"You know where we are? We're in Chongqing, China! Look at this! We're literally in the sky. Look at this!"

"It's so high! It's so high! It's like we're walking in the sky!... And look at the way they plan their cities. Vintage style!... Density! And the density is pretty high...."

"Some New Yorkers harbor fantasies that instead of building more, we can meet our housing needs through more rent control, against the advice of most economists..."

"... or by banning pieds-à-terre or by converting all vacant office towers into residential buildings, despite the expense and complexity. Given the enormity of the crisis, such measures would all be drops in the bucket, leading many to worry that if we were to actually build the hundreds of thousands of homes New Yorkers need, we would end up transforming the city into an unrecognizable forest of skyscrapers... New York could add dwellings for well over a million people — homes most New Yorkers could afford — without substantially changing the look and feel of the city."

Writes Vishaan Chakrabarti, "founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, a New York City architecture firm, and the former director of planning for Manhattan," in "How to Make Room for One Million New Yorkers" (NYT).

Click through to see visualizations of architecture projects that add housing without "substantially changing" the various locations. Some are improvements. At least one is an atrocity. I like a parking lot replaced by a mid-sized building, but loathe the low-rise apartment building stuck in the one empty lot in a neighborhood of single-family houses.

Chakrabarti's firm has identified over half a million locations for new apartments in New York City.

"The welfare society is fundamentally a community, which is based on a mutual trust that we all contribute. All that is being seriously challenged by parallel societies."

Said Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, quoted in "Denmark Aims a Wrecking Ball at ‘Non-Western’ Neighborhoods/A government program is using demolition and relocation to remake neighborhoods with immigrants, poverty or crime" (NYT). 

The term "parallel societies" refers to "segregated enclaves where immigrants do not participate in the wider society or learn Danish, even as they benefit from the country’s generous welfare system."  

The government is getting rid of more than 4,000 public housing units.

"Addiction haunts the recesses of this ancient port city, as people with gaunt, clumsy hands lift crack pipes to lips, syringes to veins."

"Authorities are sealing off warren-like alleyways with iron bars and fencing in parks to halt the spread of encampments. A siege mentality is taking root in nearby enclaves of pricey condos and multimillion-euro homes.... On a recent afternoon, an emaciated man in striped pants sleeping in front of a state-funded drug-use center awoke to a patrol of four officers. He sat up, then defiantly began assembling his crack pipe. Officers walked on.... Over the last 18 months, a drug encampment sprung up below a school. More homes have been burgled. One neighbor said she found a person, naked from the waist down, shooting up outside her house gate. Another had her laundry stolen three times. Residents have launched U.S.-style neighborhood watches and hired private security guards — something exceedingly rare in Europe...."

So begins "Once hailed for decriminalizing drugs, Portugal is now having doubts" (WaPo).

The city is Porto, Portugal.

We're told Portugal's approach to drugs was "globally hailed."

"... naturally occurring affordable housing..."

I'm trying to read "Madison City Council refuses rezoning for big student housing project Downtown" (Wisconsin State Journal):

The Madison City Council late Tuesday refused a rezoning for a 12-story student housing redevelopment, citing a lack of low-cost units.... During the debate Tuesday, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway gave some council members reminders to address only their fellow board members, not development team members present.  Additional warnings were given regarding time limits and swearing. 

Ald. Tag Evers, 13th District, called the rezoning issue “a change in philosophy, and ethos.” Looking toward the development team, he decried its decisions to tear down “naturally occurring affordable housing,” and what he considered to be a lack of action on their part to “replace it in kind” with more low-cost options. “You guys need to do better,” he said. “Send these developers back to the drawing board.”...

"Elon Musk... has lately been dreaming aloud about building his own version of an old-fashioned company town."

"And not just dreaming. In September, Bastrop County, Texas, outside Austin, approved the construction of Project Amazing, a subdivision of 110 modest homes on land owned by Mr. Musk that is to be called Snailbrook.... Snailbrook is named for Gary, the official snail of the Boring Company, a tunneling company that is one of Mr. Musk’s less successful ventures, which has a workshop nearby. Company towns are often named for their owners — Alcoa; Hershey, Pa.; Steinway Village, N.Y., in Queens...."

Writes Binyamin Applebaum in "Welcome to Muskville, Texas" (NYT).

But he didn't call it Muskville. He called it Snailbrook. It's a modest name, just as Boring is modest.

And there really is a terrible problem of unaffordable housing in Austin, so why does Applebaum want to kick him around for building homes for the workers he's bringing into the area? 

Urban dreams.

Well this is quite the proposalhttps://t.co/HMvZekXzzo pic.twitter.com/T1Ps2Od1YF

— Samantha Maldonado (@sssmaldo) January 14, 2022

Berlin is planning a car-free area larger than Manhattan. The citizen-driven plan would create the largest car-free area in a city anywhere in the world.

Leadership can come from many places when it comes to transforming cities. Via @FastCompany https://t.co/3xfDHrNv5q pic.twitter.com/1gNwMlaA3v

— Brent Toderian (@BrentToderian) January 15, 2022

ADDED: Click on the first image to see the full extent of the proposed add-on to the island of Manhattan. Why would you build vast new land vulnerable to the rising sea levels you've got to believe are coming? From the article:

"Most older Americans want to age in place, and many can’t, or won’t, move to big cities with dense transportation networks and nearby grocery stores."

"Of course we should be working, in general, to put everything closer together so nobody has to get behind the wheel at the age of 95 — or 55, for that matter. But there’s going to end up being some in-between territory as well, and giving everyone (not just seniors) access to something like a golf cart, at minimal cost, as well as safe enough streets to operate them, could go a long way."

From "There’s One Thing We Can Learn From the Villages’ Success" (NY Magazine). The Villages is a planned community in Florida that was designed by former Disney Imagineers. 130,000 people live there, and it's grown 40% in the last 10 years. The "one thing" NY Magazine likes about it is the mobility by golf cart. There are other things NY Magazine does not like:

[F]or this overwhelmingly conservative population — the Villages went two-to-one for Trump — the very thing that may be attracting those who want to “Make America Great Again” are its pseudo-suburban neotraditionalist aesthetics, as James Brasuell wrote in Planetizen last year, asking whether “the village ideal is actually inherently conservative, and a vehicle for segregation.” (The Villages remains 98 percent white, even as the surrounding counties grow more diverse.) So, yes, there’s a lot wrong with the Villages.

"... Madison may soon act to preserve a limited view of Lake Mendota from the lone Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home Downtown — a home that can barely be seen by the public.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports. 

The city, which has rarely if ever acted to preserve the view from a private property, may change its Downtown height map and reduce the allowable height of adjacent properties to preserve the view to the lake from the top floor of the three-story home, which Wright designed for his lifelong friend Robert Lamp and which originally captured views of lakes Monona and Mendota and the Capitol.

The owner of the Lamp House, which is now surrounded by other homes and much taller buildings, contends the view isn’t worth saving and that doing so could preclude a larger redevelopment that could involve moving the landmark out from the middle of the block to a more visible spot, while providing additional housing Downtown and boosting the property tax base....

The owner is Apex Property Management, which seems to be more interested in a proposal Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy to move the building "as part of a larger redevelopment." Obviously, that owner doesn't want restrictions on development. The chairman of the company, Bruce Bosben, says:

“I think it it is irresponsible to curtail development of Downtown real estate merely to preserve a view from a private house... There is no other such view preserved in Madison.”

 But:

"Think of Pearl Street in Boulder, with its winding paths, large trees, public art, live music and abundant outdoor cafes."

"That’s the kind of exciting destination that could help bring back [Madison's] State Street — and go beyond what it has been. Instead of a river of concrete for buses to rumble down, State Street could be a walkable park for people, who would be prioritized over vehicles. The mayor last week brushed off support among Downtown business owners for taking buses off State Street, calling them desperate and willing to try anything. That might be true, given how devastating the pandemic, weak economy, protests against police, smashed windows and looting were for store owners last year. But just as likely is that business owners have a better sense for what will work than the mayor. Rhodes-Conway also cited changing retail trends, with more people shopping online. But why is that a reason to run buses down State Street?... The mayor wonders aloud if keeping buses off State is an attempt to keep poor people away.... The mayor isn’t about to bring back regular vehicle traffic to State, she said. So in that sense, she does support a pedestrian mall the entire length of State Street — as long as it’s centered around buses. That vision is stale and unexciting compared to the popular and long-standing idea of creating a grand promenade and park."

From "Don't pit fast buses versus a State Street promenade — Madison can have both," an editorial in the Wisconsin State Journal).

I've lived in Boulder as well as Madison, and I love Pearl Street and have long wished that State Street could be like Pearl Street, especially since State Street is already halfway there, closed to almost all traffic... other than these giant buses that must barrel down the street, disrupting the playful, peaceful mood. 

But it should be conceded that State Street is a very different place from Pearl Street. State Street has the University of Wisconsin at one end and the State Capitol at the other. Pearl Street is a few blocks away from campus (the University of Colorado), and there's nothing like a state capitol anywhere in the city. So there are far more intersecting interests connected to State Street. 

Pearl Street is a nice little enclave over there, a place for visitors and city residents to shop and eat and fool around. There are some people who prefer a funkier downtown, and State Street is absolutely, centrally downtown.

Robert Moses is trending on Twitter.

I'll just give you one tweet to explain why:

Guys: pick up a book about Robert Moses and get back to us. https://t.co/IZHLXC7Igj

— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) April 11, 2021

Pick up "a" book means pick up the book — "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" by Robert A. Caro. 

There's also this: "Robert Moses and His Racist Parkway, Explained/The story: Robert Moses ordered engineers to build the Southern State Parkway’s bridges extra-low, to prevent poor people in buses from using the highway. The truth? It’s a little more complex" (Bloomberg, 2017). 

(To comment, email me here.)

"Two centuries ago, a disturbing new two-wheeled contraption appeared on the streets of New York. Pedestrians and drivers of horse-drawn vehicles saw the velocipede as a cluttering, dangerous nuisance..."

"... and it was quickly banned. It took more than 40 years for it to reappear, this time as the bicycle. A century ago, a disturbing new four-wheeled contraption appeared on the streets of New York. Pedestrians and drivers of horse-drawn vehicles saw the automobile as a cluttering, dangerous nuisance, but they found it impossible to resist. Despite the suspicion, the entire city was redesigned to accommodate it: sidewalks were narrowed, traffic signs installed, rules written, roads built, and police officers’ job description changed. Now another kind of vehicle is joining the ecosystem of the streets...." 

So begins "The E-Scooter Is Part of a Balanced Transit Diet" (NY Magazine).

What was the disturbing vehicle that was around in 1820? It looked like this, idealized...

... and like this, really:

"In the Trumpian worldview — one certainly shared by other real estate developers — cities are not configured of neighborhoods and ecosystems..."

"... and a broad constellation of creative aspirations and complexities; they are sales shelves from which to market luxury apartments, ultimately occupied by people who don’t deeply embed in them so much as pass through. It is a notion largely out of step with how the world has evolved. The country has become increasingly urban. Between 2010 and 2013, according to the census, eight new cities were created in the South, three of them in Texas alone. Cities are home to nearly two-thirds of the population in this country. Do the people living in them want men in camouflage or better schools?"

So ends the NYT column "Why the Big City President Made Cities the Enemy/Donald Trump — a lifelong New Yorker — declares war on urban America" by Gina Bellafante.

What is this war? It's his criticism of the Democrats who run the big American cities without controlling the violence. He's "portraying metropolitan life as an unsafe, ugly dystopia, when the real hazard was a lacquered prosperity that continues to put it out of reach to so many working people."

I'm seeing a political dispute in which both sides claim to be the true champion the little people.

5:28 a.m.

Actual sunrise time 5:29. In reality, the first bit of sun came at 5:32...



I've scanned the headlines and stories this morning, but nothing meets my standard. The closest I came to something bloggable was "I’ve Seen a Future Without Cars, and It’s Amazing/Why do American cities waste so much space on cars?" by Farhad Manjoo (NYT).

This is not a complaint! No news is good news, so perhaps no bloggable news is good news. See you later!

"This is a golden moment for the movement known as tactical urbanism."

"More than 200 cities have already announced road closings in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Thousands of cities have yet to act in any bold way, however. If they do not, they may miss what could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.... Cities are finding they can make bold moves to accommodate all the new bikers and walkers because the drivers who would normally object to street closings are hunkered down in their homes.... Most of the road closures announced so far have been billed as temporary, meant to last until the pandemic loosens its grip.... What can cities do to make sure they hold on to the recent gains as the economy reopens?... The basic idea [of tactical urbanism] is to show people the benefits of a change, however temporary, in order to shift the political dynamic in favor of a more permanent alteration.... Now is the moment for cities to imagine that future and start willing it into being."

From "Take Back the Streets From the Automobile/With people hunkered down at home, cities should act quickly to find a better balance between cars and pedestrians and cyclists" by Justin Gillis (an environmental reporter) and Heather Thompson (a transportation planner).

Help me understand the city where I've lived for the last 36 years.

It's just one sentence — from "City Council approves... historic preservation plan" (Madison.com) — and I'd just like to see it in plain English, if anyone would do me the service of translating it:

After a nearly three-year effort, the council unanimously adopted the first-ever Historic Preservation Plan as a supplement to the city’s Comprehensive Plan, directed staff to implement recommendations, and accepted an Underrepresented Communities Historic Resource Survey Report, the latter seen as a “living document” that will be a starting point for diversifying stories the city is documenting.

"The ecologically minded smart city was supposed to replace neglected docklands and disused warehouses with a sea of wooden towers, protected by raincoats."

"Mechanised awnings would protect pedestrians from rain and snow during Toronto’s harsh winters, while traffic lights would optimise the flow of self-driving cars. A network of machines, including subterranean parcel delivery bots, and sensors tracking residents’ behaviour, would provide a blueprint for the connected cities of the future.... Only Toronto has welcomed Sidewalk Labs, making it a test bed for the company. Many residents baulked at the idea of surrendering control to Google, and technology experts expressed concerns over the possible erosion of democratic norms."

From "Google’s sister abruptly cancels work on 'smart city'" (The London Times). So, don't worry, it's not going to happen. Democratic norms can continue uneroded.

"Wealthy individuals... well-funded nonprofits and even corporations like Walmart have begun buying deserted American main streets, hoping to reinvent them with a fresh aesthetic."

"The people behind these ventures frequently install their friends and acquaintances in storefronts, while attempting to preserve (or exploit, depending whom you ask) local history.... In addition to the art gallery [in Mountain Dale, NY], there’s an antiques store specializing in old-timey Americana, a vintage shop run by a breeder of Angora bunnies, a conceptual boutique that also shows art and an apothecary run by a fashion model.... Similar changes are happening in Wardensville, W.Va..... Over the last five years, Paul Yandura and his partner Donald Hitchcock purchased a handful of buildings there.... 'It’s about the nostalgia, the country, being out in fresh air,' Mr. Yandura said. The couple, former L.G.B.T.Q. activists and Democratic operatives, turned an old feed store into a fancy coffee shop and country market called the Lost River Trading Post, keeping many of the original details, like the grain chute. They renovated a ramshackle farmhouse into a bakery and started an organic farm... Many longtime residents still prefer to patronize Wardensville restaurants that either predate Mr. Yandura and Mr. Hitchcock’s activity or that locals have since opened... Mr. Yandura said he gets it: 'We’re creating a sense of place, but a sense of place is a tourist activity.'"

From "Can You Curate a Town?/Even Walmart wants to bring back ye olde Main Street" (NYT).

In China, the questionable aesthetics of "refining" cities and getting rid of whatever is zangluancha.

By Zhou Wang (assistant professor at Nankai University’s Zhou Enlai School of Government) in Sixth Tone:

First, municipal officials have embraced the need to “refine” the country’s cities. From vast metropolises like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou to thousands of smaller Chinese cities, the same government-sponsored buzzwords appear: “high-end,” “aesthetically pleasing,” “cosmopolitan.” Chinese urban planners strive to realize socially positive notions of “modern” and “green” cities, and the most successful are recognized by government ministries in a series of competitions. Cities are also eager to earn national awards for being exceptionally clean or “civilized.”

Municipal officials define “refinement” in remarkably similar ways. Typically, it involves inviting a renowned international architect to design a capital-intensive landmark building — say, Zaha Hadid’s Guangzhou Opera House or Meinhard von Gerkan’s Chongqing Grand Theater. Officials may also clear huge public squares in front of municipal government buildings, construct avant-garde statues largely devoid of any local cultural or historical significance, and erect “central business districts” that resemble cut-and-pasted copies of the Manhattan skyline. The natural result of this is cities that are indistinguishable from one another, something that continues to be a source of public complaint.

“Refinement” also means clean urban environments, a sense of order, and standards for the appearance of residences and street advertisements... Urban managers don’t want their cities referred to as zangluancha — a colloquial term used for anything substandard that comprises the characters for “dirty,” “messy,” and “inferior.”...

ADDED: There's a link on zangluancha that goes to "My Mission to Clean Up China’s Atrocious Public Toilets" by the founder of an organization devoted to that mission:

"That gazebo out in the water looks stupid."

Said Meade, when I asked him what he thought of the plan for a park over John Nolen Drive here in Madison.



I can't reproduce my response verbatim. I'll just say it contained the phrase "It's Frank Lloyd Wright!" about 10 times. The "gazebo" part of the new design is a boathouse Wright conceived long ago and getting that thing built has been a long-time dream of some people here in Madison...



... and I'm one of the dreamers.

It's Frank Lloyd Wright! I don't care if it looks stupid. It's our stupid. It's Frank Lloyd Wright stupid...