Friday, 15 December 2006
Some Big City Definitions
(UPDATE: a follow up) OK, time to think about alternate realities here. Like, the kind of realities you find in the center of healthy major cities.
Above, we have a six story-high office tower. When something is located in an established commercial zone next to a six-story office tower, it is not "in the middle of a residential neighborhood." Here's another view:
Does this look residential to you?
When a developer wants to revitalize and densify a central-city low-density asphalt wasteland like this...
...and do so in such a manner that will add density by building up and actually increasing greenspace... this is, for the most part, a Good Thing. Could they put the parking garage in the back (or, even better, underneath) the shopping? Yes, that would be nice. But either plan is better than the current reality. Every time you prevent central city density, you're just causing another asphalt wasteland to be built over the aquifer somewhere, where only the well-to-do can reach it.
On the topic of wealth... This is a "McMansion":
Or this:
Or maybe this:
Note the large size ("Mansion") and uninspired cookie cutter architecture ("Mc").
On the other hand this is not a McMansion:
This is a modernist duplex. Say it with me: duplex. It's what is called "multi-family housing." It's where people live when they want to have a job and family in the inner city but can't afford paying $5,000+ in property taxes each year.
And speaking of people spending less... sometimes people aren't interested in paying a 100% markup for hardware just so they can get similarly-overpriced scented soap, too. This is called "consumer choice." Maybe they'd like to save some money and use it to pay their utilities bill, or spend the savings or their family.
Below we have a "bus stop." People who wait here are not "loitering," they are waiting for the bus. People here either don't want to use a car, can't afford to use a car, or just don't want to use one that day. They are not a "criminal element," they are "the working class." They are definitely not "child molesters" or "those kind of people," they are just ordinary people.
(UPDATE: a follow up) OK, time to think about alternate realities here. Like, the kind of realities you find in the center of healthy major cities.
Above, we have a six story-high office tower. When something is located in an established commercial zone next to a six-story office tower, it is not "in the middle of a residential neighborhood." Here's another view:
Does this look residential to you?
When a developer wants to revitalize and densify a central-city low-density asphalt wasteland like this...
...and do so in such a manner that will add density by building up and actually increasing greenspace... this is, for the most part, a Good Thing. Could they put the parking garage in the back (or, even better, underneath) the shopping? Yes, that would be nice. But either plan is better than the current reality. Every time you prevent central city density, you're just causing another asphalt wasteland to be built over the aquifer somewhere, where only the well-to-do can reach it.
On the topic of wealth... This is a "McMansion":
Or this:
Or maybe this:
Note the large size ("Mansion") and uninspired cookie cutter architecture ("Mc").
On the other hand this is not a McMansion:
This is a modernist duplex. Say it with me: duplex. It's what is called "multi-family housing." It's where people live when they want to have a job and family in the inner city but can't afford paying $5,000+ in property taxes each year.
And speaking of people spending less... sometimes people aren't interested in paying a 100% markup for hardware just so they can get similarly-overpriced scented soap, too. This is called "consumer choice." Maybe they'd like to save some money and use it to pay their utilities bill, or spend the savings or their family.
Below we have a "bus stop." People who wait here are not "loitering," they are waiting for the bus. People here either don't want to use a car, can't afford to use a car, or just don't want to use one that day. They are not a "criminal element," they are "the working class." They are definitely not "child molesters" or "those kind of people," they are just ordinary people.