Making cities worth living in

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Sandman
I overheard in the pub that Americans mostly build their houses out of wood. One of those little 'things' which isn't really common knowledge in the UK, but is interesting nonetheless.

Are wooden houses any good?

In most of the country houses are made out of wood though on the east coast brick houses are popular. On the west coast only really old buildings are made of brick due to brick buildings tending to fall down during earthquakes. Multistory buildings tend to be steel reinforced concrete.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by DanS
If you go outside of your fair city, you will find that most cities in the US are blighted hellholes with some few bright spots. People consistently are choosing not to live in cities.

Every city I can think of on the west coast has a great downtown as the mayors & other officials have spent the last two decades revitalizing the old downtown business districts. New high rises and converted old industrial buildings are providing plenty of space for people to live, work, and play downtown. Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, and even (wait for it) Los Angles now have relatively nice & trendy downtown areas.

[MRT144]

Originally posted by Oerdin


Every city I can think of on the west coast has a great downtown as the mayors & other officials have spent the last two decades revitalizing the old downtown business districts. New high rises and converted old industrial buildings are providing plenty of space for people to live, work, and play downtown. Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, and even (wait for it) Los Angles now have relatively nice & trendy downtown areas.

they still can't even match chicago or nyc though. i live a few blocks up from downtown seattle and it is relatively boring and sleepy. the fact not much is open past 10 is enough for me to call bull**** on city living here. its all an illusory fantasy that self deluded west coasters subscribe to when they aspire to east coast city living.

[Krill]

Chicago's on a coast?

[MRT144]

Originally posted by Krill
Chicago's on a coast?

lake michigan smart ass. chicago is like an east coast city in terms of infrastructure and density.

[Krill]

Honestly didn't know that.

[Kuken]

Phoenix must be the most horrible example of suburban sprawl hell. A dead downtown (apart from homeless people), just a huge valley filled with strip malls, big box stores and track housing developments. Nice and sunny though.

[Dinner]

I didn't say Seattle was as good as New York. I did say the downtowns of most west coast cities were nice and trendy places not the hell holes DanS described.

[MRT144]

Originally posted by Kuken
Phoenix must be the most horrible example of suburban sprawl hell. A dead downtown (apart from homeless people), just a huge valley filled with strip malls, big box stores and track housing developments. Nice and sunny though.

exactly. same thing with fresno. goddamn palo alto has a nicer downtown. burlingame, san mateo, all have nicer downtowns. and they are a 3rd the size if even that.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Kuken
Phoenix must be the most horrible example of suburban sprawl hell. A dead downtown (apart from homeless people), just a huge valley filled with strip malls, big box stores and track housing developments. Nice and sunny though.

Yeah, Phoenix sucks. I would call that more westerner inland then west coast though.

[VetLegion]

Originally posted by Cort Haus




Is it still open for business? Are there many Serbs in Zagreb?

Sure it's open for business. I don't know how many people attend the services. There could be up to 100 000 Serbs in Zagreb I guess.

[DanS]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Every city I can think of on the west coast has a great downtown as the mayors & other officials have spent the last two decades revitalizing the old downtown business districts. New high rises and converted old industrial buildings are providing plenty of space for people to live, work, and play downtown. Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, and even (wait for it) Los Angles now have relatively nice & trendy downtown areas.

Each city is different, of course. But I'm talking mainly about the areas right outside downtown -- the inner city. Basically, where the murders happen.

Also, with regard to the trendy neighborhoods, that's where I live, and that's why I mentioned that there is not a single family in my building. Even the trendy neighborhoods in these cities are broken -- they can thrive by appealing to a very small sliver of the market but can't answer to the desires of the other 90%.

My argument is that cities need to be built to work and not merely references to nostalgia for the past. The past failed and there's no going back. $5 a gallon gasoline isn't all-of-the-sudden going to make cities work for 90% of the population.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by MRT144


lake michigan smart ass. chicago is like an east coast city in terms of infrastructure and density.

I would not say that at all. At least up to very recently, Chicago has been very much more sprawling than most east coast cities. Chicago proper (city limits) is not that large of a city at all... IIRC only a couple million in the city limits, and it's pretty large city limits. Except on the lakefront, not much in the way of highrise buildings the way NYC has them... though I don't know other EC cities, i'm led to understand their density is rather much higher.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Oerdin
I didn't say Seattle was as good as New York. I did say the downtowns of most west coast cities were nice and trendy places not the hell holes DanS described.

Went to New York...well Manhattan, not all of the city. Still, Manhattan was an incredibly vibrant place. Lot's of families all around the place. Actually was very clean compared to a lot of cities I've seen. I would live there.

Went to Chicago...Really cool place. Lot's of interesting things downtown. Lot's of families. I would live there (well...there is that winter thing...hmmm)

Went to DC...started looking for stores that sold body armor.




I live in a great suburb. Clean, safe, great place to raise kids. Lot's of open spaces...close to the city. Has everything I need. No gangs...no prostitutes...no heavy drug culture. Everybody has similar values and most everybody has kids. $5/gallon gas? I'll still raise my family in the suburbs. When they are grown, I might just give Manhattan a shot...you never know. But DC? No chance (unless I get elected or something. ).

Oh, Sloww. The West End in Dallas is pretty cool. They did a good job on that.

[DanS]

Everyman

Originally posted by PLATO
Went to DC...started looking for stores that sold body armor.

Wimp!

(They moved the prostitutes several blocks over so it's almost Disneyland nowadays.)