The New Urbanism: How do we retrofit?

[Politruk]

The New Urbanism is the idea that things in general should be designed so that you can go most places you need to go on foot, by bicycle, or by mass transit. Therefore, neighborhoods should be high-density and mixed-use, with retail shopping and maybe light industry within walking distance of the homes -- not all-bedroom communities designed around the automobile, and designed on the assumption that every resident will have one -- the way most American residential developments have been built since WWII. This is for both environmental and quality-of-life reasons. The most important organization is the Congress for the New Urbanism.

Several New Urbanist neighborhoods have been built, notably Seaside and Disney's Celebration.

But, these are "greenfield" developments, built up from raw dirt. How can we turn a standard suburban development, of which there are so very, very many in America, into a walkable New Urbanist neighborhood? How do you turn Levittown into Seaside?

 

[Politruk]

CNU's web page does have a section on sprawl retrofit, but everything talked about looks like it would take a very, very long time.

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

Don’t try to fix the car suburbs. They’re a lost cause and eventually decay and fall into ruins. Concentrate on growing density organically in older neighborhoods near city centers. Eliminate on-street parking and replace the parking spaces with bike lanes or street cars.

Change the zoning laws to make it easier to build mixed-use development.

 

[Politruk]

Don’t try to fix the car suburbs. They’re a lost cause and eventually decay and fall into ruins.

I dunno, that's a lot of land that's valuable, if only for its proximity to cities. Seems too good to just abandon. And a lot of Americans have most of their net worth invested in those houses.

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

I dunno, that's a lot of land that's valuable, if only for its proximity to cities. Seems too good to just abandon. And a lot of Americans have most of their net worth invested in those houses.

Most car suburbs can’t be retrofit for mass transit. The houses are just too far apart. There is some hope we can turn big parking lots into dense neighborhoods. For example the parking around Dodger Stadium in LA could be turned into a little walkable village. But we shouldn’t waste resources on places that are unsustainable.

 

[Politruk]

We do need to be thinking about phasing out the automobile entirely, not just replacing gasoline engines with electric.

See Asphalt Nation, by Jane Holtz Kay.

 

[Politruk]

Most car suburbs can’t be retrofit for mass transit. The houses are just too far apart.

But, could not new houses be inserted between the existing ones?

 

[UltraChad]

I dunno, that's a lot of land that's valuable, if only for its proximity to cities. Seems too good to just abandon. And a lot of Americans have most of their net worth invested in those houses.

THat's ok, since it's for progress people like you and BSG can just roll the tanks in and shove people into pods in cities and anyone who doesn't like it can go to "re-education" camps.

Then turn the tanks on all the farmers/ranchers when they are the only ones with food, replace them with all the tiktok brained tards that don't know anything about farming shit.....because that ALWAYS works out for the comrades. LOL

 

[Politruk]

THat's ok, since it's for progress people like you and BSG can just roll the tanks in and shove people into pods in cities and anyone who doesn't like it can go to "re-education" camps.

Then turn the tanks on all the farmers/ranchers when they are the only ones with food, replace them with all the tiktok brained tards that don't know anything about farming shit.....because that ALWAYS works out for the comrades. LOL

Come to think of it, farmers can be replaced with robots. If soldiers and cops can, why not farmers?

 

[UltraChad]

Come to think of it, farmers can be replaced with robots. If soldiers and cops can, why not farmers?

LOL.....go ahead...DO IT!!! It's always worked out so well for the left.

 

[Politruk]

LOL.....go ahead...DO IT!!! It's always worked out so well for the left.

Actually, none of this is a leftist agenda yet. You won't hear Bernie Sanders talk about it or anything. The New Urbanism is still struggling to be noticed. If it ever were, it could just as easily be a conservative agenda, in that it involves a revival of old-fashioned, pre-automotive ways of building cities, towns and neighborhoods.

As for farmers, they already have been replaced, by hired hands, tilling the fields for the agribiz corporations who own them. You may be sure those hands will be replaced by robots as soon as technology permits. But that won't have anything to do with the left.

 

[UltraChad]

Actually, none of this is a leftist agenda yet.

Thanks for confirming that is the common agenda of the left.

You guys want equity.....you only have one way of getting it.

As for farmers, they already have been replaced,

You are officially fuckin' retarded.

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

THat's ok, since it's for progress people like you and BSG can just roll the tanks in and shove people into pods in cities and anyone who doesn't like it can go to "re-education" camps.

Then turn the tanks on all the farmers/ranchers when they are the only ones with food, replace them with all the tiktok brained tards that don't know anything about farming shit.....because that ALWAYS works out for the comrades. LOL

The plan is to stop subsidizing the suburbs and just let them rot.

 

[Politruk]

The plan is to stop subsidizing the suburbs and just let them rot.

To stop subsidizing automotive transportation as such is politically impossible.

 

[contrifan32]

To stop subsidizing automotive transportation as such is politically impossible.

Here is the thing comrade, I (and most normal people) have no interest in living in a dense packed world with people like you and BSG.

 

[UltraChad]

The plan is to stop subsidizing the suburbs and just let them rot.

How terribly far right wing fascist of you.

To stop subsidizing automotive transportation as such is politically impossible.

It's also practically retarded. No city/metro area is an island of prosperity, you need SOME degree of heavy transit for building, maintaining and supplying your metro-utopia. Food and products don't come from the back of the store LOL That's just where they hold what the trucks bring them.

Here is the thing comrade, I (and most normal people) have no interest in living in a dense packed world with people like you and BSG.

Oh you're deff going to the rEEEEEEeducation camps with all the other Nazis who think Nazi shit like not wanting to live in a borg collective....

We are the Democrats, you will be assimilated or reEEEEeducated, resistance is futile.
https://legendary-digital-network-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/13091251/Borg_aboard_enterprise_2153-540x305.jpg

 

[Politruk]

Oh you're deff going to the rEEEEEEeducation camps with all the other Nazis who think Nazi shit like not wanting to live in a borg collective....

We are the Democrats, you will be assimilated or reEEEEeducated, resistance is futile.

As a matter of fact, resistance IS futile.

 

[Rightguide]

We can retro-fit the nation by sending all of our leftists to the Netherlands.

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

How terribly far right wing fascist of you.

Removing subsidies for suburbs and leaving their fate up to the free market is not "fascist".

 

[Rightguide]

The plan is to stop subsidizing the suburbs and just let them rot.

They pay most of the taxes.

 

[Politruk]

They pay most of the taxes.

The residents would move elsewhere, and still pay taxes.

 

[MajorRewrite]

They pay most of the taxes.

The Growth Ponzi Scheme: A Crash Course

One of the early insights of the Strong Towns movement was that the way North American cities have been built since World War II resembles, more than anything, a massive Ponzi scheme. For several generations, towns and cities in the United States and Canada have aggressively pursued a form of growth—expansive, expensive, unproductive—that doesn’t come anywhere near to paying for itself.

 

[UltraChad]

Removing subsidies for suburbs and leaving their fate up to the free market is not "fascist".

That's what Democrats say though. Not progressive enough for their liking = fascist.

 

[UltraChad]

The residents would move elsewhere, and still pay taxes.

Why? For what??

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Here's your New Urban "Order." Hey, it works for pigs, cradle to grave. Er, abattoir . . . .


https://img.ifunny.co/images/d26a6edf10a44f409e03b1dd49f1f85e28d790c123550455f56fdc59581264b0_1.jpg