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Originally Posted by Classical in Phoenix
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The text in the full report is interesting.
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The research in this report focuses on...regionally significant, walkable urban places (WalkUPs for short). Our hypothesis is that wealth-creating development in many metropolitan areas has begun a permanent shift away from drivable sub-urban to walkable urban. As such, we predict that WalkUP development, already prevalent in some of the 30 metropolitan areas included in this study, may come to dominate real estate development in many more.
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Phoenix is currently ranked in Level 4, indicating Low Walkable Urbanism:
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Metros that continue to build in the drivable sub-urban pattern. Any brights spots of walkable urbanism tend to be located in revitalizing center cities.
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Historically, drivable sub-urban development has characterized metro Detroit, Miami, and Phoenix. However, in contrast to their popular reputations and low rankings at present, all three metros are experiencing revitalization of their downtowns—and even some urbanizing suburbs—with several outstanding examples of WalkUPs in them.
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However, the report predicts that, in the future, Phoenix might achieve a rank of Level 2, or Moderate Potential for Future Walkable Urbanism:
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Phoenix: Famously known as a sprawling metro area, Phoenix’s new light rail serving Uptown, downtown Phoenix, and Tempe—and successful revitalization efforts in downtown and Tempe, home of ASU—warrant its moderate ranking. Like Tampa, this ranking is primarily based on high walkable urban office absorption over a low base in the current real-estate cycle; only time will tell if these trends endure.
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http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/do...ffic-ahead.pdf