Posted on 06/29/2006 10:07:48 AM PDT by Lorianne
Sorry, city sophisticates, but the metropolis of the future may prove far less intensely urban than you hope. For all the focus on trendy downtowns and skyscrapers, the real growth in jobs and population is likely to take place on the periphery. The new urbanism, built around downtown revival and beloved by the celebrated starchitects, will cede pride of place to the "new suburbanism." And not only in the land of free-ranging suburbs, America.
In contrast to the powers who fight "sprawl," advocates of the new suburbanism focus on ways to make the periphery work better. It's about bringing business and jobs, not just bedrooms, to the outer rings, and reviving main streets in smaller towns and cities, not just in major urban centers. In some senses, the new suburbanism seeks to recover the ideals of early advocates of decentralization such as the early-20th-century British visionary Ebenezer Howard, who proposed dispersing populations into largely self-sustaining "garden cities."
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
"New urbanism" planners can't accept the fact most Americans want to live in the suburbs, not on top of each other.
But...but...but...the...the housing experts know the housing bubble will burst, leaving millions of elderly and children rummaging through Repulican's garbage cans for a morsel to eat.
We do our best to drive the urbanites away when they show up around here. The idiots move from the socialist paradise of Ann Arbor thinking they bring enlightenment to the savages. It doesn't take long before that figure out that we "savages" don't want their enlightenment, or their sewer systems, gas lines, marina on the lake, or the taxes it takes to pay for the crap.
Detroit is like a donut of development as the hole (city center) rots. Some say it may become our first official "ex-city". With telecommuting getting closer to maturity and gas prices doing what they are doing, other cities may follow.
The rich irony is that big cities and downtowns for the most part used to be wonderful places, until liberals ruined them.
Many of them are wonderful again. That's why most people can't afford to live in the nice big cities like Boston and New York--supply and demand.
I live about the same distance of smugitude from NYC as you from Ann Arbor. We finally got our town council to advertise the town as "no stoplights, no sidewalks, just the way we like it"
It's worked like a charm, over 15 consecutive town council meetings without a NYC transplant demanding sidewalks and streetlights.
Much of the problem stems from outsiders moving in and recreating the same mess they fled from. Stay strong, cripplecreek.
We've seen the urbanites do some funny stuff over the years. One couple bought our old party store and decided they were going to make a killing. They would have made a decent living if they didn't have more money than brains. They refused to sell candy to children so they stocked up on dried fruits and nuts etc. They refused to sell cigarettes or tobacco. They sold beer but only imported beer and wine. On a race weekend I felt kind of bad for them. I bet they had 2 or 3 thousand people walk in and walk back out without buying anything.
I actually admired their stance on principle but if you're going to hold firm you better be ready to stand or fall based on it.
There's no question that a few downtowns have had some revitalization. NYC in particular has experienced an amazing turnaround, primarily thanks to Giuliani's iron fist, which that city desperately needed at the time.
I'm not sure that supply and demand and cost are the main factors regarding downtowns anymore though. The big cities have essentially been fully developed for many, many years. The populations of the big cities proper really haven't significantly changed in a long time. In some cities proper, the population has actually gone down a little.
"They sold beer but only imported beer and wine. "
Awww, sounds like the sweethearts were really engaged in a caring project of social uplift.
"They sold beer but only imported beer and wine."
Where I live, a Bud is an imported beer. Charles Shaw (Two Buck Chuck) is an imported wine.
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