xxxxxp If the buildings on all streets were only 3 stories high, I wouldn't mind a bit, but is that dense enough for what you have in mind??
― drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Monday, 5 March 2012 16:33 (twelve years ago) link
I will call out 4th Avenue as a nom. for most miserable (north) Brooklyn streetin Manhattan, Houston takes some kind of award. especially at the eastern end it's just vast swaths of pavement, gas stations, and towers-among-parks deadness
― lou reed scott walker monks niagra (chinavision!), Monday, 5 March 2012 16:24 (4 minutes ago) Permalink
I think Metropolitan Ave, which I live on, is pretty bad. I mean it's not so terrible between the water and Grahm, I guess but then it gets gross. Actually Williamsburg in general I find really ugly -- it is so clearly not designed for living, and even massive gentrification hasn't changed that impression.
Metropolitan Ave further east into queens just makes me want to cry though.
― simulation and similac (Hurting 2), Monday, 5 March 2012 16:33 (twelve years ago) link
I've been riding along with the thought that backyard land should be minimized, and if you want your kid to play somewhere, take them to a playground. Seeing 12 playground sets on one city block is a bit outrageous, and don't get me started on every house having a pool.
medium-sized backyards aren't as bad as front yards, which turn every suburban neighborhood into v. unfriendly epic avenues
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 16:36 (twelve years ago) link
here's a wealthy paris suburb:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/paris%20dense%20suburbs/ed1976aus/streetviews/StGermainEnLaye.jpg
vs.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/attachments/city-vs-city/60362d1269902473-where-prettiest-suburbs-new-subdivisions-america-yucaipa-ca.jpg
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 16:44 (twelve years ago) link
er
http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww245/ed1976aus/streetviews/StGermainEnLaye.jpg
Kowloon's walled city is/was such a great obsession because it's what happens when growth occurs unchecked by laws and building codes.
― valleys of your mind (mh), Monday, 5 March 2012 16:46 (twelve years ago) link
everyone's fav. urbanism example Paris is also a good demonstration of how high density doesn't require full-on high rises, or the necessary loss of older housing stock. but a city built to paris standards of density, street width, transit, etc. even without the charming older architecture would be a very pleasant place to live.
― lou reed scott walker monks niagra (chinavision!), Monday, 5 March 2012 17:03 (twelve years ago) link
yup
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:04 (twelve years ago) link
It's not seen as frequently as in Europe, but I still see those tiny front yards around the U.S. I'm not much of a front yard guy either since all it's good for is to look at the street.
This is a not-too-shabby middle-class neighborhood in my town, for example.
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/5784/screenshot20120305at110.png
― pplains, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:05 (twelve years ago) link
xp if anything, people overrate the extent that paris' 'prettiness' makes the city
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:05 (twelve years ago) link
by the way, I can see how the thread title itself is gonna put people off. I know it's basically the "future of urban planning in consideration of enviro concerns" thread at this point but that "people who" bit has gotta be a bit of a sore point.
― lou reed scott walker monks niagra (chinavision!), Monday, 5 March 2012 17:19 (twelve years ago) link
Huh, it's almost like you've read all 3400 posts to this thread.
― drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Monday, 5 March 2012 17:20 (twelve years ago) link
that's just part of the charm now
xp
― goole, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:20 (twelve years ago) link
Sometimes I think old-style walking suburb is the ideal living circumstance -- medium density, low-rise living with parks, restaurants, shopping etc. all in walking distance. Basically I'm talking about brownstone brooklyn. My only problem with new walking suburbs is that they tend to be kind of ugly and sterile.
― simulation and similac (Hurting 2), Monday, 5 March 2012 17:21 (twelve years ago) link
brooklyn def the ideal suburb
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:23 (twelve years ago) link
I'm pretty sure I've read all 3400 posts yup.
― lou reed scott walker monks niagra (chinavision!), Monday, 5 March 2012 17:28 (twelve years ago) link
maybe we need a new urban policy/fuck you and your yard type thread
― goole, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:30 (twelve years ago) link
'fuck you and your yard' would be a decent title I guess
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:32 (twelve years ago) link
I think the sterility of some new developments comes from the fact that they're often a single fully planned "development" instead of a natural accumulation of buildings.
― lou reed scott walker monks niagra (chinavision!), Monday, 5 March 2012 17:32 (twelve years ago) link
"The ghosts of le corbusier and the guy who first marketed the Hummer fistfight in hell: urban planning 2012"
― goole, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:32 (twelve years ago) link
sounds good goole go4it
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:33 (twelve years ago) link
"Yard Stalinism, Bike Lane Revanchism, and what's the price of unleaded in billings MT"
xp no way man this is your show!
― goole, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:34 (twelve years ago) link
I've made too many threads lately plus if I make it people know it's at trap
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:40 (twelve years ago) link
a trap
'the dude abodes: suburbs 2012'?
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:41 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah sure except it's going to annoy me every time I see it wtf.
― drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Monday, 5 March 2012 17:43 (twelve years ago) link
lol i'm always in favor of a lebowski ref
xp ok well there's one vote against
― goole, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:44 (twelve years ago) link
idg tbl
― drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Monday, 5 March 2012 17:44 (twelve years ago) link
No, it's short and good, go for it.
― drawn to them like a moth toward a spanakopita (Laurel), Monday, 5 March 2012 17:45 (twelve years ago) link
ill miss this thread
― max, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:49 (twelve years ago) link
new threads tend to be ugly and sterile
― max, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:50 (twelve years ago) link
3k isn't unmanageable tbh we could fit at least a few more clusterfuck days in this
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:50 (twelve years ago) link
sorry guys not trying to talk you all out of this thread
― lou reed scott walker monks niagra (chinavision!), Monday, 5 March 2012 17:54 (twelve years ago) link
on 2nd thought it's in the spirit of this thread to be overcrowded
― goole, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:55 (twelve years ago) link
haha I was just gonna make a thread-sprawl joke
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:55 (twelve years ago) link
ilx 2001: http://www.destination360.com/europe/italy/images/s/italy-florence.jpg
ilx 2012: http://www.lasmogtown.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/los-angeles-urban-sprawl-jpeg-lasmogtowncom.jpg
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 17:56 (twelve years ago) link
I think that makes max jane jacobs
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 18:02 (twelve years ago) link
ive always said that about myself
― max, Monday, 5 March 2012 18:10 (twelve years ago) link
great Las Vegas development time lapse:http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6955987375/
― I DIED, Monday, 5 March 2012 18:18 (twelve years ago) link
the 00s esp tragic
so this is a 'thing': http://www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2012/03/why-driverless-cars-would-be-bad-cities-and-suburbs-alike/1393/
not sure if it merits a thread yet but prob will one day
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 18:21 (twelve years ago) link
"The video even depicts an intersection with a whopping 12 lanes for each roadway, at a time when most transportation professionals have come to believe that grids of smaller roads, not mega-arterials, are the best approach to mobility in metropolitan areas."
yeah no kidding. i have never seen a 12x12 intersection
― goole, Monday, 5 March 2012 18:24 (twelve years ago) link
has this been linked? if so, sorry
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/us/activists-fight-green-projects-seeing-un-plot.html
― goole, Monday, 5 March 2012 18:28 (twelve years ago) link
"In Maine, the Tea Party-backed Republican governor canceled a project to ease congestion along the Route 1 corridor after protesters complained it was part of the United Nations plot."
― goole, Monday, 5 March 2012 18:34 (twelve years ago) link
(xp) that video makes it look like being in one of the driverless cars would be absolutely terrifying
― I DIED, Monday, 5 March 2012 18:34 (twelve years ago) link
if i ran into that intersection to take a left i'd rather have a robot drive
― goole, Monday, 5 March 2012 18:37 (twelve years ago) link
related: http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2011-06/nevada-passes-driverless-car-legislation-paving-way-autonomous-autos
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 18:39 (twelve years ago) link
― valleys of your mind (mh), Monday, March 5, 2012 11:46 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark
lol the circumstances and factors that led to the building of the walled city would be very, very, very hard to replicate in the US. the lack of law/building codes played a rather small factor in the totality of its existence.
― flagp∞st (dayo), Monday, 5 March 2012 18:42 (twelve years ago) link
any suburb that builds light-rail will turn into kowloon in less than a year
― iatee, Monday, 5 March 2012 18:46 (twelve years ago) link
like, the primary reason the population density of the kowloon walled city reached what it did is because hong kong is a city where 7 million people live in a space that is 1/4 the size of manhattan. the conditions that allow that to happen simply exist in very few places on Earth. maybe if Maobama tomorrow said that everybody in the US had to move to new york state under martial law, maybe.
― flagp∞st (dayo), Monday, 5 March 2012 19:01 (twelve years ago) link
I don't think the law/code absence made it exist, it's just such an interesting study in those things.
Nobody wants that place to exist in the US! I think people are in awe, but I have never heard of anyone advocating it as a model of anything other than a place that seems fictional but existed due to weird politics.
― valleys of your mind (mh), Monday, 5 March 2012 20:41 (twelve years ago) link