Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Nebraska

Omaha Developer Sells “Walkable Main Street” of Parking Lots

This development in Omaha is being as a "walkable" "Main Street." Image: Lockwood Development via Strong Towns
This development in Omaha is being billed as a "Main Street." The white space is parking. Image: Lockwood Development via Strong Towns
false

As the downside of sprawling development becomes better understood, some developers are getting better at greenwashing sprawl.

Here's a pretty great example from Omaha, Nebraska. Charles Marohn at Strong Towns came across a story about Lockwood Development's new office park in the Omaha World-Herald. And he was so taken aback by the disparity between the rhetoric and the actual design, he had to write about it:

It uses all the current buzz words....

Mixed use. Redevelopment. Independent living. Walkable. Main Street.

Do those words mean anything? Sadly, Omaha's Sterling Ridge Development -- a so-called "Main Street" concept -- is not even a wolf in sheep's clothing. It is a wolf in wolves' clothing.

My favorite quote from the article, where words are simply objects with no real meaning, is this one: "The architects said the idea is for the multipurpose campus to be a walkable community where people work, live, play and worship."

How quaint.

Fortunately, Marohn says, World-Herald readers seem to see through the flowery language. "This is not a 'Main Street' scheme," wrote one. "It's an office park defined by vast stretches of surface parking."

Elsewhere on the Network today: The Wash Cycle shares a great new video explaining how protected bike lanes are changing the way people get around in American cities. Exit 133 reports the epic urban-planning battle between Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses will be turned into an opera. And Bike Portland says a local animal shelter is refusing adoptions to folks who plan to bike their new pets home from the shelter.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Thursday’s Headlines Don’t Like Riding on the Passenger Side

Can you take me to the store, and then the bank? I've got five dollars you can put in the tank.

April 25, 2024

Study: When Speed Limits Rise on Interstates, So Do Crash Hot Spots on Nearby Roads

Rising interstate speeds don't just make roads deadlier for people who drive on them — and local decision makers need to be prepared.

April 25, 2024

Calif. Bill to Require Speed Control in Vehicles Goes Limp

Also passed yesterday were S.B 961, the Complete Streets bill, a bill on Bay Area transit funding, and a prohibition on state funding for Class III bikeways.

April 24, 2024

Under Threat of Federal Suit (Again!), NYC Promises Action on ‘Unacceptable’ Illegal Police Parking

A deputy mayor made a flat-out promise to eliminate illegal police parking that violates the Americans With Disabilities Act. But when? How? We don't know.

April 24, 2024
See all posts