Let’s Put Cars Back on the Ground - Brian Suiter

Author: Brian Suiter, Director of Leasing and General Manager at The Feil Organization in New Orleans.

Interstate bridge structures invoke the childhood reflections of dark, damp, poorly lit, troll habitats. Unfortunately, in many of our cities, reality is not too far off from our childhood fantasies. In New Orleans many of the main interstate thoroughfares are elevated engineering feats, with multiple lanes on the ground and multiple lanes in the air, which lead to on ramp/ off ramp confusion to tourists and the standard dash-mounted GPS, alike. As ULI examines in one of their recent essays, there has recently been thoughtful discussion in a variety of cities regarding the benefits of removing the elevated byways and putting cars back on the ground. Although no one in the New Orleans government will thoroughly endorse the idea, in the case of the Claiborne/ I-10 interstate which neighbors the periphery of our CDB, our mayor has not written off the idea and has suggested that it actually warrants investigation. The psychographic boundary is palpable. Pedestrian traffic from one side of the manmade “boundary” of the interstate to the other is nonexistent. At night few people will dare to wander under the numerous bridges, with their dark nooks and crannies. Is the fear warranted? Possibly. However, this deterrent is extended to business that don’t want to locate “to the other side” of where the populace is confined. Business that face the elevated structures find themselves looking at potential customers fly by at 65 mph. Residents on the mid floors of buildings look at eyelevel congestion rather than blue sky. The Congress for New Urbanism has found that removing these structures has been shown to improve transit, increase walkability, and improve housing and job growth. Let’s go back to the old days, throw down some sidewalk, plant some trees, and open the doors of street level merchants to the boulevard-speed traffic. Is the 30 mph difference really going to get us past that 1.5 mile stretch any faster?

Photo from www.NOLA.com

~~
At The Feil Organization, Brian is responsible for all facets of two new retail developments that encompass 35 acres and 350 thousand square feet of leasable area with budgets that exceed $75 million, in addition to leasing oversight for 400 thousand square feet of retail assets in the southeast. Brian's expertise spans financial and site feasibility analysis; entitlement, permitting and zoning; site design and engineering; and land and air-right sales and acquisitions. You may contact Brian here.