Posts tagged Public Spaces
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Ghost Town
I arrived in our nation’s capital yesterday. It took significantly longer to get from Dulles Airport to my hotel (2 1/4 hours) than to fly all the way from Boston (1 1/2 hours). I had to wait for the shtutle bus from the concourse to the main terminal to arrive, then longer for it to leave, then in line for the SuperShuttle, then 15 minutes for the SuperShuttle to leave… Keep reading…
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Memorable Phrases for Parks
I’m in the bloggers’ area of the Parks1 Mayoral Forum. Up on stage, Democrats Gifford Miller, Virginia Fields, Freddy Ferrer, and Republican Tom Ognibene, are telling us why they all love parks. Keep reading…
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When will they ever learn?
The Death and Life of Great American Cities was published in 1961. It’s understandable that back then, urban planners thought single-use zoning was great. Cozy residential neighborhoods, grand shopping districts, polluting industry far away, beautiful soaring towers with verdant parkland in between - who wouldn’t be seducded by that vision, standing… Keep reading…
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Green along the blue
In New York City’s industrial past, waterfronts were industrial zones. New York became America’s largest city by being America’s busiest port. Manhattan’s coastlines were piers and warehouses, for transferring goods between ships; the entire waterfront of Jersey City was railyards where goods would switch between ship and train. Consequently, the land in the middle of Manhattan… Keep reading…
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Two plans for Times Square
Times Square was once a seedy place that many New Yorkers avoided, except for brief forays to a Broadway show. Today, many New Yorkers still avoid it, but for the opposite reason - it is really, really crowded. According to the Times Square Alliance, streets in Times Square burst with up to 16,817 people per hour on the busiest sidewalks, plus 1,279 people who can’t… Keep reading…
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Stop the space elevator, or, it’s the Battery Bridge all over again
This is wonderful. And a very clever satire on an important issue. Keep reading…
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Don’t play SimCity (Classic)
Like many people my age, I grew up playing SimCity, the 80s classic video game of city planning. The player lays out transportation infrastructure, parks, and residential, commercial, or industrial zones into which the Sims build their own buildings. All the zones are square and exactly the same size. (There have since been two sequels, SimCity 2000 and… Keep reading…
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Slower, messier, safer, better
Reading about urban planning it often sounds like the engineers back in the 60s had no clue. They thought it was just great to bulldoze whole neighborhoods to build freeways partly because freeways made people drive faster, thereby reducing the amount of pollution they emit because cars are more efficient at higher speeds. But really it just encourages people to live… Keep reading…