It's been a while since my previous post, as I was having trouble refining this blog (and real life kicked in). I'd love to hear some thoughts on it.
Nice post, and I think the site looks great. So, he essentially invented urban sprawl, and suburbs? They both sound so much more appealing when you call them Garden Cities, don't they? I do think that having green belts in cities is a wonderful thing. What made you happen upon this subject? Did it have to do with your recent travels? Shoutout: sounds_sound, I think you'll enjoy this read.
Thanks! Since the beginning of the 19th century, with industralization happening on a massive scale, the rich parts of society were already forming some suburbs. Especially the development of the train and the tram -in its earlier stage, a luxury- made it possible for the rich to flee the city centres and build their own suburbs. These were quite different from the sprawl we have now: most rich suburbs then consisted of luxurious villas in the woods, at walking distance from the train station. But this was mostly reserved for the rich elite. What Howard did was to provide a clear, easy way to build large cities where all classes could live. It had massive influences on suburbanization, and before the second World War erupted, England became the most suburbanized country in the world. 1921 poster advocating a suburb connected to London via the Metropolitan Railway. The suburbs you know of (they're worth a post of their own) are a caricature of those cozy English towns and villages. English Garden City are appealing, with a nice town centre, lots of communal buildings, unique houses and green streets and parks. American suburbs on the other hand have even lower densities, no coherent centre, no libraries and other communal buildings and endlessly repeating streets and houses. It would be an amusing parody if it wasn't such a prevailing problem. Well, one of the reasons I started the blog was that I like to inform / educate, and the rich history of planning is an excellent source for ideas and stories. The idea of synthesis had only been introduced to me lately and I wanted to make the link between the two.So, he essentially invented urban sprawl, and suburbs?
What made you happen upon this subject?
What I've noticed happening a lot near me are the introduction of condominiums that all surround a common shopping area. There are some that have some nice restaurants and even a small co-operative grocery store at their center. But they are built in a way that I know will not age well. Meaning that they seem all sparkly and new but the materials don't seem all that nice and the trendy businesses that go in these areas also seem subject to an early expiration date. Things like designer frozen yogurt or gourmet pizza by the slice with toppings like calamari and hearts of palm. -Nothing against either of those things, but I can just see the writing on the wall for these places. But I mention them because they seem to try and incorporate the green space, the fountain at the heart of their construction etc. They're trying really hard to force a community together in a way that seems really contrived. We moved in to a new home a week ago and today the woman across the street greeted me in my drive as I came home with a freshly baked banana bread with an index card with their phone number and all of their names. That's the stuff that makes a community, maybe sometime we can get a baby-sitter and go out to dinner with her and her husband. There is this great new pizza place coming down the street that has calamari and hearts of palm as toppings :)
At least they're trying. Authentic community places aren't easy to make. Shaping a community is one of the hardest things to do. At my parent's home, they know nearly everyone in our street by name. There's a yearly barbeque with the street and people help each other out from time to time. But I live most of the time in another city's centre, where I only know the people I meet on the hall to my apartment. I don't have a sense of community beyond my building, even though there are tons of people outside. Nice to hear that your new home has more open neighbours. It really helps settling in. Does it feel like home yet?They're trying really hard to force a community together in a way that seems really contrived.