Jane Jacobs' Neighborhood

kennedy said:
...the West Village has a much more active and diverse streetscape than Beacon Hill...which always seems like it's asleep when I'm there.
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In the West Village, all those vacationing gays make a lively bustle.
 
It's not just the gays. Beacon Hill could stand for a liberal sprinkling of shops and cafes on the residential streets. But could imagine what society would think of strangers] dining on Louisbourg Square.

At least the West Village is still relatively new money.
 
czsz said:
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All areas in color are urban.
 
If this Bronx isn't urban, I don't know what is.

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To all you guys fresh from your courses in Logic:

ablarc said:
All areas in color are urban...
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...is not to say: "all areas not in color are not urban."

"All forum members who posted in this thread are smart and perceptive and know how to read accurately" ... is not to say: "All members who didn't post in this thread are not ... (oh, you get the idea; it has to do with sharpened reading skills --keeps you from setting up straw men! :))

Seems there's a lot of that lately.

Sorry, guys.

But I would be grateful for a more measured rush to judgment; almost looks like some folks are looking for things to pick at. Best to argue with things that are actually said instead of finishing my thoughts with imputations.

Czsz, I'd be especially grateful for you to chill out a bit. Surely only 95% of what I say is so stupid that it requires correction. C'mon, now.

Makes for a disincentive to post. And then you'd be left with no one to disagree with. :p

:)
 
I blame the economy on this forum's recent spate of bickering!

Sigh...actually, in a very serious way, that's not so absurd. Without this whole recession thing surely there would be a greater number of ugly projects to discuss and pretty pictures (of ugly projects) to gawk at.
 
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Blade's right. Bad economy + too much free time = angry czsz. I've taken logic, too. Still, I feel like I've been responding to some ratcheted up rhetoric on ablarc's part in the style wars. And judging from others' responses, I don't think I'm completely alone.
 
Oddly enough, I see the past week or so as one of the best we've had on AB in a long time.

Sure, it has been a little tense at times, but the discussion has been top-notch. I get bored with "Oh look! They added another piece of steel today." posts. The architectural theory stuff is much more interesting, even if I can't play along.
 
Beton Brut said:
There's no denying, the West Village has become an art object of sorts, like our own Back Bay, South End, and Beacon Hill. Desirable, but "closed systems" where there is limited opportunity for physical and demographic change without resistance from within.

These neighborhoods are all places I won't mind living, but none are accessible to this working stiff. But that's okay. I visit for dinner and drinks.
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The tourist in Plutopia.

All the nice places have been taken over by the rich. The rest of us can visit for our plate of portabella mushrooms.

I also like to spend a few hours in such charming preserves of the rich as Nantucket, Carmel, Palm Beach, Sausalito, Georgetown, Brooklyn Heights and Philadelphia's Chestnut Hill.
 
^ I travel as often as I can, and as well as I can afford. And I try like hell to never be a tourist.

Your point, however, is well taken.
 
Beton Brut said:
^ I travel as often as I can, and as well as I can afford. And I try like hell to never be a tourist.
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I know what you're talking about. But whenever you're not where you live, you're a tourist.
 
^ Twelve days in Japan (three years ago this week) sold me on that concept. I tried to eat local, stay in cheaper business hotels, and take the public transportation. I wish I did more of this sort of thing when I was in my 20s.

The most important thing to bring back from any trip is information. A few days in Osaka was like a graduate-level course on urbanism. A lot of what I believe about Boston, was validated at eye-level, 7,000 miles away.
 
Never in my life encountered a bigger language barrier than when I was in Japan.

I found more English speakers in rural Romania.
 
It wasn't easy, but you can get by. Met cool people on the trains. Discovered Chūhai. I went for a friend's wedding, and our hosts (the bride's folks) spoke English.

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From the 38th floor of the Conrad Hotel, Shinbashi, Tokyo

Did Jacobs write at all on Asian cities?

And has anyone read Dark Age Ahead?
 
It's probably pretty hard to be from Boston, and not look like a tourist in Japan. I've always sort of wanted to visit in my lifetime, but there are other places much higher on my list, and much more accessible (SF, Seattle, Vancouver, Mexico City, Amsterdam, Dublin, Cape Town, Rio, Chamonix are all on the list-in order of accessibility, sort of.)

Ablarc, I haven't been completely in-tune with this discussion, but I'm trying to figure out if you're saying the rich take over all the nice, urban places and improve them...or if they ruin them...or what? If you think money ruins them, I very much disagree.
 
kennedy said:
Ablarc, I haven't been completely in-tune with this discussion, but I'm trying to figure out if you're saying the rich take over all the nice, urban places and improve them...or if they ruin them...or what? If you think money ruins them, I very much disagree.
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The rich preserve and often improve the physical aspects of nice places, but it's too bad they also cause them to become ghettos of wealth.
 
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