Accentuate the Positive

These signs are all within the same couple of blocks in the Westwood area of Los Angeles.  They are representative of the kinds of signs that dominate the urban landscape. I observed a similar situation during a visit to Target. From the moment I got out of my car until the moment I entered the store it was Don't do this. Don't do that. No you may not, etc. What if there were signs that said, "Enjoy the shade." "Take your time." "Sit on the bench as long as you like." "Stand here to enjoy our neighborhood." "Welcome." Would signs like that make any impact on how residents and visitors feel about the neighborhood? There are efforts to encourage walking using positive signs which can be seen here.

 

Don't try to compete with the suburbs.

This is a dead mall in downtown Buffalo, New York. One day before I took these pictures Andres Duany insisted that cities should never try to compete with the suburbs because the city will always lose. In other words, the correct response to "competition" from the suburbs is not to become more suburban. The response should instead be to double down on the urban character of the city. And now that we are witnessing the death of malls in even the suburbs we should especially avoid trying to mimic the suburban shopping experience. (That empty food court in the last photo is the most depressing image.)

Taming a Stroad

This reconfiguration of Angeleno Avenue in Burbank reduces a four lane stroad to two lanes with a center turn lane and bike lanes. The bike lanes connect the lanes on Third Street to future lanes on First Street, A landscaped median would have been ideal, but there are too many driveways on this street for that to be practical. Good job, Burbank Public Works.

 

 

"There is nothing about our cities that is inevitable or unchangeable."

It amazes me how often people assume that the built environment, the way their cities look and function, is purely the result of "market forces" and that those pesky planners are just trying to force people to live differently. The reality is that many of the laws related to land use and housing are geared toward compelling one type of built environment and limiting another and thereby excluding genuine choice for people. 

You could argue that we live in a free market country. That all of our decisions are based on what people want - that Conway is sprawled because the people want the city to be sprawled, and that Conway is automobile dependent because people want to drive. 

That is a bunch of baloney. 

Nice Touch

Beyond the Script Market. Downtown Burbank. This is an example of one small business owner making her business more attractive. Homier. A neighborhood place and a place worth caring about. Planners should see where similar simple improvements can make significant changes in neighborhoods and work to remove the legal or bureaucratic impediments to the sort of quick and simple improvements like the rocking chairs this business owner provides to customers.

City as Art and Theater

The essential physical means of a city's existence are the fixed site, the durable shelter, the permanent facilities for assembly, interchange, and storage...The city in its complete sense, then, is a geographic plexus, an economic organization, an institutional process, a theater of social action, and an aesthetic symbol of collective unity. The city fosters art and is art; the city creates the theater and is the theater. It is in the city, the city as theater, that man's more purposive activities are focused, and work out through conflicting and cooperating personalities, events, groups into more significant culminations. 

Lewis Mumford as quoted in Urbanism Without Effort