for our commercial districts? For me, being 'green' is more than simply using fewer resources in my everyday life, it is about supporting the redevelopment of places that epitomize what sustainability really means. The compact land use patterns of our mixed-use commercial districts not only help reduce driving, particularly when housing is part of the mix, they also create the kind of density that supports alternative transportation. Simply put, people who live close to their work, or near shopping options, don't need to drive there. Finding ways to support investment in these communities is part and parcel of the larger sustainability discussion, not to mention the upcoming urban infrastructure discussion.

Public policy can either help or hinder the revitalization of our commercial districts, through incentives for mixed-use development projects that create density and bring residents (who are then captive customers), or infrastructure investments, such as streetscape improvements and public transit, that make the district a more attractive place to live, work and shop. As the debate continues - and it will as the discussion of public sector infrastructure investment continues - let's not forget to include commercial district revitalization as a key component of that discussion.

Image: Fruitvale Village, an often cited mixed-use developement project in Oakland, CA incorporates mixed-use development at the site of a transit station.