This photo is from Nice, France, and taken in June.  I’ve used it many times to illustrate the possibilities for a green, light rail infill solution in a formerly auto-centric downtown {perhaps currently easier said than done given the current economic morass).  Moving forward, our region will benefit from two recently released research reports, both of which document the pitfalls and potential for transit oriented development.  The first, of which I was the lead author, is entitled “TOD and Urban Centers:  From Barriers to Solutions and Best Practices”, and was prepared by the University of Washington’s Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies in collaboration with the Quality Growth Alliance (QGA).   The report and companion bibliography are available on the QGA website.  The report was recently summarized in a seattlepi.com article.  The second, the recently released Futurewise/GGLO “Transit Oriented Communities:  A Blueprint for Washington State”, provides an applied analysis of what makes for successful development around transit stations and general guidance for future legislation.  The Blueprint effort was recently summarized by a Northwest HUB article.