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Place-Making Sign at a Future West Rail Line Stop.
By the sign alone, can you tell where this is located?
Photo Taken September 18, 2012
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THE BACK FENCE NEWSLETTER
The Newsletter Featuring Livable Community Items That Readers Value and Highlights of Happenings Along the West Corridor on the RTD West Rail Line Serving Golden, Lakewood & Denver. |
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>The "W" Line Opens
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215 Days
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Hi Everyone! This is Bill Spriggs and I have found several news articles, links and blogs that I wanted to share along THE BACK FENCE & beyond in this Sunday Edition, September 23, 2012. |
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West Corridor, Denver & Region
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BizJournals
Denver Union Station Remodel Clears Federal Hurdle
By L. Wayne Hicks, Sep 21 2012
A development team remodeling Denver Union Station said Friday it's cleared "the last major hurdle we faced" by getting the National Park Service's preliminary approval of its plans.
[Below Note: The Back Fence considers the Auraria Campus as part of the West Corridor with its connection at the Auraria West Campus Station. TBF will do all that it can to encourage the 44,000 students at Auraria to commute via bicycle or light rail to and from the campus along the West Corridor.
Metropolitan State University: Hotel and Hospitality Learning Center Final Update By Ryan Dravitz, Sep 22 2012
Today we will be covering yet another completed project over at the Auraria Campus. The Hotel and Hospitality Learning Center by Metropolitan State University is complete and open for students and visitors. Here at DenverInfill, we have covered this project very actively and even got an inside look when it was under construction. Click on the links below to follow this development start to finish! READ MORE... BoulderBlueLine Boulder County's Proposed Transportation Master Plan
At a PLAN-Boulder County forum on Friday, August 10, Julie McKay, planning division manager for the Boulder County Transportation Department, presented the main elements of the proposed Transportation Master Plan of Boulder County and acknowledged that the county intends to feature Arapahoe Avenue as the main conduit for an anticipated substantial increase in east-west traffic
TheDenverPost Planners Suggest Rerouting I-70 Out of Central Denver By Monte Whaley, Sep 23 2012 A lobbying effort is underway to remove Interstate 70 from Denver entirely to make way for the rebirth of a depressed part of the city cut in half by the highway for decades.
DenverPost Park(ing) Day Mobile Office Movement Finds it Way Onto Denver's Streets
By Megan Mitchell, Sep 21 2012
The international "tactical urbanist" movement's Park(ing) Day eased onto Denver's metered streets Friday morning when a public relations company set up office in a spot - two spots actually - near Wazee Street and 17th Street...According to self-proclaimed tactical urbanist and Denver senior city planner Michelle Pyle, the driving concept behind Park(ing) Day is experimental ordinance revision.
[Note to above: also see link below to view more pictures from around the USA] |
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National
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An Alarmingly Strong Link Between Lack of Walkability and Diabetes
By Emily Badger, Sep 19 2012
Many urban planners and activists subscribe to the central belief that a walkable neighborhood is a healthier one, quite literally. After all, if you have the choice to stroll to school, or the corner store, or even just the nearest bus stop, all those steps add up over time, amounting to a more active lifestyle than is possible at the end of a cul-de-sac.
USAToday
Fewer Americans Commuting Solo
By Haya El Nasser & P. Overberg, Sep 20 2012 The dismal economy and skyrocketing gas prices may have accomplished what years of advocacy failed to: getting more people to stop driving solo. The share of workers driving to work alone dropped slightly from 2010 to 2011 while commutes on public transportation rose nationally and in some of the largest metropolitan areas, according to Census data out today Thursday.
READ MORE...HuffingtonPost
Transit Union Targets Swing State Riders In Voter Turnout Effort
By Dave Jamieson, Sep 20 2012
Larry Hanley, president of the Amalgamated Tranist Union, says he knows a good place to find Americans who are especially vulnerable to voter suppression: the nation's bus and rail stops.READ MORE...Wired Don't Miss the Bus, Gus: 7 Public Transit Apps (And One Workaround) for iOS 6
By Alexandria Chang, Sep 20 2012 The moment I tapped the Maps app on my iPhone was the moment I regretted upgrading to iOS 6READ MORE...TheAtlanticCities
Want Healthier Seniors? Give Them Bus Passes
By Nate Berg, Sep 21 2012
Health problems and age go hand in hand. This inevitability is acceptable, but it doesn't have to be such a strong correlation. One universally accepted methos to improving the health of older adults is to get them to be more active. An easy way to do that, apparently, is to give them bus passes.READ MORE...
DC.StreetsBlog
Cars Fade Into the Background
By Tanya Snyder Sep 18 2012
What is it with kids today? They just don't seem to be that interested in driving.Over the weekend, the LA Times ran a long story about Crenshaw Boulevard, a corridor under transformation by light rail. The story's subtitle was: "Optimism and anxiety travel along its route, as a revived rail service push and an auto-free younger generation herald changes for one close-knit community."READ MORE...
GristDotOrg
Bee Boulevard: An Urban Corridor Becomes a Haven for Native Pollinators
By Claire Thompson, Sep 19 2012
Sarah Bergmann does not see herself as a political artist. Promoting social causes, raising awareness - that stuff doesn't appeal to her. But she likes asking questions. Doing so, she says, "allows me to learn about the world and respond to it, and do something physical based on what I learn.
TheAtlanticCities
Should Gen-Ys Feel Guilty for Leaving Their Small Towns Behind?
By Brittany Shoot, Sep 19 2012
Say what you will about entitled, lazy Millennials. But there's at least a small subset of young, small town refugees who feel nothing but awe and gratitude that we were able to follow our dreams beyond the 'burbs.
READ MORE...
Planetizen
Lessons on TODs for DOTs
A new report produced by Smart Growth America and the State Smart Transportation Initiative offers recommendations for how state DOTs can innovate to support economic growth and better link land use and transportation decision-making. READ MORE... TheAtlanticCities
The Geography of the 47%
By Richard Florida, Sep 19 2012
Following the big Mother Jones release of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's hidden-camera comment on the 47 percent of Americans "who will vote for the president no matter what," my colleague at The Atlantic, David Graham, posted an article Monday looking at the real "47 percent."
READ MORE...
PerSquareMile
Why Neighborhood Quality Matters
By Tim de Chant, September 20 2012
Cabrini-Green's bad reputation was well-known, especially in the Midwest where I grew up. It was among the first projects built by the Chicago Housing Authority in the mid-20th century. By the 1970s, Cabrini-Green was notorious for destitution and violence.
READ MORE...DC.StreetsBlog
Park(ing) Day Around the U.S.
By Angie Schmitt, Sep 21 2012
It's International Park(ing) Day, when people all over the world transform their cities' most dead boring places - parking spaces - into temporary, creative community gathering places. We hope you got a chance to play, relax or socialize in a temporary park in your city today. But even if you didn't, you can enjoy them vicariously through these pictures of the creative people doing creative things in cities throughout the U.S. today.READ MORE...[Your's truly, Mr. Back Fence, taking back two parking spaces in downtown Denver on Park(ing) day with my fellow Transit Alliance cohort, Dr. Bruce Johnson] 
| Bill Spriggs, Park(ing) Day 2012
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 | Dr. Bruce Johnson, Park(ing) Day 2012
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International (when available)
| GristDotOrg
The World's Largest Vertical Garden is as Long as a City Block By Sarah Laskow, Sep 19 2012
At 13,595 square feet, the world's largest vertical garden is definitely bigger than your piddly window box - think more like "hotel ballroom." It covers the outside of a shopping mall in Rozanno, Italy, and it features 44,000 plants, which the architects say took a year for them to grow and three months to transplant into the metallic containers built into the wall.
PopUpCity
350 White Chairs Pop Up In Rotterdam By Joop de Boer Sep 19 2012
Back in the 60s, the innovative Dutch counterculture movement Provo launched their ideas for a so-called 'Witte Fietsenplan', a 'White Bicycle Plan' for Amsterdam. The idea was simple - instead of urbanites who all own a bicycle, the system wanted to introduce 2,000 collective white-painted bikes that everyone can use. One could easily take a bike, use it and leave it on the spot of arrival for a next user. This revolutionary idea inspired many bike-sharing plans that were launched in global cities decades later.
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| Sunday's Film (when available)
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The Inaugural National Women's Bicycling Summit
By Elizabeth Press, Sep 21 2012
The first National Women's Bicycling Summit took place last week in Long Beach, California. It was tacked on to the Pro Walk/Pro bike conference and drew some of the same participants, a bunch of new faces and whole lot of positive energy.
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Things you need to know along the West Corridor
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>Denver, Wednesday Oct 03 2012 5:30pm. Residents of the Sloan's Lake area and the West Corridor are invited to join the redevelopers of St. Anthony, EFG Brownfield Partners and RNL Design, for a first look at their site plans for the former hospital as a new mixed-use development. The developers want resident's feedback and answer questions. Where: The Auditorium Room at the former St. Anthony Central Hospital (Parking available in the lot at the NE corner of Quitman and Conejos (Enter at the east entrance). Denver Union Station Construction Cam
Wish You Could Find an Apartment/Condo near a Light Rail Station? As part of TBF's continuing efforts to bring TOD's to the West Corridor & elsewhere, this link from Walk Score.com will now be a permanent feature. Thanks. |
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Residential Real Estate Agents
Who Get the "Big Picture" of Transit Oriented Living
| Jim Smith
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Things You Need to Know Around the Region
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>Denver, Thursday, November 8th, 2012, 7:00am to 10:30am
The Transit Alliance Presents the Transit Event of 2012
Union Station:
Community Trans-Formation
Celebrating the Vision of FasTracks Coming to Life
The Ritz Carlton Denver, $75 - Individual, $700 - Table
Stay tuned for reservation details
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| The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of William A. Spriggs and no one else. |
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