188 comments on DrumBeat: December 4, 2007
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188 comments on DrumBeat: December 4, 2007
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Interesting work on Walkable Cities, follow link:
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2007/1128_walkableurbanism_leinberger.aspx
jjlalaska
AK cities are not on the list!!
Your right about Alaska perhaps they did not consider it.
When I lived Bethel, AK I walk almost everywhere and a cab when it was to cold, and when I lived in Anchorage, AK I got around on my bicycle for a good part of the year, the urban planning was well done in Anchorage, most neighborhoods had retail shops within walking distance then large park/open spaces near by. I miss living there.
This report was for cities with pop. of 10-50 units per acre, but left out how they depend on others traveling to them to make them work, and how big of parking ramps are needed, or they would most likely fail.
Most of the cities in that report are no more that urban planning vomit done by paycheck planners pushed around by bully builders. In 100 years people will look back in time as say what were they thinking.
'urban planning vomit done by paycheck planners pushed around by bully builders.'
That's my kind of in your face eloquence. Sounds just like our town. Government by Board of Variance. I'd revise that hundred years down to ten or less.
Well said.
Anchorage? Please. Just another automobile slum. (I lived there for six months in the early 1990s).
Try Tokyo:
http://www.nibiruresearch.com/archives/2007/120207.html
or Florence:
http://www.newworldeconomics.com/archives/2007/061707.htm
Yeah I agree Anchorage is not an easy town to "walk" around in. They keep hiring consultants from Portland to try to get it right some day and now hope to develope town centers. It is a car town, make that a SUV/truck town. I have lived there for many years and just know that you need to be south in your old age. Also lived and worked in Hong Kong, now that is a fun place to move around on your feet. Like the narrow streets focus, need to have a limited land basis to get that started. It does make for a more interesting enviroment, high density and multi use. Wish we had more of it in the US.
I felt a lot of nostalgia looking at the pictures of Japan. I lived there for six years without a car. A second time I lived there three years with my family. We inherited a car from my brother but we rarely used it. We lived at the end of a really narrow street. My wife was always worried that on the way out she'd meet up with another woman coming and that neither of them being able to drive in reverse they'd be stuck there all day.
One of my fondest memories is having Sapporo ramen and a can of beer sitting under the canopy of a street vendor.
Japan is probably rather well prepared for living with fewer (not zero) fossil fuels. As you can see from the photos, it is very easy to live by walking, biking and train riding in Japan. They still have to worry about the fossil fuels needed to propel the trucks and to make plastics.
It would be really hard for the US to live like Japanese do. It would take a generational change. Living in Tokyo is like experiencing Christmas shopping every day.
We are an island that imports 100% of its energy. I shudder when I think of the long term viability of Japan. Especially when Indonesia cuts off our gas in a couple of years.
I must nitpick here a bit. "As you can see from the photos, it is very easy to live by walking, biking and train riding in
JapanTokyo"Outside of Tokyo it is very much a car culture. Ask a Japanese person his/her hobbies and a common answer is driving. Japanese love to drive. And outside of Tokyo or maybe Osaka/Kyoto you must have a car to get anywhere.
It is not so hard to live without a car in the rural areas. They are well served by buses, which will take you to the local train station. I traveled all over the countryside for mountaineering/skiing/etc., including some extremely rural areas, almost entirely on public transit. It is a special pleasure to take a bus to the start of a week-long ski mountaineering trip, and then take the train back.
However, I agree fully that Japanese people love to drive around -- mostly for pleasure rather than necessity. This is a country with seven international car companies, after all.
I want to introduce several examples of real train/walking based cities, instead of the mediocre Portland.
Most countries in the world import almost all their fossil fuels. Not many countries have meaningful fossil fuel deposits. Japan is no different there than France, Italy, Thailand, Korea, Argentina, Spain, India, etc. etc.
I want to introduce several examples of real train/walking based cities, instead of the mediocre Portland.
I would like your input on real train/walking based cities. Do you feel they exist in the US? What qualities other than narrow streets do you feel make a city successful? They cannot be "winter" cities ie narrow streets make snow removal/storage pretty tough. I am living in Santiago Chile now, great town, tough air pollution in the winter, many parts are walkable & it has a good metro. Local culture here is car centered. Valparaiso on the coast is very cool and a walking city.