Yonah Freemark is an urbanist and journalist who has worked in architecture, planning, and transportation.
Education
Massachusetts Institute of Techology | Cambridge MA
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Master of Science in Transportation (MST);
Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Master of City Planning (MCP)
2010-2013
Yale University | New Haven CT
Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, with Distinction
2004-2008
Hillside High School | Durham NC
Valedictorian, National Merit Scholar, International Baccalaureate Diploma
2000-2004
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Research Assistantships
Worked with Professor Lawrence Vale on American public housing history.
Worked with Professors John Attanucci and Nigel Wilson on London’s Underground.
Experience
Transport for London
LU Strategy & Service Development Group
Piccadilly Line Analytics with MIT
2011-2013
MTA New York City Transit
Strategic Initiatives Group
Summer 2011
Dean Sakamoto Architects | New Haven CT
2008
Regional Plan Association | New York City NY
Summers of 2006 and 2007
Urban Design Center | Raleigh NC
Summer 2005
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Fellowships
MIT William Emerson Travel Grant
Studying Nelson Rockefeller’s Time as Governor
2011 and 2012
Yale Gordon Grand Fellowship in Paris
Studying Housing Policy
2008-2010
Yale Mellon Fellowship
Studying in New York City
2008
Yale David W. Baer Fellowship
Studying Modern Architecture in France
2007
Yale Leitner Research Grant
Studying the Politics of Transportation in Charlotte NC
2006
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Invited Presentations
Society for American City and Regional Planning | Baltimore MD
“Private Aims, Redistributive Reality”
November 2011
Congress for the New Urbanism | Madison WI
Moderator of Panel on “The Place of Transit: Re-Orienting the Transit-Development Discussion”
May 2011
Short interviews for Reconnecting America at CNU Conference: How to Build a Successful Blog; We Shouldn’t Be Selling Off Valuable Assets; and Europe’s Transit Constituency
MIT Sustainability Summit | Cambridge MA
Panelist on “Sustainability in Urban and Regional Planning”
April 2011
Yale University Seminar, Professor Cynthia Horan | New Haven CT
“Comparing Approaches to Community Involvement in Development in Paris and New York”
April 2009
Society for Utopian Studies | Toronto ON
“A New Age in Chinese Housing Politics”
October 2007
Durham Historic Preservation Society | Durham NC
“The Good and Bad of Durham’s Renewal”
2006
Durham Exchange Club | Durham NC
“Race, Class, and Politics in Durham’s Attempts for Downtown Reconstruction”
2004
Journalism
The New York Times | Planning Magazine | Next American City Magazine | Dissent | The Atlantic Cities | Streetsblog | Next American City Online | IFC Handshake | The Infrastructurist | Freakonomics
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> Freemark, Yonah and Lawrence Vale. “Illogical Housing Aid” in The New York Times, October 31, 2012
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> “Vive Rive Gauche” and “The Grand Scheme” in Planning Magazine, February 2010
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> “Driving in Circles: Downtown Providence Got Rid of its Highway. Can it Lose its Dependence on Cars?” in Next American City Forefront, June 2012
> “Is Bike Sharing Doomed in America?,” in Next American City Magazine, Winter 2010
> “Minding the Gaps,” in Next American City Magazine, Fall 2010
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> “Cars, Highways, and the Poor,” Dissent, Winter 2010
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> “The Catch-22 of Red-Light Cameras,” 28 October 2011
> “Has the Renaissance of Downtowns Been Overhyped?” 30 September 2011
> “State Infrastructure Banks: The Solution to America’s Infrastructure Woes?” 2 January 2012
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> “We Need an Ambitious Transpo Bill. So How Are We Going to Pay for it?” 29 April 2009
> “What’s Wrong with SAFETEA-LU - and Why the Next Bill Must be Better,” 27 April 2009
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Next American City Online, “Grassroutes” Column
> “As the South and West Grow, the Urban Agenda Should Adjust Accordingly,” 23 December 2010
> “Tracking the Rise of Inner City Household Incomes Reveals an Increasing Spatial Divide,” 16 December 2010
> “Abandoning Long-Term Revenue for a Quick Fix,” 10 December 2010
> “The Administration’s Big Streetcar Push Could Implode with New Congress,” 7 December 2010
> “In Remembering a Long-Abandoned Project, Nostalgia for Grand Plans,” 1 December 2010
> “Congress Threatens to Restore Unequal Tax Treatment Between Car Drivers and Transit Users,” 19 November 2010
> “Finding a Market for the Electric Car,” 17 November 2010
> “A Renovated Station for Chicago is the Latest in the Privatization of Infrastructure,” 10 November 2010
> “Integration in Chicago - On the Train, if Not in Housing,” 9 November 2010
> “The Safety Problem,” 29 October 2010
> “Transit-Friendly Neighbors, Removed from Transit-Friendly Neighborhoods?” 22 October 2010
> “Bringing Transit Decision-Making Back into the Political Sphere,” 20 October 2010
> “HUD Unveils Winners of Sustainable Communities Awards,” 15 October 2010
> “As Suburban Poverty Grows, U.S. Fails to Respond Adequately,” 12 October 2010
> “When Planning is Inadequately Comprehensive,” 7 October 2010
> “If High-Speed Rail Brings Economic Aid to Struggling Cities, Will it Subdue Local Culture?” 30 September 2010
> “Have Streetcars Adequately Demonstrated their Development-Generation Potential?” 27 September 2010
> “Is Effective Decision Making Possible at the Regional Scale?” 21 September 2010
> “Envisioning a Different Kind of Region,” 16 September 2010
> “Opposition to a Bus Rapid Transit System is More than Just NIMBYism,” 10 September 2010
> “Look out? Building a BRT Line in California is no Simple Matter,” 9 September 2010
> “If Transit Investment Produces Jobs, Why Isn’t There More of It?” 2 September 2010
> “New Orleans Could be Up for Radical Change with the Removal of a Highway,” 1 September 2010
> “Clarksdale’s Blues Museum Lays the Foundation for the City’s Future,” 23 August 2010
> “Driven Over By I-69,” 19 August 2010
> “For an Increasingly Urban Nashville, the Waterfront is the Place for Change,” 16 August 2010
> “Knoxville’s Market Square Shows Pedestrian-Only Spaces Can Work, Too,” 11 August 2010
> “Raleigh’s Streetscape Renewal, Part of an Integrated Effort to Transform Downtown,” 4 August 2010
> “Raleigh’s Downtown Upgrade Pans Out,” 2 August 2010
> “Finding Appropriate Tools to Mitigate the Construction Process,” 27 July 2010
> “Washington Uses Transit to Generate Development,” 20 July 2010
> “When Transit Strays from Its Social Goals,” 14 July 2010
> “When You’re Building Green, Don’t Forget the Transportation Component,” 8 July 2010
> “Can Commuter Vans Stand in for Traditional Transit Along Lightly Traveled Routes?” 2 July 2010
> “Maryland Promotes Development Around Transit,” 21 June 2010
> “Massive Urban Development Projects Put in Question the Necessity of Easy Transit Connections,” 17 June 2010
> “Looking Back: Urbanism in John Lindsay’s New York,” 14 June 2010
> “Leveraging Existing Transit Assets for New Transit-Oriented Development,” 8 June 2010
> “When You Get the Chance to Build a New Subway Station, Take Full Advantage,” 4 June 2010
> “Summer Streets Gain Prominence Nationwide,” 1 June 2010
> “Just How Much More Security do we Need in Transit?” 25 May 2010
> “Improving Planning Decision-Making, Thanks to an Infusion of Foundation Funds,” 18 May 2010
> “Transit as a Development Tool, But in Whose Interest?” 17 May 2010
> “Hidden in the Tax Code, a Potential Surplus of Transportation Funds,” 10 May 2010
> “With a $775 Million Downpayment, the Feds Rush in to Rescue Bus Service,” 5 May 2010
> “Are Pedestrian Malls the Future or the Relic of Antiquated Thinking?” 3 May 2010
> “In Praise of Fast Transit, Vital to Spreading Equality of Access in Large Metros,” 26 April 2010
> “Rallies for Transportation Underscore the Need for Funding Reform,” 21 April 2010
> “Can the Densities of Some Neighborhoods be Too Low for Transit to Work?” 20 April 2010
> “Maryland Battles Between Heavy and Light Rail,” 9 April 2010
> “We Keep Riding Transit, Despite the Risks,” 31 March 2010
> “Connecting People to Jobs in Far-Flung Metropolitan Areas,” 25 March 2010
> “LA Hosts a Street Summit,” 19 March 2010
> “The Federal Government Cares Too Much About State DOTs, and That’s a Problem,” 11 March 2010
> “Transportation Should be Fodder for Serious Political Debate,” 8 March 2010
> “Why is Joel Kotkin Extolling the Virtues of Suburbia?” 2 March 2010
> “The American Poor Spread to Suburbia, But We’re Not Ready,” 25 February 2010
> “In New Haven, a Fence Separates City from Suburb,” 20 February 2010
> “Seattle’s Light Rail System Expands East to Bellevue, Meeting Big Controversy,” 20 February 2010
> “Bixi Bike Sharing Goes Global, and With it, the City of Montréal,” 12 February 2010
> “St. Louis Transit Gets Transparent,” 10 February 2010
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International Finance Corporation (IFC) Handshake
- “Speeding toward tomorrow: PPPs in high-speed rail,” Issue 7, October 2012
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- “Alaska Plans 2,000-Mile Natural Gas Pipeline,” 15 April 2010
- “Are Urban Farms the Best Hope for Struggling American Cities?” 14 April 2010
- “The Lab that Could Create an Earthquake-Proof Building,” 3 March 2010
- “The Sidewalks of Today and Tomorrow: Is Concrete Our Only Option?” 22 February 2010
- “Who Will Clear the Seabeds of WWII Mines for Gas Pipelines? Robots,” 16 February 2010
- “What’s Being Built in Vancouver? A Sneak Peak at the Olympic Construction,” 11 February 2010
- “Is Indonesia Making a Potentially Disastrous Gamble with High-Speed Rail?” 8 January 2010
- “The Four Highway Projects that Would be the Biggest Waste of Money,” 16 December 2009
- “The Future of American Streetcars: Are they Coming to Your City?” 7 December 2009
- “Meet the Train Makers: Alstom, Bombardier, Talgo, Japanese companies, and Siemens” 26 October-16 November 2009
- “What’s Up with Maglev? 6 Current Proposals to Build Floating Trains,” 24 September 2009
- “9 Fascinating and Futuristic Bus Stops,” 16 September 2009
- “Why Glaeser Got it Wrong: Re-Running the Numbers on High-Speed Rail,” 25 August 2009
- “Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell to the Wrecking Ball,” 22 June 2009
- “Four Innovations That Could Make Long-Distance Air Travel Greener,” 2 June 2009
- “The World’s 5 Most Ambitious Megaprojects,” 28 May 2009
- “Does Mysterious Math Law Really Predict the Size of Our Cities,” 27 May 2009
- “Department of Demographics: Who Rides Transit?” 22 May 2009
- “A Vibrant US Train Industry Would Employ More People than Car Markers Do Now,” 19 May 2009
- “Comparison Shopping for Transit Systems,” 13 May 2009
- “America’s Streetcar Renaissance,” 4 May 2009
- “The Future of Streetlights: 6 Brilliant New Concepts,” 28 April 2009
- “A Few Thoughts on Obama’s Rail Plan,” 16 April 2009
- “New High Speed Rail Projects Around the World,” 6 April 2009
- “Buses of the Future,” 1 April 2009
- “The World’s 7 Best High Speed Rail Networks,” 26 March 2009
- “Will There Ever be Vertical Farms in Manhattan?” 23 March 2009
- “Could New York City Run Entirely on Green Power?” 18 March 2009
- “Highways to Nowhere: The 7 Most Ridiculous New Roads Being Built in America,” 16 March 2009
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- Contribution to “Freakonomics Quorum: Can Amtrak Ever be Profitable?,” 5 January 2012
Peer-Reviewed Papers
Journal of the American Planning Association
L. Vale and Y. Freemark. “From Public Housing to Public-Private Housing: 75 Years of American Social Experimentation,” Journal of the American Planning Association, December 2012.
Abstract
American public housing since 1937 is often viewed as a single failed experiment of architecture, management, and policy. This view masks a much more highly differentiated experience for residents and housing authorities, rooted in a long-term moral and ideological struggle over the place of the poorest residents in American cities. This article reframes public housing history as a succession of informal social experiments: initial public efforts to clear out slum-dwellers and instead accommodate barely poor working-class tenants or the worthy elderly; a 30-year interlude, where public housing authorities consolidated the poorest into welfare housing while gradually shifting responsibility for low-income housing to private landlords, private developers, and private investors; and a series of partnerships since 1990 that reserve more of this public-private housing for a less-poor constituency. Empirically, this article provides an unprecedented graphic glimpse into the ways that the overall mode-share of public housing has shifted and diversified. Ultimately, this article reveals that the reduced role of the public sector has curtailed the growth of deeply subsidized housing provision to the lowest-income Americans.
Journal of Urban History
Y. Freemark. “Roosevelt Island: Exception to a City in Crisis,” Journal of Urban History, May 2011.
Abstract
Today, New York City’s Roosevelt Island stands as living proof that the public sector can produce a mixed-income and mixed-race neighborhood from scratch. Its successes contrast with typical perceptions of government housing failure and indicate that with determined leadership, stable funding, and a good location, the public sector can create healthy, heterogeneous neighborhoods. This article examines the process of designing and constructing Roosevelt Island to illustrate how and why local actors took advantage of favorable conditions and made important political choices to achieve their commitments, even as political and financial support for such developments deteriorated. In light of the often dismal reputation of government housing policy in the United States, Roosevelt Island’s success—unique in its mixed-income legacy—offers lessons about effective city governance in the face of dwindling national support.
The Transport Politic
Founder and writer of The Transport Politic.
This website was created in October 2008 and tracks the state of transit in the U.S. and around the world. The site’s goal is to explore the intricate relationships between transportation projects and politics, both at the national and local levels.
Thanks to work on the site, Yonah Freemark has been interviewed for articles in The Wall Street Journal, The Dallas Morning News, Miller-McCune, CNN, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Politico, City Journal, Remapping Debate, National Review Online, and The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. In addition, he has been interviewed for radio by WUSF (I, II), KPBS, KCRW, WNYC, WNPR, and WBUR and online for the Infra Blog.
The Transport Politic was named one of Planetizen’s Top Ten sites for 2010. The associated @ttpolitic Twitter profile was named one of the Top 25 Transportation Sources to Follow in 2012 by the Urban Land Institute.
Swaleway: A Proposal for Water Infrastructure Improvements in Lincoln, NE
For Alan Berger’s Landscape + Urbanism Workshop at MIT in Spring 2012.
The goal of Swaleway is to provide a secondary urban water circulation system that offers the beneficial side effect of encouraging the redevelopment of a significant portion of Lincoln, Nebraska’s currently less desirable areas. By using swales implanted along the edge and in the median of the city’s streets, the project seeks to slow or eliminate runoff into the river system and bring landscaped areas to neighborhoods throughout the city — specifically those with limited park access today.
The swales are connected to expanded park spaces within the 100-year watershed and along the city’s creeks and rivers, serving both recreational and storm water holding functions. The project takes advantage of developer interest in building adjacent to green spaces to rebuild communities suffering from an overabundance of parking lots or underdeveloped land. The end product is a city with better control of its storm water and more attractive neighborhoods.
Though Swaleway will be insufficient to absorb all of the storm water produced during a major flooding event, it will be able to absorb a large percentage (about 2/3rd) of runoff from impervious land in the 100-year flood zone during typical rain events. During the most major storms, the system may be able to prevent a disaster by taking in about 7.5% of total rain water produced in the area.
As an added benefit, the larger swales located in the median of major arterials (the “water thoroughfares”) are designed to be able to handle snow storage during the winter, reducing the amount of plowing and snow removal currently required on these transportation axes.
An element of the Culture Now Project, of which MIT is a member. See also Water, Infrastructure, and Landscape research completed by Caitlin Cameron, Yonah Freemark, and Ann-Ariel Vecchio; as well as field trip photos from trip to Salinas Valley.
East Boston Main Streets
A neighborhood improvement plan for East Boston. Goal of the project was to document the needs and opportunities in a transitioning urban neighborhood. A series of community meetings, a survey of dozens of inhabitants, and a catalogue of existing conditions, produced a plan that encouraged both physical and social improvements in the neighborhood. Work was completed in coordination with the East Boston Main Streets organization. Specific features of the plan include an improved streetscape with more street trees and signage, the installation of a new median and public art at the Porter Street Gateway, and the creation of a neighborhood-wide, multi-ethnic annual celebration.
With the Spring 2011 MIT Main Streets Practicum class, taught by Karl Seidman and Andrew Grace. Class members were Elaine Braithwaite, Yang Chen, Rob Crauderueff, Rebecca Economos, Maricarmen Esquivel, Joe Jenkins, Marcie Parkhurst, Stefanie Ritoper, Farzana Serang, Jeremy Steinemann, Marran Swartwood, Athena Ullah, Matthew Weinstein, and Danny Yadegar.
Economic Development Through Infrastructure: A Visual Case Study of a Major Transportation Investment
With Stephen Kennedy, Naomi Stein, and Dominick Tribone.
Project attempts to analyse the economic development effects of a transit project completed in the Denver region in 2000, the Southeast light rail extension. By comparing datasets, the project shows how population and employment varied between different stations on the new line between 2000 and 2010. It portrays a transit program that generally allowed the areas near the line to avoid many of the negative effects of the recession in comparison with the rest of the metropolitan area.
Affordable Housing Design Competition
Cooper Crossing: a proposal for an affordable housing development in Waltham, MA.
Worked with the WATCH CDC in Waltham and community residents through attendance at a series of public meetings.
With Elaine Braithwaite, Charles Harris, Ann Huang, Jeff Morgan, Marcie Parkhurst, Kathleen Thornton, and Danny Yadegar.
Project summary:
Cooper Crossing is a 165-unit mixed-income housing development that will transform a vacant three-acre contaminated lot into a vibrant residential community along the Charles River in downtown Waltham, Massachusetts. Located within a quarter- mile of several public transit options and just around the corner from the vibrant Moody Street commercial district, Cooper Crossing responds to residents’ demand for affordable housing in a highly convenient downtown location.
Recognizing the site’s high potential for mixed-use transit-oriented development, the project proposes to rezone the site from light industrial to a Chapter 40(R) smart growth district.
The site design for Cooper Crossing was developed in partnership with MetroWest Collaborative Developers, an alliance of four established community development corporations that are pooling their resources in order to develop affordable housing more effectively and efficiently. The proposed design complements existing land uses in the area while meeting local demand for additional housing, open space, and community amenities.
The development is comprised of 165 efficiencies, one-, two, and three-bedroom units available at a range of affordability levels. Five percent of the units are affordable to moderate-income households earning at or below 80% of area median income (AMI); 45% are affordable to those earning at or below 60% AMI; and 10% receive deep subsidies making them available to households earning at or below 30% AMI.
The development is financed through a combination of cross-subsidization from market rate units (40% of total units), Low Income Housing Tax Credits, Section 8 vouchers, and a host of additional federal, state, local and private funding sources.
Cooper Crossing offers a range of amenities that contribute to the residential experience, including a café and art space, a computer lab, a community gathering space, job training services, English language courses, and a bike sharing station. Additionally, the site design connects the development to the riverfront and repairs one of the only interruptions in the popular Charles River Bike Path, a 12-mile trail that runs from Newton to Boston.
The redevelopment of Cooper Crossing reclaims a former industrial site and reintegrates it into the natural environment.
A one-year predevelopment phase, during which environmental testing and remediation will be completed, sets the stage for the construction of a highly environmentally sensitive building. Careful consideration of sustainable design elements - such as massing that maximizes the benefits of passive solar, photovoltaic panels on the roof, and rainwater harvesting - qualify the development for LEED Gold certification.
Projects for Urban Transportation Planning Course
For Fred Salvucci’s Urban Transportation Planning course at MIT.
Projects evaluated existing conditions in Somerville, Massachusetts and the Boston region in general, including demographic and travel data. Analysis specifically involved traffic counting at the intersection of McGrath Highway and Washington Street. As part of projects, plans for a renewal of Union Square were developed and the replacement of McGrath Highway with a surface-level boulevard was plotted out.
Part of work completed in conjunction with Alexandra Malikova and Jong Wai Tommee
MIT-Tsinghua Clean Energy Cities Workshop: New Clean Energy Urban Forms, January 2011
Taught by Dennis Frenchman, Jan Wampler, and Chris Zegras. Project conducted with Zhai Bingzhe, Veronica Hannan, and Peng Huang.
“Stalagmite City” project attempted to develop a new urban form for a developing district in Jinan, China, near the new high-speed rail station. Project was designed to maximize passive sunlight and avoid shadows in residential sections. Buildings were oriented to block high winds.
The project would take up a city block with a canal running through it. Uses would be exclusively commercial and public on the ground floor. Pedestrian-only access would be offered throughout most of the area, with an esplanade along the canal and a commodious public square. Mid-level floors would be comprised of office and public spaces, with residential increasing as a proportion of buildings higher up. Towers, designed to accomodate city’s burgeoning central business district, would be office space.
A primary goal of the project was to allow pedestrian circulation at multiple levels and to provide cascading buildings that allowed for large amounts of open garden space rising into the sky. Some of these spaces would be public, though most would be private to residents of the adjoining apartments.
Paul Rudolph Townhouse Expansion, Spring 2007
For Dean Sakamoto and Sophia Gruzdy’s Architecture Studio II Course at Yale.
Project summary:
A new penthouse, constructed atop architect Paul Rudolph’s 53rd Street townhouse in New York City, would have to be prefabricated and easily assembled on site. Here is presented an ideal solution: a series of factory-built ovular rings, about 15 feet wide and 8 feet tall, that can be connected with one another either directly, or at 45 or 90 degree angles. The resulting form is one that can be easily customized to suit the needs of this roof or readapted for any other environment.
Hawaii Natural Reserve project, Spring 2007
With Alice Tai and Vanessa Stockton. For Dean Sakamoto and Sophia Gruzdy’s Architecture Studio II course at Yale.
Project summary:
The National Tropical Botanical Garden, on Kauai in Hawaii, needs more housing for its employees. This project’s purpose is to develop a series of ecologically responsible huts that can be used for up to eight in- terns. This proposal incorporates a number of useful features, including roof gardens, two levels of circulation, and a large shade roof for hot days. The project would be constructed of locally-sourced, renewable materials.
Architectural analysis, Fall 2006
For Emanuel Petit’s architectural analysis course at Yale.
Project summary:
Rafael Moneo’s art museum at Wellesley University served as the basis for a series of studies. These exercises were intended to help expand understanding of circulation, program, and connections within buildings.
Auto facilities on Whalley Avenue in New Haven, Fall 2006
Changes shown for 1911, 1931, 1951, and 2000.
For Elihu Rubin’s course on Urban Life and Landscapes.
