Haverhill, Massachusetts

 

Although it's a state route, the street is narrow which slows traffic. On street parking is a physical barrier between pedestrians on the narrow sidewalk and moving cars in the street. This part of Haverill survived the "urban renewal" demolition that affected other parts of town. Three to four story buildings. Built to the front property line. Limited on site parking. Traditional architecture and building materials.  Small town urbanism.

Related: Why walkable streets are more economically productive.

Buffalo, NY Sidewalk

 

The way the grass and plantings overhang the sidewalk. Trees for shade. Everything is green, but nothing is perfect. Trash cans are out. Trash day today? Maybe tomorrow? Homes with porches built close to the sidewalk. Single family? Maybe Buffalo Doubles? Definitely carriage houses behind. 

Supermarkets and large chain stores in an urban context

The images below are of grocery stores and a sporting goods store on Wilshire Boulevard in West Los Angeles and Santa Monica. The Ralphs is in LA and the other three are in Santa Monica. Each of these buildings presents itself to the public realm differently. The three Santa Monica examples, Whole Foods, Bristol Farms, and Big 5, have varying degrees of transparency from the sidewalk. My assumption is that Santa Monica requires this. Bristol Farms has a few windows and provides a sign directing customers to the entrance behind the building. Big 5 Sporting Goods at least has an entrance on the street. The Whole Foods is the best example of how to do a large format chain store that emphasizes connection to the sidewalk. The primary entrance faces Wilshire and they've placed patio dining and their florist department at the sidewalk. Excellent job. Ad kudos to the planner and residents who likely fought for this.

The Ralph's grocery store in LA is an example of how not  to do it. No entrance on the street. Not even windows. Ok, there are windows. They've got them covered with images of food, but when those images were not there the windows looked into a nothing space with blank walls. The Ralphs and Bristol Farms stores say to the many customers on foot that they would prefer they arrive by car. They say, walking along the driveway and enter from the back. The Whole Foods example proves it can be done well. It's a shame these busineses don't take advantage of the dense population nearby. Many of whom walk, or would walk, to the store if it were more hospitable to people on foot.  (See the final image below from Google maps.)

 

 

 

 

 

Leave the palm trees alone!

Palm trees get a bum wrap these days. People say they don't provide shade, they aren't native to Los Angeles, they use too much water etc. But I think palm trees can sometimes play a role in defining public space and the "outdoor room" on the street and they make good accent trees. And certain types of palms, when clustered together can provide a decent amount of shade. In the example below the enclosed mall does not front on (or interact with) the sidewalk. The palm trees on this block help to make up for that lack of building frontage and provide a comforting sense of enclosure for pedestrians. They also add height and visual interest. It would of course be better if the building opened to the the sidewalk rather than relying on a landscaping band-aid. (Side note: That bus stop blocks the entire sidewalk and should be moved a few feet into the landscaped area.)

Luxuriously wide sidewalks.

This is a luxuriously wide sidewalk. The trees will grow to filter the sunlight. The City of Burbank set a good example with this sidewalk. Note the bike lanes as well. A little piece of good urban design. I would love a mid block crosswalk right about where the red brick building begins. 

UPDATE 7/24/14: I've been thinking about this post and I realized I hadn't noted what was lacking on this block. On street parking would make pedestrians feel a little safer, but there's no room in the existing right of way Also, the walls and windows don't provide anything interesting for people to look at as they walk, nor a reason to walk on this block unless they have business with the city.

 

Let the trees do their job.

These trees are so close... This species is planted along Westwood Boulevard. They are very easy to trim into little gum drop shrubs which happens more often than not. However, these examples show that if you keep trimming the trees up they eventually are taller than the business signs and do not obstruct visibility of potential customers driving in their cars. Now if they would just let the canopy fill out this would be a lovely, comfortable place to walk at all hours of the day. 

But this neighborhood should go one step further. Rather than worrying solely about potential customers speeding by in cars they should create a pedestrian paradise. The kind of place people wander through just to enjoy the space and then happen upon the shops and cafes that line this street.  The kind of place with "sticky streets" as urbanist Brent Toderian describes them.

 

Related

How can we make this underpass better?

This is Westwood Boulevard where Interstate 10 passes over. How can we make this less of a dead zone and more of a community asset? I know there's a movement to remove freeways and replace them with boulevards, but that's not a practical reality for this freeway right now. So we're stuck with underpasses like this one. Just beyond this image is tree-lined Westwood and it is about a five minute walk from the under construction Metro Expo Line.  Murals and lighting have been tried in other places, but what else could be done to mitigate the inhospitable nature of this place? I'm wondering if vertical elements that mimic the trees further up could be part of the solution. They did something like that where the 10 passes over Pico Boulevard. They could provide additional lighting at night and also function to create a buffer between pedestrians and traffic. Bright paint could help as well. Or perhaps a decorative signs announcing the entry to the neighborhood. I wasn't able to find anything beyond artistic lighting and murals online. Have people just accepted that freeway underpasses are ugly and there's not much to be done? Maybe my Google search skills are lacking. 

Does A Place Have To Be Tidy To Be Worth Caring About?

Or are places worth caring about better tended to because people care? The image below  is not the worst, but I'm using it as an example because it is in an area with many popular restaurants and other businesses. The waste running out of the dumpster and the overall unattractiveness of the street don't seem to be detrimental to businesses there.  I often wonder in these situations why the business owners don't take it upon themselves to keep things clean. I have similar questions about the sidewalks along Westwood Boulevard between Santa Monica Boulevard and Wilshire in Los Angeles. They seem to lack any attention to basic cleanliness and the trees have been trimmed down to shrubs, yet there are only  a handful of vacancies and there's plenty of foot traffic. I'm trying to figure out what I;'m missing. Could be as simple as the fact that the demand for the space and the overall economic vitality override the need for order and cleanliness. I suppose urbanism isn't necessarily tidy. In fact some would say it NEEDS to be a little messy.

Sidewalk Dining

It's important that sidewalks are wide enough to allow for sidewalk dining and trees without unnecessarily impeding pedestrian movement.  This sidewalk in Larchmont Village is a great space.

 

Related. 

Controlling Water Runoff in Pittsburgh

Forbes Avenue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. This is simple and easy to maintain infrastructure. Water runoff from the sidewalks has an opportunity to be absorbed into the soil and reduces the amount of polluted runoff being sent to the storm drains and possibly into the rivers. The stone is sturdy but easily removed and replaced if one should crack. Just use caution if you're exiting the car in stilettos.

Justice Center

The bridge connecting addition parking the site is totally unnecessary on such a quiet street. Such pedestrian bridges make more sense when you need to get large numbers of people across busy streets, but both the number of people and cars here is so few that the bridge is overkill. Then again, the street entrance is so hostile to pedestrians that it's makes sense to help them avoid it and get right to the wind swept plaza above.

Narrow Sidewalks in Brentwood

 

 

This is the front of Brentwood Country Mart in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Very charming. It's unfortunate the sidewalk is so narrow and made even narrower by the placement of parking meters and potted plants. I assumed the sidewalks had once been more spacious and then narrowed for street widening, but the old photos I found show narrow sidewalks since the 1950s. It's unfortunate the sidewalks aren't more "pedestrian friendly," because most of the action is on the interior and would no doubt spill out onto this sidewalk if there was enough room. It's an odd couple of blocks. The buildings all sit right at the edge of the sidewalk as they should and the street is narrow; parking on both sides, and just one lane in each direction, but the sidewalks are very narrow. There's a center turn lane that might provide some room to work with as far as sidewalk widening but not enough to make it worth the investment. That being said, this has been a successful development and a successful neighborhood for nearly seven decades in spite of the the narrow sidewalks.  Apparently the ideal of wide sidewalks and street trees aren't always necessary.

Visalia Bench

A very clever bench in downtown Visalia, California. There weren't many of these and it looks like part of an older attempt to improve downtown, but it's unique and adds character and I hope they keep it.

Magnolia Park

Magnolia Park is one of several charming neighborhoods in Burbank, California. I like this picture for a couple reasons. First, someone is taking a picture that they likely uploaded to Instagram or Facebook so the other perspective of this shot is online somewhere. Second, rather than placing the tables, chairs, and umbrellas against the window of the cafe the business owner chose to place then in the very generous public right-of-way. This is less of an intrusion into where people walk, but it also brings the action further into the public realm. Notice also how the parked cars provide a protective buffer between the traffic on the street and the people sitting down. The tree well is very large to accommodate the root system of the enormous ficus tree which, although it grows quick;y and provides a dense tree canopy is probably not the best choice for a street tree.

How to Treat a Corner

These two buildings sit across the street from each other at an intersection in Little Italy, San Diego. One of these buildings has a relationship with the street and sidewalk, it is accessible from the sidewalk, and it brings life to the neighborhood with outdoor dining and a fountain. The office building is walled off from the intersection. There are no entrances on this side of the building except for a garage entry. The mirrored windows prevent even a visual connection to the rest of the neighborhood from either side of the glass. The building on the left seems more likely than the other to contribute to making the neighborhood a place worth a caring about.

A Tale of Two Sidewalks

I posted the side by side pictures below on Facebook and asked my friends which neighborhood sidewalk seemed more appealing. The responses reminded me that the aesthetic ideal of an urbanist is not generally how people evaluate a place.  My friends preferred the image on the right which is in West LA, because the pavement is flat and seemed that it would be easier to walk on in (especially in heels). They also liked that the sidewalk on the right is wider and unobstructed and easier to maneuver. One even noted that there were no places for bad people to hide in the more open suburban sidewalk. I argued that the street on the left, which is located in Pittsburgh, was shaded and the narrowness slowed traffic and the cars provide a safety buffer for pedestrians - all the stuff we planners love to talk about - and they didn't buy it. I suppose you could improve the sidewalk on the left by paving it properly, but that wouldn't really get at the bigger issue which is that the the image on the right more closely reflects what most people are familiar with and is more suitable for their lifestyles so they can imagine themselves walking down that sidewalk whereas with the Pittsburgh sidewalk they have a difficult time seeing themselves in that environment.

Which of these neighborhoods is more appealing to you?

 

 

Does Art Like This Make A Place Worth Caring About?

Wall painting in underway in downtown Los Angeles.

Art like this can add visual interest and entertain. There were people standing across the street watching the artist as I was. That points to the temporary effects this has on a place, but will people stop across the street and linger to look at this when it is finished? Perhaps. It will more likely become part of the "feel" of the neighborhood. One of those things that pleases people and that they would notice and miss it if it were gone.

Cramming Everything In

This is Chinatown in Toronto, Canada on a Sunday afternoon in June. They made use of as much of the public space as they could. It became a little congested at points, but I made my way through.I can imagine many code enforcement and public works folks being very agitated about the signs and  products for sale on the sidewalk. This sidewalk could probably stand to have fewer of those things, but I get the feeling the folks using this sidewalk really don't mind. The disorder is part of what makes this place attractive. It's why you go there. It's why people care about places like this and keep coming back.

“Under the seeming disorder of the old city, wherever the old city is working successfully, is a marvelous order for maintaining the safety of the streets and the freedom of the city. It is a complex order. Its essence is intricacy of sidewalk use, bringing with it a constant succession of eyes. This order is all composed of movement and change, and although it is life, not art, we may fancifully call it the art form of the city and liken it to the dance — not to a simple-minded precision dance with everyone kicking up at the same time, twirling in unison and bowing off en masse, but to an intricate ballet in which the individual dancers and ensembles all have distinctive parts which miraculously reinforce each other and compose an orderly whole. The ballet of the good city sidewalk never repeats itself from place to place, and in any once place is always replete with new improvisations.”  

― Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities  

Allowing Charming Places To Exist

Narrow, tree-lined street. Quiet dining patio that provides you with a reason to be out among other people. A place to see other people and be seen. A warm day but the trees filter the sun light and make for a pleasant Sunday brunch.

Baldwin Street, Toronto

This street is lined with restaurants like this.  There was no noticeable off street parking for these businesses although there are some lots tucked away nearby that may or not may not be available for these businesses. There is limited parking on this narrow street. I walked there as I imagine most others did. In many cities these old commercial spaces could not be used for restaurants because of parking requirements. The parking requirement would also likely apply to the patio area. Your city's zoning codes explicitly prevent these sorts of places.  What we end up with instead are restaurants and shops set back from the street and surrounded by a sea of depressing,  hot pavement.

Random Seating

One of the things that they teach you in planning school is that seating in public spaces should be moveable. People should be free to drag a chair to the shade or to the sun or up to a table where friends are sitting. This fellow decided the Starbucks patio wasn't to his liking so me moved a chair to this sunnier, grassier location. (I've seen this fellow do this on more than one occaision.)  Does this feel awkward when you see it?  What if there were several other people doing the same thing? 

 

What if the trees were kept, the grass paved, and then many tables, chairs, and umbrellas were placed in the parkway? That seems more appropriately urban for this parkway along busy Westwood Boulevard in Los Angeles.