Great example of smart, strategic, inflammatory activism and subsequent storytelling in a municipality.
Sweaty questions, answered!
Including mine: What’s the best place to stand or sit on the subway for maximum air flow?
The rise of the info-state is about not only money and technology, but also loyalty and collective identity. As the Canadian scholar Daniel Bell argues, we are entering an age of “civic-ism,” in which pride in one’s city supersedes national patriotism. The “city-zen” is the new citizen. We identify ourselves as much or more as New Yorkers as Americans—and so many expats and immigrants in New York feel the same way….The measure of success in the age of info-states isn’t wealth or security alone but also Technik, the capacity to harness emerging technologies for the benefit of the population.
Why People in Cities Walk Fast
This graph made from an observational study in 1976 started the theory, which has become more developed over time.
As one possible explanation for the relationship between city size and foot speed, the researchers suggested that economic factors might play a key role. When a city grows larger, they wrote, wage rate and cost of living increase, and with that the value of a resident’s time. As a result, “economizing on time becomes more urgent and life becomes more hurried and harried,” Walmsley and Lewis suggest.
Lots of neat thoughts in this article, and it must have subconsciously inspired the article that I wrote last month for WECREATENYC. The pace of everything (including walking) is faster in a city; should we slow it down?
(thanks for sharing, infinitezest!)
How or Why Cars Erode Cities & Villages
Haverstraw, 1940
Another way to understand the destructive nature of cars on downtowns is the psychology that cars create amongst ‘motorists’ or those that regularly use cars to get around. As Americans became more and more reliant on cars to live their daily lives, they unknowingly gravitated toward shopping centers that were most convenient for their vehicle. The closer these motorists could park to the entrance of the store, the better. Downtowns became “inconvenient” and therefore began to decline as places for commerce. This mentality is aided entirely by zoning requirements that force real estate developers to include a certain number of parking spots IN FRONT of their stores.
This basic zoning requirement eliminates the traditional function of retail: drawing shoppers off the sidewalk and into lively and attractive storefronts. So, the arterial road (Route 9W in this case) becomes the “sidewalk” and the only way to attract drivers to stores is by posting massive signs and providing plenty of convenient parking as near as possible to the “stores.” Enter the strip mall. The strip mall is the physical incarnation of suburban zoning laws. Everyone hates them, but they are required; anything other than a strip mall would be considered illegal. You can’t blame the developers; you have to blame your elected officials.
This is only an excerpt from an interesting argument. Read more at haverstrawlife.com.
Do I fully buy it? No, not really. I think there are a lot of benefits to cars in cities and villages, like access to greater distances and transportation of goods for a lay man without access to a larger cargo transporter. There’s potential to go to and do more. But the arguments here are all correctly thought out and proven time and time again. So, I would highlight in Jared’s thesis that cars absolutely erode cities, and that it’s largely in part to the decisions people make when they think of cars as the primary mode of transit.
Anyone else want to weigh in?
Source: haverstrawlife.com
Philadelphia: The City of BIG
Big Pumpkins (au natural).
Big Clothespins.
Big Buildings.
Big Fountains.
Big (Nearby) Landscapes.
Big Bike Lanes.
Big Statements.
Big Names, abbreved.
And yet, it doesn’t feel big! It’s so walkable! If you’re not full from absurdly delicious nourishment…..
Philadelphia = my new city to excitedly explore. Thanks Sarah for sharing it with me!
Posts to keep you entertained, thinking, sharing, and discussing. I blog across subject areas because there's a lot of interesting stuff out there; why limit our conversation?
