Starving Steve

Originally Posted by Starving Steve

And the other approach to city planning would be the Scottsdale, Arizona approach: LOWER the density; ALLOW SPRAWL; What is now farmland outside of the city would be engulfed into the new city limits, and thus farmland now would become open space or parkland, land banks, or just farms and farmland within the new sprawling city.

The Scottsdale, Arizona approach LOWERS land values, and makes housing more affordable. The approach makes for larger lots and more beautiful subdivisions and landscapes.

The downtown is DOWN-sized with fewer skyscrapers and more parking, more parks, more bikeways, more walkways, more segways, more small businesses, LOWER rents, more sunlight, fewer traffic lights, less gridlock, and more cafes and restaurants.

Parking meters are removed. On-street parking is removed. Buildings/cafes/shops/restaurants/ theatres/ stores/ clinics/ universities/ libraries/ businesses/ condominiums etc. all have FREE PARKING in gigantic ground-floor parking lots in back of their buildings.

Arterials run perpendicular to each other, one-mile between intersections. So the city is in (one-mile) X (one-mile) squares, bounded by arterials. Traffic lights are one-mile apart, or more. Hence, traffic flows, and it flows at 40 or 50 MPH. Arterials are five lanes in each direction. Lanes are wide. A very wide median with native trees and native plants separates the traffic-flows. No on-street parking is permited. Set well-back from the arterials and bounded by more native trees and plants are bikeways, segway paths, and walkways...... Thus, there is no-gridlock at any time of day.

All commercial land use along the arterials is in long and low (one-story) buildings, with co-ordinated design and tile roofs. Signage is with gold lettering atop of shops, including atop grocery stores. No other signing is allowed.

There are no more anchors dictating shopping centre design. Every business, no matter how small, is sited equally next to the anchors. On strip-malls along the arterials, all parking is in gigantic ground-floor parking-lots, all free. There are no more parking games and parking battles with the city.

There is no light rail, no subways, no elevated rail, no rail, very few trucks, and very few buses. The entire city is car-friendly because people can walk, segway, or bicycle to their stores---- all of them no more than one-half mile from where they live inside the one square-mile squares bounded by arterials.

Scottsdale's airport is the Phoenix airport, in the centre of Phoenix, just south of the downtown. Yes, the airport is downtown.

So, when I read this junk-planning about elevated light-railways and gigantic freeways in grid-lock--- all of which are to preserve a few farms outside of the city, I get very upset. When I see the real estate prices in Honolulu, I get even more upset.... I feel like it is time to revolt, because the planning is a disgrace.

Students and kids: Tack this post onto the door of your city planning department. Or tack this onto the door of your local Sierra Club or Greenpeace office. Go to your university, and tack this onto the door of your Geography Department of Architecture Department or City Planning, Land-use and Design Department. Tack this onto the door of your Ecology Department...... Raise hell --- because we don't want any more New York Cities, nor Chicagos, nor Winnipegs; not San Francisco's slums, nor Oakland's slums, not Los Angeles' slums, nor London's...... We want people-friendly and car- friendly, low-density cities that we can afford to live in and enjoy.