Deceptive Density Part 2 of 3 with Ken Stapleton

In part two of our conversation on density and related matters, Ken and I pick up where we left off and Ken asked if we knew of any examples where downtowns thrive without density around them. In this episode we will talk about a couple of examples that I thought of. We start with a relevant example on Miami Beach, then go on into how design in important to business district success, as are bad uses and regulations. We touch on why business districts near wealthier neighborhoods can be less vibrant than ones near more modest areas. We also touch on the impact that leadership, engineering and regulatory problems can have on downtown vibrancy and keep us from building nicer places. We also talk about how some people can identify things they love about other places but may not realize that what makes those places have the things they love are things they would oppose in their own hometowns. We talk also about how important density can be to economic growth, but how density is not scale, and does not even have to mean residents and housing at all, and how misunderstanding and misleading have falsely made density a bad word.

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