People Who Live In Suburbs: Classy, Icky, or Dudes?

I've been riding along with the thought that backyard land should be minimized, and if you want your kid to play somewhere, take them to a playground. Seeing 12 playground sets on one city block is a bit outrageous, and don't get me started on every house having a pool.

BUT the right to own all that shouldn't be taken away or penalized. It all boils down to security and time. I can watch the kids play in safety from my window while doing housework, something I can't do at a public playground.

I was thinking about laundromats for some reason, how I was happy that I didn't have go through that horrible ritual anymore because I now have a 200 sq-ft laundry room. I can put the clothes in the washer and go about my business. I don't have to sit in front of it. No one's going to steal it. If I forget about it, no one's going to take my wet clothes out and put them in a pile. I can save energy by doing them at night instead of during the day. It's all about safety and time, two things every American is taught to expect from this country and why we defend it.

Still thinking it out, but it's a slippery slope in some ways.

xxxxxp If the buildings on all streets were only 3 stories high, I wouldn't mind a bit, but is that dense enough for what you have in mind??

I will call out 4th Avenue as a nom. for most miserable (north) Brooklyn street
in Manhattan, Houston takes some kind of award. especially at the eastern end it's just vast swaths of pavement, gas stations, and towers-among-parks deadness

― lou reed scott walker monks niagra (chinavision!), Monday, 5 March 2012 16:24 (4 minutes ago) Permalink

I think Metropolitan Ave, which I live on, is pretty bad. I mean it's not so terrible between the water and Grahm, I guess but then it gets gross. Actually Williamsburg in general I find really ugly -- it is so clearly not designed for living, and even massive gentrification hasn't changed that impression.

Metropolitan Ave further east into queens just makes me want to cry though.

I've been riding along with the thought that backyard land should be minimized, and if you want your kid to play somewhere, take them to a playground. Seeing 12 playground sets on one city block is a bit outrageous, and don't get me started on every house having a pool.

medium-sized backyards aren't as bad as front yards, which turn every suburban neighborhood into v. unfriendly epic avenues

here's a wealthy paris suburb:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/paris%20dense%20suburbs/ed1976aus/streetviews/StGermainEnLaye.jpg

vs.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/attachments/city-vs-city/60362d1269902473-where-prettiest-suburbs-new-subdivisions-america-yucaipa-ca.jpg

er

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww245/ed1976aus/streetviews/StGermainEnLaye.jpg

Kowloon's walled city is/was such a great obsession because it's what happens when growth occurs unchecked by laws and building codes.

everyone's fav. urbanism example Paris is also a good demonstration of how high density doesn't require full-on high rises, or the necessary loss of older housing stock. but a city built to paris standards of density, street width, transit, etc. even without the charming older architecture would be a very pleasant place to live.

yup

It's not seen as frequently as in Europe, but I still see those tiny front yards around the U.S. I'm not much of a front yard guy either since all it's good for is to look at the street.

This is a not-too-shabby middle-class neighborhood in my town, for example.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/5784/screenshot20120305at110.png

xp if anything, people overrate the extent that paris' 'prettiness' makes the city

by the way, I can see how the thread title itself is gonna put people off. I know it's basically the "future of urban planning in consideration of enviro concerns" thread at this point but that "people who" bit has gotta be a bit of a sore point.

Huh, it's almost like you've read all 3400 posts to this thread.

that's just part of the charm now

xp

Sometimes I think old-style walking suburb is the ideal living circumstance -- medium density, low-rise living with parks, restaurants, shopping etc. all in walking distance. Basically I'm talking about brownstone brooklyn. My only problem with new walking suburbs is that they tend to be kind of ugly and sterile.

brooklyn def the ideal suburb

I'm pretty sure I've read all 3400 posts yup.

maybe we need a new urban policy/fuck you and your yard type thread

'fuck you and your yard' would be a decent title I guess

I think the sterility of some new developments comes from the fact that they're often a single fully planned "development" instead of a natural accumulation of buildings.

"The ghosts of le corbusier and the guy who first marketed the Hummer fistfight in hell: urban planning 2012"

sounds good goole go4it

"Yard Stalinism, Bike Lane Revanchism, and what's the price of unleaded in billings MT"

xp no way man this is your show!

I've made too many threads lately plus if I make it people know it's at trap

a trap

'the dude abodes: suburbs 2012'?

Yeah sure except it's going to annoy me every time I see it wtf.

lol i'm always in favor of a lebowski ref

xp ok well there's one vote against

idg tbl

No, it's short and good, go for it.

ill miss this thread

new threads tend to be ugly and sterile

3k isn't unmanageable tbh we could fit at least a few more clusterfuck days in this

sorry guys not trying to talk you all out of this thread

on 2nd thought it's in the spirit of this thread to be overcrowded

haha I was just gonna make a thread-sprawl joke

ilx 2001:
http://www.destination360.com/europe/italy/images/s/italy-florence.jpg

ilx 2012:
http://www.lasmogtown.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/los-angeles-urban-sprawl-jpeg-lasmogtowncom.jpg

I think that makes max jane jacobs

ive always said that about myself

great Las Vegas development time lapse:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6955987375/

the 00s esp tragic

so this is a 'thing':
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2012/03/why-driverless-cars-would-be-bad-cities-and-suburbs-alike/1393/

not sure if it merits a thread yet but prob will one day

"The video even depicts an intersection with a whopping 12 lanes for each roadway, at a time when most transportation professionals have come to believe that grids of smaller roads, not mega-arterials, are the best approach to mobility in metropolitan areas."

yeah no kidding. i have never seen a 12x12 intersection

has this been linked? if so, sorry

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/us/activists-fight-green-projects-seeing-un-plot.html

"In Maine, the Tea Party-backed Republican governor canceled a project to ease congestion along the Route 1 corridor after protesters complained it was part of the United Nations plot."

(xp) that video makes it look like being in one of the driverless cars would be absolutely terrifying

if i ran into that intersection to take a left i'd rather have a robot drive

related:
http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2011-06/nevada-passes-driverless-car-legislation-paving-way-autonomous-autos

Kowloon's walled city is/was such a great obsession because it's what happens when growth occurs unchecked by laws and building codes.

― valleys of your mind (mh), Monday, March 5, 2012 11:46 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

lol the circumstances and factors that led to the building of the walled city would be very, very, very hard to replicate in the US. the lack of law/building codes played a rather small factor in the totality of its existence.

any suburb that builds light-rail will turn into kowloon in less than a year

like, the primary reason the population density of the kowloon walled city reached what it did is because hong kong is a city where 7 million people live in a space that is 1/4 the size of manhattan. the conditions that allow that to happen simply exist in very few places on Earth. maybe if Maobama tomorrow said that everybody in the US had to move to new york state under martial law, maybe.