Comments on: I-269: Driving Greater Economic Segregation for Memphis

By: dwayne

dwayne — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:54:16 +0000

This year’s County mayoral election will be very important in curbing sprawl. I hope SCM will put each candidate under a microscope and then post the results.

By: Charles

Charles — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:45:54 +0000

Let us keep in mind that I-269 is not the reason that Memphis is CURRENTLY #1 in economic segregation. It is the pro-ridiculous sprawl policies of the City and County gov’t. Annexation is the only way that the city has actually grown in population! We need like 2 million new residents in the City of Memphis just to justify the size of the current city.

I am just not sure that I-269 will make it much worse than it already is

By: Ken

Ken — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:21:44 +0000

I’m not sure how the currently finished portions of this route relate to the funds for an official “I-269″, but it seems inevitable and we must do something to encourage infill of the beautiful downtown and inner loop areas with FAMILIES and entrepreneurs. Our metro area needs to be ONE Memphis. There are three colleges locating into downtown this year – life is continuing to spring back, let’s find a way to direct some of the I-69/269 money towards drawing the travelers INTO our vibrant and diverse city center. Maybe the I-69 portion at least could improve the exits and further showcase some of our inner assets along its path, especially from I-55 junction to 240′s turn eastward.

By: John

John — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:59:11 +0000

In case anyone is tempted to argue with SC about this, I am attaching links to two documents.

http://stlouisfed.org/publications/br/articles/?id=706

http://www.utexas.edu/research/ctr/pdf_reports/0_4420_1.pdf

The Cost of Sprawl in the Memphis MSA is a brief report to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis understandably summarizing the effects of expansion through the year 2000 and its influence on things like regional taxes, government expenses, law enforcement, commute time, road construction and education. It is a frightening look at things… because it is ten years old.

TECHNIQUES FOR MITIGATING URBAN SPRAWL: GOALS, CHARACTERISTICS, AND SUITABILITY FACTORS is an easier read than it sounds. This document, produced by the University of Texas Center for Transportation Research for the Texas DOT, has a fabulously brief explanation of the highway system’s influence on sprawl but also gives a laundry list of mitigation techniques including:

Ten Transportation Efficient Land Use & Development Strategies
Seven Pricing Strategies for Automobiles, Roadways and Transit
Fifteen Alternative Mode Support Strategies
Six Worksite Based Strategies
Three Objectives Based Incentives
A Fix-It-First Strategy for Roadway Investment
Six Plan Coordination & Integration Strategies
Twenty-Seven Strategies for Urban Containment & Revitalization
Ten Natural Resource Preservation Strategies
Ten Facility Adequacy, Timing & Budgeting Strategies
Thirteen Coordinating Assignments