Reimagining Cities-Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop

It is important to note that Walkable Urban places and Drivable Sub-urban places can both be in the city or suburbs.

equity, and government fiscal measures. For example, the chart below shows the results of Foot Traffic Ahead 2023 Places Platform, LLC and Smart Growth America research, analyzing the largest 35 U.S. metropolitan areas. 19 The Walkable Urban places (both WalkUPs and Walkable Neighborhoods) are only 1.2% of the total metro land mass. The balance, 98.8% of all metro land, is Drivable Sub-urban. However, the 1.2% of land that is Walkable Urban generates 35% of the GDP of the 35 largest metropolitan areas, an economic outcome that is not well known. Please note that Reimagining Cities research will yield different land mass percentages, since the focus of this report is on cities and not their broader metropolitan areas. In addition, cities tend to have more Walkable Urban land, due to their 19th and early 20th century Walkable Urban development patterns, resulting in less Drivable Sub-urban land mass. •

Each of the four cells of the Places Lens© are referred to as:

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WalkUPs: regionally significant Walkable Urban places Walkable Neighborhoods: locally serving Walkable Urban places DriveINs: regionally significant Drivable Sub-urban places Drivable Communities: locally serving Drivable Sub-urban places

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• The four cells of the Places Lens© perform differently across nearly all metrics. Two decade s of research have shown the four Places Lens© types generate fundamentally different geographic, market, economic, social

THE FOUR METROPOLITAN LAND USE OPTIONS The Places Lens© divides 100% of land use in a metropolitan area or city. This table is of the 35 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, showing the land use by each of the four cells and the GDP generated by both Walkable Urban and Drivable Sub-urban places. The Reimagining Cities research is based on 15 sample cities, so the land distribution will show a higher percentage of land that is Walkable Urban and a consequent lower amount that is Drivable Sub-urban.

Economic Function

Regionally Significant

Local Serving

Metro Land Walkable Neighborhoods 0.8%

Metro Land WalkUPs 0.4%

Walkable Urban

35% of Largest 35 Metro GDP

Metro Land DriveINs 3-4%

Metro Land 90-94% Drivable Community

Drivable Sub-Urban Development Form

65% of Largest 35 Metro GDP

Source: Places Platform, LLC; Smart Growth America

19 Rodriguez, Michael and Christopher Leinberger. Foot Traffic Ahead 2023. Smart Growth America. https://smartgrowthamerica.org/wp-content/ uploads/2023/01/Foot-Traffic-Ahead-2023.pdf

Reimagining Cities: Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop 13