Rethinking Cities

Snapshots of how cities work from an urban enthusiast

“I have seen a lot of scenery in my life, but I have seen nothing so tempting as a home for a man than this Oregon country… You have a basis here for civilization on its highest scale, and I am going to ask you a question which you may not like. Are you good enough to have this country in your possession? Have you got enough intelligence, imagination and cooperation among you to make the best use of these opportunities?”
—   Lewis Mumford, address to the Portland City Club, 1938

“In the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, cycling levels are more than ten times higher than in the UK and the USA. Dutch, German and Danish women cycle as often as men, and rates of cycling fall only slightly with age. Moreover, cycling is distributed evenly across all income groups. In the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, cycling is truly for everyone and for all trip purposes.”
—   John Pucher and Ralph Buehler, “Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany”

“Let’s have a moment of silence for all those Americans who are stuck in traffic on their way to the gym to ride the stationary bicycle.”
—   Rep. Earl Blumenauer

Ruin Pornography

“Ruin pornography” is a phrase describing the multitude of pictures of Detroit’s abandoned buildings. What article on Detroit does not attempt to capture the aesthetics of abandonment? Cities have a particular brand that popular news sources attach to them: Portland is quirky, San Francisco is artsy, Boulder is outdoorsy, and Detroit is post-apocalyptic. Articles often overlook less flashy topics pertaining to a city’s image in order to catch a reader’s wandering eye. Read this article by Wayne State University professor John Patrick Leary to start thinking about how certain media sources propagate city motifs in the cultural mind.

“Today’s urban planning, however, is completely unprepared for the new tasks associated with urban shrinkage: it possesses neither the suitable visions, adequate experience with regard to its own urban planning options, nor established methods and instruments for execution.”
—   Tim Rieniets, “Shrinking Cities — Growing Domain for Urban Planning?” (2005)

Safe Routes to School

Obesity rates among children have quadrupled since 1970 due in a large part to the decline of regular, physical activity among school-age children. Promoting active transportation may be one of the most effective ways to reduce the meteoric rise of obesity and diabetes among both children and adults. Safe Routes to School is a federally-sponsored, community-based program designed to increase bicycling and walking rates among elementary school students. Parents help create a bike- and walk-friendly atmosphere by commuting with their children and their neighbors’ children. Local government responds by providing necessary traffic enforcement, education efforts, and infrastructure improvements. 

“Vacant land is often conceived of as a problem, a negative situation that requires correction. Yet beyond this bleak landscape, alternative conceptions of vacant land are possible. Far from being an unrelentingly negative condition, vacant land may come to symbolize opportunity; it may represent a resource that localities want to maximize.”
—   Ann Bowman and Michael Pagano in Terra Incognita: Vacant Land and Urban Strategies (p.3)

“The total estimated value of Portland’s existing 300-mile network of bikeways is approximately $60 million, roughly equivalent to the cost of constructing just one mile of modern urban freeway.”
—   Portland Bicycle Plan for 2030

The Cost of Parking

Approximate construction costs per parking space:

$5,000 for each surface parking space

$25,000 for each above-ground structure parking space

$50,000 for each below-ground structure parking space

Recommended reading: Donald C. Shoup’s “The High Cost of Free Parking”

“…the New Urbanists want to have lively centers in the places that they develop, where people run into each other doing errands and that sort of thing. And yet, from what I’ve seen of their plans and the places they have built, they don’t seem to have a sense of the anatomy of these hearts, these centers. They’ve placed them as if they were shopping centers. They don’t connect. In a real city or a real town, the lively heart always has two or more well-used pedestrian thoroughfares that meet. In traditional towns, often it’s a triangular piece of land. Sometimes it’s made into a park.”
—   Jane Jacobs, in a Reason magazine interview, June 2001