Wasting Urban Land?

Looks like I might have ruined Downtown Lad‘s day yesterday when I pointed to efforts afoot to re-introduce trolleys on 42nd St.:

I was particularly disturbed today when I came across this site, which advocates turning 42nd St. into one big pedestrian mall, bar a trolley going up and down the middle. What a terrible idea. 42nd St. is one of the greatest streets in the world. It doesn’t need any help. It’s thriving. This group should just give up and go to some other city. Like Houston… If you want another example of where the street fails, just check out any housing project. Those buildings, inspired by Le Corbusier’s plan for Paris, are simply buildings in a park without any soul. They are criss-cross buildings that deliberately turn their back on their street. Ever wonder why there are no stores or restaurants when you walk by a housing project? It’s not because they are poor. It’s because there’s no longer a street. And people don’t want to shop where there is no street life. People don’t want to linger there.

They have a term for a place that doesn’t have a street life. It’s called a suburb.

Read the entry in its entirety here:The Death of The Street

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