The Ground Floor

Future Generations

The Georgetown office of ULI had 19 very special guests visit the office yesterday during Take Your Child to Work Day.

The visitors began their day by coloring pictures and designs for their parents’ work spaces. After everyone was finished, they were given a personal tour of ULI’s office with explanations of each department, its importance to the organization and why the LEED certification ULI recently obtained for its office renovation (link to press release or blog post about our LEED certification) is an important part of the Institute’s mission.

The future architects and city planners, all between the ages of 5-12 years old, were enthusiastic about designing their own city using recycled items, such as paper towel rolls, frozen meal boxes, donated by the staff.

Bill Hudnut, ULI’s senior resident fellow for Public Policy, spoke with the children about the role of a mayor, the various types of buildings that make up a city and the necessary planning that goes into creating a great city.

After brainstorming building types, the visitors transformed empty boxes and containers into buildings, schools, stores and homes, with assistance from the Georgetown staff. Each child then explained what their structure was and how it fit into the overall city plan.

The day ended with a pizza lunch and a viewing of the movie "Over the Hedge," which addresses themes related to suburban sprawl.

Drinking the Growing Cooler-Aid

This post was written for The Ground Floor by Robert Dunphy, senior fellow of Transportation at the Urban Land Institute.

The most important new insight in the book Growing Cooler, is the finding that location (titled Regional Accessibility) swamps density, land use mix, and design in influencing travel and reducing auto travel. It affirms that 'being there' is the best transportation solution.

The book, published by ULI was developed in cooperation with Smart Growth America, the Center for Clean Air Policy, and the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University of America. The author team includes lead author, Reid Ewing, a research professor at the National Center for Smart Growth at the University of Maryland, and Steve Winkelman, director of the Transportation program at the Center for Clean Air Policy.

It has been the topic of a ULI webinar and a ULI Seattle program, as well as other events including a Capitol Hill program, "GROWING COOLER Federal Transportation and Development Policies for Climate-Friendly Communities," co-sponsored by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute and ULI.

ULI District Council -- News You Can Use

This provides updates on some of the latest developments throughout the District Council (DC) community and ULI.

A Smashing Success

ULI L.A.’s eighth annual Urban Marketplace (UM) took place on March 19 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, where over 700 attendees convened. The topic this year was "Sustainable Development in the Urban Marketplace: How Green $$$ Is Green?" 

After a welcome from ULI L.A. chair Wayne Ratkovich and UM 2008 chair Richard Gentilucci, L.A. City Councilwoman Jan Perry read the winning UrbanPlan poem, titled "The Environment." The poem, written by Ramon Rodriquez, a ULI L.A. UrbanPlan student, was also published in the March 17 issue of the California Real Estate Journal.

The keynote speaker was Lance Williams, PhD, executive director of the U.S. Green Building Council, L.A. Chapter. A LEED-accredited professional, Williams issued the following call to action: "Who will be the Martin Luther King of green?" Following his keynote address, a lively panel discussion ensued that was moderated by Eric Garcetti, the president of the L.A. City Council. The panel members -- an architect, a builder, and a developer -- discussed their projects in Culver City, Hollywood, and Santa Monica. These three case studies illuminated the pros and cons of going green.

Urban Strategy America Fund "12 Measures of Success"

In the best of ULI practices and traditions, members share their insights, experience, strategies, etc. freely with each other.

In that regard, Kirk Sykes, president of Urban Strategy America Fund, L.P., was kind enough to share his fund's "12 Measures of Success".

If you would like a copy, send an e-mail to Steve Blank.

Have something you would like to share with other persons interested in RPI? Please send a copy to me and I'll take care of the rest.

We look forward to seeing many of you in Dallas at the ULI Spring Meeting. Our group is scheduled to meet on Friday, May 9, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. at the Hyatt regency, Pryor A (Attrium Level).

Call for Entries

ULI's J. Ronald Terwilliger Center Workforce Housing is looking for exemplary developments meeting workforce housing needs in high-cost communities.

The Workforce Housing Models of Excellence Award will be selected on the following criteria:

• Afforability
• Proximity to centers of employment and transportation hubs
• Quality of the design and site planning
• Involvement of public and private partnerships
• Use of regulartory reform to reduce costs
• Energy efficiency
• Sustainable green construction and land development
• Innovative building technologies and systems
• The value of the project as a worthy model for emulation

The deadline to submit a project in the competition is June 15. Award winners will be honored at a ceremony during the 2008 ULI Fall Meeting in Miami Beach, Fla.

Cities Strive to Lessen Environmental Impact

As cities continue to grow, so does its impact on the environment. In recognition of Earth Day today, the National Press Club hosted an event, "Protecting the Environment in Cities, the U.S., and the World," where Ben Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Richard Baier, the director of transportation and environmental services for Alexandria, Va., discussed how cities are tackling stormwater management and other infrastructure issues.

Grumbles informed attendees and other guest panelists about the EPA's recent efforts in green infrastructure and green transportation. Green infrastructure can be defined as management approaches and technologies infiltrate, evapotranspire, capture and reuse stormwater to maintain or restore natural hydrologies.

Of note, Grumbles detailed a recent initiative formalizing an effort among EPA, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), the Association of States and Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators (ASIWPCA), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Low Impact Development (LID) Center, in addition to over 50 companies who signed a statement of support, to assist state, city, and local governments in implementing and evaluating innovative and effective green infrastructure approaches.

Transit, smart growth, and the Pennsylvania primary

This post was written for The Ground Floor by Robert Dunphy, senior fellow of Transportation at the Urban Land Institute.

The Pennsylvania primary turned up an interesting factoid for urban observers. The Washington Post reported that the city of Philadelphia had a population loss of over 600,000 people since 1950, while Pittsburgh lost over 300,000. These two cities rank in the top eight highest transit shares for commuting, making the state of Pennsylvania the only one to boast two so high on the list. Both are struggling to maintain once extensive transit systems.

The trends are the same among all of the other leading walkable, transit oriented cities other than New York (Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco). Despite such unfavorable demographic trends, some of these regions are still seeing increases in overall transit ridership as a consequence of suburban growth near transit and increasing gas prices.

Both San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), according to an article "S.F. on Verge of $4-per-gallon Gas," by David R. Baker, Michael Cabanatuan for the San Francisco Chronicle, on April 19, 2008, and Washington's METRO have set ridership records recently as reported on April 14, in "Metro Posts Another Record Day," written by Joe Coombs for the Washington Business Journal.

Since 1950 these five cities, whose regions have some of the lowest levels of driving, have lost 1.9 million people, with only New York City bucking the trend by gaining one-third of a million people. The six cities with the largest population gain of a net 7.5 million people over the same time period are Los Angeles, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, and San Jose -- all in the Sun Belt, all low transit and pedestrian hostile, and with at least two of the highest driving cities (Houston and Phoenix).

One aspect of the transit conundrum is that national trends are pushing us away from diverse  transportation cities to transportation limited cities dominated by driving. The most ambitious efforts to expand travel choices and reduce driving in these fast growth Sun Belt communities would be trivial compared to a major program to grow the population in transportation rich cities, like Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to add a million people in New York. Perhaps the Pennsylvania primary could be an occasion for promoting a similar turnaround?

Monday's Numbers and Noteworthy News

Newsworthy News

WEBINAR REMINDER: "What's Next for the Real Estate Capital Markets:  ULI's Industry Experts Take a Look"

Join Steve Blank and Joseph Azrack, president and CEO of Citigroup Property Investors, for a members-only Webinar, as they discuss the current and future prospects for the real estate capital markets on Monday, April 28, 2008 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM EDT.

Need instructions on logging on? Got a question you’d like the answer to? If so, send it to blank@uli.org.

Interest rates increased and trading spreads for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) narrowed. Interesting news, but neither impacted the availability or cost of securitized or conventional mortgage financing.

Speaking about capitulation, analysts are now predicting 2008's CMBS issuance will equal $25 billion, 89 percent less than 2007's. This bleak forecast reflects the fact that there is nothing in the pipeline and apparently little prospects of anyone taking anything into inventory while they wait for the market to clear.

And while we are talking about the CMBS market, a recent report from Fitch’s noted that delinquency rates continued to inch higher, reaching 0.33 percent of outstanding balances as of March 31. This represents the third month in a row that delinquency rates have increased. Overall, Fitch expects the delinquency rate to double or even triple this year, still below the high-water mark.