by John W. Olson | Jun 16, 2014 | Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Town Planning, Urban Planning and Design, Urbanism
This almost didn’t happen, but luck would have it, I had some time to drive around Deadwood while the little man napped in his car seat. My observations: First impression of course was that it was a lot like Cripple Creek, Colorado. A lot of old historic...
by John W. Olson | Jul 4, 2013 | Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Urban Planning and Design, Urban Renewal, Urbanism
The question for cities is often: What is the silver bullet for the revitalization of a Downtown? There are always answers, but often, they are misguided and wrong. There is not one single universal answer. As a matter of fact, the idea of a silver bullet is pure...
by John W. Olson | Mar 1, 2013 | Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Events, Urban Planning and Design, Urbanism
I had the pleasure to attend one of the best presentations I have been to in the past couple years this past Wednesday in Denver. CNU Colorado hosted CNU’s CEO, John Norquist and Jeff Tumlin of Nelson-Nygaard. They, along with Denver’s former Planning...
by John W. Olson | Feb 16, 2013 | Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Town Planning, Urban Planning and Design, Urbanism
An interesting question that I believe requires exploration in towns and cities is in the priority of level of service. Level of Service (LOS) is a term used to describe the quantity of congestion and velocities for any given street. Letter grades are given for each...
by John W. Olson | Jan 27, 2013 | Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Urban Planning and Design, Urban Renewal
The question came up over the weekend regarding retrofitting suburbia, due to the anticipated arrival of speaker, author and urbanist, Ellen Dunham Jones. My friend and colleague asked where in Colorado Springs would be the places that Ellen describes in her TED Talk....
by John W. Olson | Dec 22, 2012 | Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Landscape Architecture, Town Planning, Urban Planning and Design, Urbanism
Okay, so I have assembled the following quote based upon comments that I hear about Downtown Colorado Springs often. I wish that no one actually says such things, but it is said because it is the simple band-aid to temporarily make a problem go away. We need to stop...