Density in a small city
What's a reasonable expectation?
After spending some time in Brooklyn last weekend, I’m thinking a lot of about density. How are there so many people in one place?! Obviously it’s foolish to use New York City as a benchmark for a city like Albany, but what is a reasonable expectation for smaller cities in terms of street life, small business, walkability and general vibes?
What can we reasonably hope to achieve in a small to mid-sized city? It seems like many of the things I want come from having a much larger, denser population: people on the sidewalks at all times of day, retail options outside of malls or exurban commercial corridors, less car-centricity.
It seems like there are a few paths to achieve density:
Have a huge population.
Prevent sprawl through good zoning regulations.
Something else that small towns figure out when they have one cute main street that is somehow thriving despite small population?
What am I missing here? Where I live, people talk a lot about being a region and how to leverage that regional strength. We aren’t just our biggest cities of Albany (pop. 100,826) or Troy (pop. 50,895) or Schenectady (pop 68,809). Or some of the smaller cities like Saratoga Springs, (pop. 28,598), Cohoes (pop. 17,876) or Rensselaer (pop. 9,248). We’re not just towns like Colonie (pop. 83,194), East Greenbush (pop. 16,348), Niskayuna (pop. 22,339) or Delmar (pop. 8,292). We’re a region of more than 1 million people. That’s true, and that’s great, and there is power to be leveraged there.
I also wonder, though, if we lose something through that dilution.
I love a small city. I don’t want to move to a bigger one. But I envy the liveliness of places like New York City or Portland or Austin. I think I’ll get out my old copy of Jeff Speck’s Walkable City for a little inspiration. Speck’s ideas have been making the rounds again thanks to a TED Radio Hour feature on walkability. Stay tuned for my take on his four requirements for what makes a good walk.
Speaking of a good walk, tomorrow (Saturday, May 4) is our Jane Jacobs Walk Albany! We’ve got stickers, we’ve got index card prompts, we’ve got high fives.
I wonder if one strategy might be to compress the zone and time of density. For example, when I lived in Ithaca, I loved that the farmer's market could feel quite dense -- there were a ton of people, a ton of vendors, and it was all compressed into a few hours each weekend in a relatively small area. For a small city, it felt very vibrant.
City loans/grants for local small business owners! Also the arts - the arts bring in the people and then the breweries start popping up/coffee and food/ then the rest follows 🙃