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Nature_and_Environment.12 |
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Urban Sprawl: Issues and Alternatives |
{Nature_and_Environment.12.44}: ... {wren1111} Tue, 07 Jun 2005 17:23:30 CDT (HTML)
{Nature_and_Environment.12.45}: Suzanne Griffith {sggriffith} Tue, 07 Jun 2005 17:32:40 CDT (6 lines)
Gentrification has been devastating to urban neighborhoods in my experience *if* the neighborhood is still doing ok culturally and economically. It can be fine if the neighborhood is completely run down. It's always hell for students and others needing low cost housing when redevelopment strikes their neighborhoods.
{Nature_and_Environment.12.46}: George Upton {gaupton} Tue, 19 Jul 2005 13:32:56 CDT (33 lines)
I notice that environmentally minded people (of which I am one) often cite New York City as if it were an environmental disaster. True that it does not have the best air quality, but consider this: The population density of New York is 26,663 people per square mile. If the entire world population of 6,454,882,702 lived at that density, it would cover 242,091 square miles. The State of Texas covers 262,000 square miles. If the US population of 296,660,077 lived at that density, it would cover 11,663 square miles. The states of Connecticut plus Massachusetts cover 12,683 square miles. That would leave plenty of land for environmental preservation, wildlife refuges, wilderness preservation, food production, and recreation. It would also be much more energy efficient in that public transit is feasable and practical at such a density. I can't cite a source right now, but I have heard that more than half of all mass transit passenger miles in the US on a typical day are in New York City. Not to mention that home heating is more efficient in large apartment buildings typical of NYC than individual detached homes typical of the 'burbs. I remember being at the Frank Lloyd Wright museum in Wisconsin and viewing that "visionary's" model for the city of the future. Wide streets, individual houses with large yards and carports. It was a sugarcoated urban sprawl. Let's stop pretending that environmental concern means living "away from it all". New York is the real environmental model that could save the planet.
{Nature_and_Environment.12.47}: Richard Witty {gisland} Tue, 19 Jul 2005 16:44:54 CDT (7 lines)
New York is the center of a system. To assess the quality of New York, you'd need to also assess its effects. Mass transit is great, as is cogeneration of steam, and utilization of energy-efficient shared walls. But, it is NO ecological heaven, nor positive ecological impact.
{Nature_and_Environment.12.48}: George Upton {gaupton} Wed, 20 Jul 2005 07:24:42 CDT (10 lines)
What would you consider a "positive ecological impact"? If the eight million New Yorkers lived at average suburban density, they would cover an area at least the size of Massachusetts. Would you prefer such urban sprawl? Houston covers an area about the size of Rhode Island with a population about a third of New York's. Is that a better model? I might also note that most of the air pollution in NYC comes from cars, which could be eliminated if people used public transit.
{Nature_and_Environment.12.49}: Richard Witty {gisland} Wed, 20 Jul 2005 19:04:10 CDT (30 lines)
Impact is the effect of their actions. Live and let live is a "positive ecological impact". New York is the metropolitan area at least, and much larger in reality. The New York Metropolitan area contains wonderful spots, but IS relatively a car-infested desert spreading 300 sq miles, in what was a wonder of nature. (New York City itself was beautiful and a spirit center of Indians, meeting to enjoy and thank the presence of its meeting of waters.) Its not that now. As much as mass transit is greatly appreciated, it is not a result of the collective intent of the people to live and let live. Mass transit there is merely a logistical necessity in origin. New York would have to intend to effect other communities beneficially, ecologically and socially, and in a comprehensive sense. It could do that. It could consider itself a neighbor of other communities. Mass transit, motivated by living lightly on the land, would be that. And if mass transit originally motivated by logistical necessity adopted living lightly as a primary value, that would help. But seeking a rationalization to justify how "good" one is, without that realistic transformation in intent and practical ethic, is not it.
{Nature_and_Environment.12.50}: George Upton {gaupton} Wed, 20 Jul 2005 20:20:40 CDT (4 lines)
You haven't answered my question. All you have said is that you don't like New York. What model would YOU propose?
{Nature_and_Environment.12.51}: Richard Witty {gisland} Thu, 21 Jul 2005 06:44:05 CDT (2 lines)
What are you asking? What physical model? What ethical model? What political model?
{Nature_and_Environment.12.52}: George Upton {gaupton} Thu, 21 Jul 2005 07:18:08 CDT (3 lines)
I am asking for an example, either actual or hypothetical, of a city structure that you think would work. You say New York doesn't. What would?
{Nature_and_Environment.12.53}: Richard Witty {gisland} Thu, 21 Jul 2005 16:36:15 CDT (1 line)
A regional approach, say like Portland Oregon begins to do.
{Nature_and_Environment.12.54}: George Upton {gaupton} Thu, 21 Jul 2005 19:29:48 CDT (1 line)
OK, fair enough. What does that entail?
{Nature_and_Environment.12.55}: Suzanne Griffith {sggriffith} Thu, 21 Jul 2005 19:43:11 CDT (4 lines)
Portland has done some good with their metro, but sprawl in the surrounding counties continues unabated, or so it looks just driving through. I visit there every 5 years or so, and it grows and grows like a rash, just like all the other locales.
{Nature_and_Environment.12.56}: Richard Witty {gisland} Thu, 21 Jul 2005 22:09:04 CDT (21 lines)
With isolated jurisdictions (New York separate from Yonkers, Eastchester, Scarsdale, Massapequa, Bergen County) governance of the region is impossible regardless of the intent of the residents. With integrated jurisdictions, it is possible to address regional problems within an environment of due process and law. It still requires an ethic of live and let live though, nearly everywhere, to make happen. Sprawl is different from that. Portland integrates libraries, transportation, some revenue-sharing, some regional environmental regulation, and even across state lines. It has a long way to go, and I expect that the will is flagging. I lived in Portland for five years in the early 80's, and there was much pressure for sprawl, and much cultural conflict between those that regarded their own effect on others as incidental as "their property right", and those that regarded their effects on others as considerable.
{Nature_and_Environment.12.57}: Craig Cuthbert {match22} Thu, 28 Jul 2005 19:05:08 CDT (7 lines)
I'm in San Diego. Being so close to the border I want to share how many gringos I am meeting who have either bought or are looking to buy in Central or South America or Mexico. I imagine people in Europe look to Eastern Europe for some unspoiled communities in the same way, as well as perhaps in Asia- Pacific areas. http://directory.ic.org/
{Nature_and_Environment.12.58}: Suzanne Griffith {sggriffith} Thu, 28 Jul 2005 21:17:23 CDT (2 lines)
Are people looking for unspoiled, or are they looking for houses they an afford?
{Nature_and_Environment.12.59}: Craig Cuthbert {match22} Sat, 30 Jul 2005 01:14:43 CDT (9 lines)
Both. Its becoming increasingly clear to me that the housing bubble does not represent an increase in land and houses. It represents an increasein teh cost of buying into intelligently designed metropolitan infrastructures that provide reasonably well-designed communities, utilities, employment, accessible consumer goods transortation infrastructures, acessibility to banking, commerce and legal services, and more. Though I'll take the peace of mind of just listening to crickets.
{Nature_and_Environment.12.60}: fuel prices ... {wren1111} Sun, 02 Oct 2005 13:38:44 CDT (HTML)
Bicycle sales boom in US amid rising gas prices "http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051001/ts_alt_afp/usstormenergyenvironm entbicycles_051001131528"
Gas prices changing suburban lifestyles
"http://www2.dailynews.com/news/ci_3078927"
{Nature_and_Environment.12.61}: ... {wren1111} Thu, 12 Jan 2006 00:21:06 CST (HTML)
{Nature_and_Environment.12.62}: ... {wren1111} Mon, 20 Feb 2006 18:25:26 CST (HTML)
The Brazilian city of Curitiba is a global model for development that both respects the earth and delights its inhabitants.
The first time I went there, I had never heard of Curitiba. I had no idea that its bus system was the best on Earth or that a municipal shepherd and his flock of 30 sheep trimmed the grass in its vast parks. It was just a midsize Brazilian city where an airline schedule forced me to spend the night midway through a long South American reporting trip. I reached my hotel, took a nap, and then went out in the early evening for a walk--warily, because I had just come from crime-soaked Rio.
But the street in front of the hotel was cobbled, closed to cars, and strung with lights. It opened onto another such street, which in turn opened into a broad and leafy plaza, with more shop-lined streets stretching off in all directions. Though the night was frosty-Brazil stretches well south of the tropics, and Curitiba is in the mountains- people strolled and shopped, butcher to baker to bookstore. There were almost no cars, but at one of the squares, a steady line of buses rolled off, full, every few seconds. I walked for an hour, and then another. I felt my shoulders, hunched from the tension of Rio (and probably New York as well) straightening. Though I flew out the next day as scheduled, I never forgot the city.
From time to time over the next few years, I would see Curitiba
mentioned in planning magazines or come across a short newspaper
account of it winning various awards from the United Nations. Its
success seemed demographically unlikely. For one thing, it's
relatively poor - average per capita (cash) income is about $2,500.
Worse, a flood of displaced peasants has tripled its population to a
million and a half in the last 25 years. It should resemble a small-
scale version of urban nightmares like São Paulo or Mexico City. But
I knew from my evening's stroll it wasn't like that, and I wondered
why.
{Nature_and_Environment.12.63}: ... {wren1111} Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:13:03 CDT (HTML)
An expected 59% increase in the number of miles Americans drive between 2005 and 2030 will outpace any reduction in greenhouse gases from better fuel efficiency of cars and trucks, said a report issued Thursday.
If there is any hope of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, a key component of greenhouse gases, the nation needs to slow sprawl and build more compact housing, such as lofts atop commercial buildings in downtowns and taller buildings on less land, the report said. It was compiled by the Urban Land Institute and issued by the Michigan Environmental Council.
The authors said development patterns that put housing further from workplaces contribute to climate change and changes in those patterns are crucial in slowing global warming. Smart state and local planning is needed, said Brad Garmon of the Michigan Environmental Council.
Michigan residents are driving more than ever before, leading to
increases in vehicle fuel emissions, the researchers said.
{Nature_and_Environment.12.64}: ... {wren1111} Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:49:21 CST (HTML)
{Nature_and_Environment.12.65}: ... {wren1111} Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:44:44 CST (HTML)
"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122802449.html?sub=AR"
{Nature_and_Environment.12.66}: {wren1111} Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:56:54 CST (0 lines)
{erased by wren1111 Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:57:18 CST}
{Nature_and_Environment.12.67}: Wren W {wren1111} Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:57:16 CST (HTML)
"http://www.traditional-building.com/FebRoundtable08_pg1.html"
{Nature_and_Environment.12.68}: ... {wren1111} Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:47:51 CDT (HTML)
"http://streetsblog.net/2011/04/21/the-budget-buster-no-ones-talking-
about-its-the-sprawl-stupid/"
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