[PREV - NOWHERE_MODERN]    [TOP]

NEW_URBAN_HERESY

The obvious question               
(to me): will "new
urbanism" have it's
own unintended
consequences?
      
   I have confidence that
   the present day world 
   is entirely capable of
   building strictly           Like: "Okay, now we've  
   according to New            got cheap condos with   
   Urbanist doctrine, and      front porches tacked on,
   yet still find ways         and our garages are     
   to screw it all up.         hidden down the alleys. 
                               When do our lives start 
                               getting better?"        
                                                    

      I may call myself a New Urbanist 
      at present, but at heart I'm 
      essentially a Contrarian, and I 
      like to entertain myself by 
      constructing New Urban Heresies.
                   


For example, conventional wisdom has 
it that the LA experience with 
highway building was not a fluke. 

They thought they could build more 
road than anyone needed, but it 
turned out that having that much road
encouraged people to use it, and 
they ended up with more cars than 
anyone would have envisioned. 

It is now regarded as a naive 
thought that if the roads are 
crowded it means you need to 
build more: no matter how much
you build, they'll always want 
more.

   I sometimes wonder if that's 
   strictly true.  Could we 
   stay ahead of demand with 
   a massive, continual road 
   building program?          
                                                    
     Run out of land to                 "Oh my god, remember the    
     appropriate?                       880 collapse in the '89    
     Then use the airspace.             quake?"  Yeah, I do.    
     Double-deck the                    I remember that it was    
     highways.                          known to be substandard 
     Triple-deck them.                  before the quake.       
                                                                            
        It would be                                                         
        expensive.       
                                                                            
        It would probably                              
        result in a world                           Variation:                
        no one would be                             Auction off the airspace 
        happy with...                               over the highway to      
                                                    a private firm. Let them 
        But maybe                                   build a toll road that 
        it's not                                    competes with the crowded 
        strictly                                    public one.  The rich 
        impossible.                                 and the desperate would 
                                                    then have another option. 
 
Another one:          
New Urbanism puts                                        (I still play 
emphasis on physical                                     libertarian on 
proximity as the basis                                   alternate 
of community, and                                        Tuesdays.) 
obsesses a lot about  
transit systems.      
                          
   What if all of that stuff 
   turns out to be irrelevant 
   in the near future? 

   Telecommuting.
   On-line community.
   Cell phones.
               
               
               Is it possible that the 
               future will bring a utopia 
               more like "The Naked Sun"            While we're 
               than "The Caves of Steel"?           envisioning 
                                                    technical fixes,
                                                    we could throw 
                                                    in methods of 
                                                    fooling your body 
                                                    into thinking 
                                                    it's had exercise.
                                                    
                                                    "Steroids" that work.
                                                                     
                                                               (Steroids      
                                                               not on        
                                                               steroids?)  
                                                                       

--------
[NEXT - NOWHERE_PUNK]