Category Archives: Railroads

Ten Planning Lessons from Old West Ghost Towns

Posted on February 10, 2020 by

On a recent visit to Arizona and New Mexico, my son and I had the opportunity to visit/view three ghost towns – Fairbank, Arizona; Shakespeare, New Mexico; and Steins, New Mexico. Each had its own history to tell about the … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptive reuse, Advocacy, agriculture, archaeology, architecture, art, cities, commerce, culture, economics, environment, fun, geography, Geology, historic preservation, history, infrastructure, land use, Mining, pictures, placemaking, planning, pollution, Railroads, revitalization, spatial design, Statistics, sustainability, topography, tourism, Trade, transportation, Travel, urban planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ten Planning Lessons from Chicago’s Northside Neighborhoods

Posted on October 23, 2019 by

  Below is my list of top ten planning lessons garnered from visits to nearly all of Northside Chicago neighborhoods over the past few years, especially those located to the north and east of I-90/94 (The Kennedy Expressway). Even with … Continue reading →

Posted in Active transportation, architecture, art, bicycling, bike sharing, Biking, branding, cities, civics, civility, commerce, Cuisine, culture, demographics, density, diversity, entertainment, entrepreneurship, gentrification, geography, historic preservation, history, Housing, humanity, inclusiveness, infrastructure, land use, landscape architecture, Maps, new urbanism, place names, placemaking, planning, Railroads, shopping, skylines, spatial design, third places, tourism, traffic, transit, transportation, Travel, urban planning, walking, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ten Planning Lessons from Albuquerque

Posted on September 18, 2019 by

We have been enjoying an awesome trip to New Mexico. This post about Albuquerque is the first of several that will be written about the state, is residents, and its communities. Paz! The preservation and protection of the original 1706 … Continue reading →

Posted in Active transportation, adaptive reuse, Advocacy, air travel, airport planning, airports, Alternative transportation, architecture, aviation, bicycling, bike sharing, Biking, Bus transportation, cities, civics, colleges, commerce, Cuisine, culture, density, diversity, downtown, economic development, entertainment, fun, geography, hiking, historic preservation, history, Housing, inclusiveness, infrastructure, land use, new urbanism, Passenger rail, placemaking, planning, rail, Railroads, spatial design, sprawl, third places, tourism, transit, transportation, Travel, urban planning, walking, zoning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hell’s Worth of Wickedness in One Cowtown

Posted on April 17, 2019 by

Frontier Towns, Chapter 4: Ellsworth, Kansas   “As we go to press, hell is still in session in Ellsworth.”  That’s a famous newspaper headline dating from 1873 about the situation in Ellsworth, Kansas. Ellsworth may have been situated along the … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptive reuse, Animals, architecture, cities, civility, commerce, geography, historic preservation, history, infrastructure, land use, Maps, placemaking, planning, rail, Railroads, shipping, tourism, Trade, transportation, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Town That Was Moved Four Times!

Posted on March 13, 2019 by

The first of our new “Frontier Towns” series is about the historic Great Plains town of Julesburg, Colorado. At the crossroads of multiple important and historic transcontinental routes lies the quaint Great Plains town of Julesburg, Colorado. This classic western … Continue reading →

Posted in Active transportation, adaptive reuse, architecture, bicycling, Biking, branding, cities, civics, commerce, culture, downtown, economic development, economic gardening, entertainment, environment, film, fun, geography, historic preservation, history, infrastructure, land use, Maps, movies, nature, Passenger rail, place names, placemaking, planning, rail, Railroads, recreation, rivers/watersheds, signs, Small business, sustainability, theaters, topography, tourism, Trade, trails, transportation, Travel, urban planning, Welcome | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The South Shore Line – Indiana’s Gift to Passenger Rail

Posted on May 15, 2018 by

We had the honor and thrill of riding the entire length of the South Shore Line round trip between South Bend (Airport Station) and Chicago (Millennium Station) and back over Mother’s Day weekend. Sometimes dubbed as America’s last Interurban, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Active transportation, Alternative transportation, cities, electric vehicles, fun, geography, history, infrastructure, land use, Maps, Passenger rail, placemaking, planning, rail, Railroads, spatial design, transit, transportation, Travel, urban planning | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

If you drive a SUV, you need to plant 127 trees a year!

Posted on May 8, 2018 by

As the accompanying chart shows, if you own and operate a sport-utility vehicle (SUV), you’ll have a lot of tree planting to do to offset your annual emissions from driving that monstrosity. At approximately $200 per tree (a rather low … Continue reading →

Posted in Advocacy, bicycling, Cars, civics, climate change, electric vehicles, environment, health, nature, Passenger rail, pollution, rail, Railroads, sustainability, transit, transportation, walking | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Canada is charting the course in “commuter commerce”

Posted on November 10, 2015 by

“Commuter commerce” may be a term you have never heard before, but if predictions are correct, it could be the next big growth area in digital shopping. Basically, commuter commerce means the purchasing of goods and services while one is … Continue reading →

Posted in Bus transportation, business, Canada, Cars, commerce, Communications, digital payment systems, futurism, infrastructure, marketing, Passenger rail, planning, rail, Railroads, shopping, Statistics, technology, Trade, transit, transportation, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

America’s busiest container ports in 2014

Posted on June 5, 2015 by

Interesting data provided in the chart below. Despite a labor strike in 2014, Los Angeles and Long Beach continued to the lead the way as the busiest container ports in the United States based on twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). the … Continue reading →

Posted in cities, commerce, economic development, economics, Economy, geography, globalization, history, infrastructure, Labor, land use, logistics, planning, Railroads, rivers/watersheds, shipping, Statistics, transportation, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

North America’s newest intermodal railroad facilities – update #2

Posted on May 20, 2015 by

As a follow-up to the September 27, 2012, post on those cities with the most intermodal rail facilities in North America, here is a list of some of newest and most advanced intermodal rail facilities that have come on-line over the past … Continue reading →

Posted in Active transportation, airports, Alternative transportation, Canada, cities, commerce, Communications, economic development, environment, geography, infrastructure, land use, logistics, Maps, North America, planning, rail, Railroads, spatial design, Statistics, transportation, urban planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments