Remember how much worse it could be

Atlanta? Whew! For a second I thought that was around Kendal Square or somewhere in the Seaport District.
 
There are a few West End-ish pictures in there as well.
 
I'm not a fan of Kunstler. I just had no idea Atlanta was this bad.

Remember, this is not some satellite/peripheral office district built on former parking lots, like Kenall or the Seaport. The city systematically demolished its functioning, pre-WWII center to build all this (as bad as the West End was, it was only one neighborhood). This is as urban as it gets there.
 
The sad part is that even if cars were to cease to exist, the school of thought in planning and architecture has changed to the point that the pedestrian experience likely wouldn't be improved in the slightest bit. There would be bustling bus, subway, or streetcar stops and still dead streets between those hubs.
 
Atlanta does have a subway -- does it interact with the street better in other districts than it does downtown?
 
Lurker said:
The sad part is that even if cars were to cease to exist, the school of thought in planning and architecture has changed to the point that the pedestrian experience likely wouldn't be improved in the slightest bit. There would be bustling bus, subway, or streetcar stops and still dead streets between those hubs.
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Can you expand on this?

I think that's largely the case in even the world's densest and most pedestrian-friendly cities. Even the streets in Tokyo are comparatively dead away from transit hubs. The same is true in Cambridge on a smaller scale...pedestrian life fizzles out when you get too far from the T stops.
 
Kinda reminds me of Downtown Springfield, MA
 
There is a lot not to like about Kunstler, but when it comes to his views on good/bad urbanism and urban planning I tend to agree with him more often than not.
 
czsz said:
Even the streets in Tokyo are comparatively dead away from transit hubs. The same is true in Cambridge on a smaller scale...pedestrian life fizzles out when you get too far from the T stops.
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Inman Square is a counter-example, however.
 
statler said:
...when it comes to his views on good/bad urbanism and urban planning I tend to agree with him more often than not.
Click to expand...

As my old man might say, "Don't (watch someone) piss in my ear and tell me it's raining."
 
Ron Newman said:
Inman Square is a counter-example, however.
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Inman Square is still a transit node, albeit a minor one...it's got a few intersecting bus lines. And of course the fact that it's much less busy than Central, Harvard, Porter or Davis underscores my original contention.
 
He's got some good things to say, but at this point his input seems to be a net loss.
 
That is just textual illusion foisted on the masses as a false dichotomy imagined by the patriarchy.

In the end, there will only be the dialectic......and chaos, of course.
 
I don't like doomsday merchants, it really just lowers my appetite for non-fiction books when so many of them are so outlandish.
 
Some reinforced concrete would help that parking garage structurally stay in top shape...


...On a side note, I am not a huge fan of Atlanta either. It is a plastic city and there isn't much to do.
 
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