Lessons from Six Office to Residential Conversion Projects

100 East. File photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Every day at The Overhead Wire we sort through over 1,500 news items about cities and share the best ones with our email list. Each week, we take some of the most popular stories and share them with Urban Milwaukee readers. They are national (or international) links, sometimes entertaining and sometimes absurd, but hopefully useful.

Secret owner of Irvine California: One developer owns 75% of the apartment units in Irvine California and has built many of the owner occupied homes there. But how did one company come to control so much in a single city? The operation is the work of Donald Bren, the richest real estate developer in the United States who runs the properties he owns like an HOA, controlling design decisions and tenants that can operate in the commercial spaces. (Michael Waters, John Gittelsohn | Bloomberg Businessweek)

Understanding office to residential conversion: The pandemic has accelerated a move away from 9 to 5 work and is making cities rethink their economic models. One of the potential solutions is office to residential conversions. This report through several case studies offers a potential framework to do more conversions and promote equitable development. (Cara Eckholm, Tracy Hadden Loh, Jonathan Meyers, and Steven Paynter | Brookings)

Leadership during the pandemic: A new report from NACTO takes a look at how cities changed on a dime and met the challenge of the biggest health crisis of the last century. Cities during the first year of the pandemic were able to protect essential workers, quickly adapt streets for safety, and communicate those politics and changes to the public. (NACTO)

Limiting speed for reckless drivers: Virginia lawmakers have approved a bill that would give judges the ability to require reckless drivers to install speed limiters on their vehicles. The bill is seen as the start of a larger conversation about reigning in reckless driving while also giving offenders an option that isn’t jail time or a suspension of their license. (Aaron Short | Streetsblog USA)

A pandemic era block party continues: During the pandemic a group of neighbors in a Philadelphia suburb decided they need to see people’s faces during social distancing and started having block parties. At first they sat in driveways and yelled across the street at each other but eventually turned to driveway gatherings. The tradition has now continued for 260 consecutive weeks and brought them all closer together. (Kenny Cooper | WHYY)

Quote of the Week

We’re talking concentrations that are about a few drops in an Olympic-sized swimming pool could kill half of a population of coho that you might put in that pool.

–Chelsea Mitchell, a senior ecotoxicologist with King County WA in the Seattle Times/Spokesman Review discussing the amount of tire chemical 6ppd that kills salmon.

This week on the Talking Headways podcast, we’re joined by Yonah Freemark for our annual prediction show!  Parts 1 and 2 are below.

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