I think people discount how nice *more* people using the public realm can be. Central Park is, in part, wonderful because of the variety of life you can witness there. A bustling public plaza is infinitely better than an empty town square. Walking is a big component to this as you’re more likely to run into and chat with others on the street than you would in a car. We just don’t have the density nor the cultural habits to support that kind of public life in most places. I think, for Americans, it’s difficult to envision a better public real with so few examples to pull from.
Oct 13, 2022·edited Oct 13, 2022Liked by Addison Del Mastro
The real problem, and also the solution, is zoning and building codes. Imagine a world where Fairfax County zones some area as "walkable town". All streets in the zone are narrowed to one lane plus a parking lane, and made one-way. All structures built there must henceforth be either townhouses or mixed-use buildings, max 3 stories - built to the edge of the lot, with a max six-foot setback in front and none on the sides or rear. Use of lot space for surface parking is forbidden, but county subsidies are available to build underground garages (this system is used in Carmel, IL). To get things started they condemn some land and create a central plaza, with structures coming right up to it on three sides and a street on the fourth side, offering rapid bus service to the nearest Metro. The county also commits to build a new elementary school in the zone, deliberately kept small with a limited catchment area, the idea being that all future students can walk there.
I don't really understand why more localities don't give this sort of thing a try. The closest we usually get is master-planned "town centers," which don't have the same variety and resiliency as places made up of lots of different lots/owners/businesses.
Some of them are probably blocked at the state level. I remember Chuck Marohn in one of his presentations talking about how the local residents of his city wanted to narrow and slow a residential street. However, they couldn't do it because the state had actual paid for the street and designated it as a state road with rules about width and speed. The city didn't have the budget to pay for the road themselves, so they were kind of stuck with whatever the state government required.
In regard to "what market is there" to express demand for better transit, I would suggest the high housing costs in New York, San Francisco, and Boston, among others, are at least in part due to people expressing a demand for more transit and walkable neighborhoods. It's just that anti-urban regulation is so entrenched that market forces can't respond to the demand. In just about any city, the most expensive housing (relative to square footage) is in the walkable neighborhoods with good transit and low crime. People are clearly willing to pay a premium for it, if they can afford it.
I think people discount how nice *more* people using the public realm can be. Central Park is, in part, wonderful because of the variety of life you can witness there. A bustling public plaza is infinitely better than an empty town square. Walking is a big component to this as you’re more likely to run into and chat with others on the street than you would in a car. We just don’t have the density nor the cultural habits to support that kind of public life in most places. I think, for Americans, it’s difficult to envision a better public real with so few examples to pull from.
That's probably accurate, unfortunately
The real problem, and also the solution, is zoning and building codes. Imagine a world where Fairfax County zones some area as "walkable town". All streets in the zone are narrowed to one lane plus a parking lane, and made one-way. All structures built there must henceforth be either townhouses or mixed-use buildings, max 3 stories - built to the edge of the lot, with a max six-foot setback in front and none on the sides or rear. Use of lot space for surface parking is forbidden, but county subsidies are available to build underground garages (this system is used in Carmel, IL). To get things started they condemn some land and create a central plaza, with structures coming right up to it on three sides and a street on the fourth side, offering rapid bus service to the nearest Metro. The county also commits to build a new elementary school in the zone, deliberately kept small with a limited catchment area, the idea being that all future students can walk there.
We can dream...
I don't really understand why more localities don't give this sort of thing a try. The closest we usually get is master-planned "town centers," which don't have the same variety and resiliency as places made up of lots of different lots/owners/businesses.
Some of them are probably blocked at the state level. I remember Chuck Marohn in one of his presentations talking about how the local residents of his city wanted to narrow and slow a residential street. However, they couldn't do it because the state had actual paid for the street and designated it as a state road with rules about width and speed. The city didn't have the budget to pay for the road themselves, so they were kind of stuck with whatever the state government required.
I dream of communities liberated from zoning. Stacking rules on top of rules doesn't have a good track record.
Some Russian history, communal ownership, I had no idea. https://monthlyreview.org/2022/10/01/marx-and-engels-and-russias-peasant-communes/
In regard to "what market is there" to express demand for better transit, I would suggest the high housing costs in New York, San Francisco, and Boston, among others, are at least in part due to people expressing a demand for more transit and walkable neighborhoods. It's just that anti-urban regulation is so entrenched that market forces can't respond to the demand. In just about any city, the most expensive housing (relative to square footage) is in the walkable neighborhoods with good transit and low crime. People are clearly willing to pay a premium for it, if they can afford it.
I'm pretty sure I've seen a lot of people on dates where they're just sitting in an idling car in a parking lot, individually looking at their phones.