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Governing Magazine, April 2005 - Rethinking the Urban Speedway
Governing Magazine, October 2005 - The 20 Best North American Districts, Downtowns, and Neighborhoods
- The World's Best and Worst Parks
- Top 12 Public Squares in the U.S. and Canada
- Best and Worst Public Spaces in the Galaxy
- Placemaker Profile: Enrique Penalosa
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Barcelona
WHO WE ARE
Juliette Michaelson
Project Manager
Juliette is PPS’s resident specialist in integrating transportation and land use planning through Placemaking. She is currently managing a multi-agency effort in New Jersey to train county and municipal officials in land-use planning and Placemaking techniques that will improve the quality of New Jersey’s downtowns and destinations without putting undue stress on already overburdened roads. The program, funded by the New Jersey Department of Transportation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is based on case studies of existing integrated transportation and land use efforts across New Jersey. In parallel, Juliette is managing the production of a short documentary film aimed to train municipal and county decision-makers on community involvement and flexibility in roadway design.
The workshops and the video are part of a larger effort by the NJDOT to carry out its New Jersey Future In Transportation (NJFIT) policy program. The program represents a paradigm shift for the agency, as it attempts to manage traffic congestion not by increasing roadway capacity but by encouraging the development of walkable, bikable and transit-friendly neighborhoods. Juliette wrote key informational factsheets about why and how to implement NJFIT, available here.
Juliette is also PPS’s project manager on a visioning and planning project to develop a large parcel of vacant land directly adjacent to a NJ TRANSIT train station into a lively mixed-use development that makes the most of its access to transit, downtown, and large areas of preserved open space. Critical issues include: which public spaces will this new neighborhood revolve around; what land uses and activities will make this neighborhood into a desirable place to live, work and visit; and how this new area will complement Somerville’s existing downtown and residential neighborhoods.
Juliette has also helped to train NJ TRANSIT staff in improving the agency’s train stations and turning them into important transportation and community assets. By using PPS’s Place Game, the trainings taught approximately 80 station managers, engineers and planners to envision the agency’s 210 stations as community-building Places, not just utilitarian structures used only to move commuters.
Recently, Juliette managed an effort by Montgomery County, Maryland, to reorient its future growth away from the urban edge and toward existing, underdeveloped centers. Focusing growth inward and to some extent upward, will allow this first-tier suburb to preserve its valuable Agricultural Reserve, revitalize some of its aging commercial centers, and improve the quality of its small-scale planning efforts.
Prior to her work in New Jersey, Juliette was in downtown Seattle, working to activate Freeway Park for the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation. The park has since begun to shed its image as an underused and even dangerous place, thanks to coffee carts, food vendors, musical and theatrical performances in the summertime, and even a weekly organized “Loop around the Park,” Freeway Park is fast becoming a thriving public space that connects rather than divides neighborhoods.
Juliette received her Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and her Master’s Degree from Columbia University. Her Master’s Thesis analyzed the positive effect that NJ TRANSIT’s new MidTOWN DIRECT service had on residential real estate values near the stations. Analysis of 78,000 residential sales between 1993 and 2003 revealed that home values increased by an average of 113% within walking distance of train stations (accounting for inflation), compared to 80% further out (between one-quarter mile and five miles). For this project, Juliette received the Charles Abrams Award for Best Master’s Thesis.
Prior to joining PPS, Juliette worked for MASSPIRG, a public interest advocacy organization in Boston, first as the Assistant to the Executive Director, then as a Senior Writer on the Publications team.
A native of the beautiful city of Paris, Juliette is committed to making all urban and suburban areas more lively, transit-oriented and pedestrian-friendly.
Education
Princeton University, Bachelor of Arts in Political Theory
Columbia University, Master of Urban Planning, recipient of the Charles Abrams Award for Best Masters’ Thesis, recipient of the William Kinne Fellowship
