tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post8731638202595460077..comments2024-03-28T14:02:40.132-04:00Comments on Discovering Urbanism: A response to David BrooksDaniel Nairnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14127732825472374125noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post-81988152239637502522009-02-20T07:01:00.000-05:002009-02-20T07:01:00.000-05:00Couldn't agree more, Eric. Many of the current nar...Couldn't agree more, Eric. Many of the current narratives being spun have planners playing the role of the regulatory bureaucrats standing in the way of everything that Americans have always stood for. Unfortunately, this can be a fair criticism at times, but it is certainly not the way things have to play out.<BR/><BR/>Take self-reliance. Back to Emerson on the East or virtually everyone who picked up their life to push into the Western frontier, Americans have valued a rugged self-reliance and individual exploration. Urbanists would do best not to fight this impulse, but to point out how a vision for real cities and real countryside dovetail well with this spirit. <BR/><BR/>Just one example: Kids need to be able to navigate their world, as a part of fostering independent maturity. An auto-centric landscape puts them entirely within the control of whoever can chauffeur them around from planned activity to planned activity. The American icon of Huck Finn is an impossibility in modern suburbia.Daniel Nairnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14127732825472374125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post-57013014439655965152009-02-20T00:02:00.000-05:002009-02-20T00:02:00.000-05:00Was utopia yesterday? Strange thought. Has our f...Was utopia yesterday? Strange thought. Has our financial death spiral produced a softness for snooze city? Nostalgia by Veidt...Are we living in the pre-apocalyptic consumptive lull before the countdown to financial Armageddon? When people are first realizing what might be lost? It will take until we see the gutted hulls of hummers littering the ditches of freeways to think with utopian militancy. Planners get ready. Be prepared to point to the masses. Channel your inner Robert Moses or Corbu. <BR/><BR/>We'll get to smart growth. It just needs to be picked up as an amenity people want as much as back yards. Folks are not used to living with sidewalks, much less trams. The approach is two pronged, one prong is cultural/grassroots transformation, and the other prong is just quiet suversive tenacity. <BR/><BR/>If planners were smart we would find ways to market smart lifestyle choices like retro citroens. In the South Corridor here in Charlotte, people are buying Harleys and Vespas. Its as if being out in sidewalks has given people a new notion of freedom. Freedom is being associated with the ecstatic feeling of the wind wicking the back of your shirt. South Corridor has become a noisy rumble strip for body and bike. People accesorize with tattoos. Machine and flesh gets integrated. People want it. Its sexy and cultural. We planners need to understand these things. <BR/><BR/>The other prong is tenacity. It is simply introducing the sidewalk to all peeps. We can't just saturate people with New Urbanist watercolor utopias. We should instead focus on the amenity. Like NYCDOT's Janette Sadik-Khan...Eric Orozcohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00320742140050171881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5079297043552042968.post-3150655097789565822009-02-18T09:54:00.000-05:002009-02-18T09:54:00.000-05:00I thought that "consevrative" means "preserve the ...I thought that "consevrative" means "preserve the status quo at any cost." Sounds like Brooks to me.Steve O.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13905833445106549609noreply@blogger.com