Our Forgotten Connection with Time

Humans have lived for thousands of years and, yet, in our current culture we have forgotten about our connection with time.  People are connected through relationships, space and TIME.  We are connected to the people who came before us and we're connected with those who will come after us. Somehow, we don't seem to acknowledge this time aspect in many decisions that are made with regards to cities and the built environment.

 View from above the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Looking back just over 100 years at one of the most exciting times for urban planning, the City Beautiful movement - which took its inspiration from Haussmann's Paris - worked to create a society with order, civil engagement and social integration through placing world-class public space at the top of the agenda. During this time they created parks, monuments and civic buildings that we still appreciate today.  One of the crowning achievements from this era is the National Mall in Washington, DC, where tens of thousands of citizens meet for civic engagement.  The decisions made at that time are strongly connected with time. What do the decisions made today say about our perceived connection with time? How will our decisions impact future generations?  How do they relate to the past?

I can't tell you the last time a monument of epic proportion was constructed in one of America's cities.  Or in nearly any city to tell you the truth.  Can you think of one? When was the last time that we thought, "this is going to stand for many years and future generations will be connected with us through this space?"

Focus on the "NOW!"

Many of the decisions made, today, are made with weighing the costs and benefits - perhaps over the next 20 years for a major project. Generations in the past had the options to develop land in a way similar to what we call urban sprawl, but they resisted.  They did not spread out because they understood that once this land is developed, it will be very difficult to return it to the previous state. Now, we cover these valuable lands in suburban "snout houses" that probably won't be around in 200 years.

Instead of thinking about our actions as connected to our collective past(s) and to the future, there seems to be this overwhelming consensus idea that our form of society will not be around in 100 years.  That should be a sign.  But, instead, we use it as an excuse to build suburbs, shift public resources to private interests and over-consume nearly every resource on the planet.  I'm not even going to delve into petrol-chemicals.

Typical Suburban "Snout Houses"

 

Connection to the Past

We have forgotten our past, at least everything before WWII. Native Americans struggle to hold on to their past, but the dominant culture does its best to squash that memory.  African-Americans try to hold on to their past and remember, but the racial histories are something we don't like to discuss.  Is this why we forgotten our past and are so eager to think about the now?  Is it racism?

No matter the cause of our eager desire to quell our connection with past and the importance of history (it was once now!), in denouncing the importance we do ourselves a disservice in our civics and spiritual peace. We must remember the past, embrace it and learn from it. After all, the post-Depression reforms could have helped prevent our current recession if we'd remembered the lessons and not repealed Glass-Steagall during the '90s. In urban planning, as I mention in this blog post, we have a lot to learn from the pre-modern era. 

A Bright Spot

Sign welcoming you to the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness in Montana

The environmental movement offers a bright spot.  I'm not talking about sustainability and corporate green-washing (though some are good), but the movement that gave rise to the wilderness.  Being from Billings, MT, I appreciate the Beartooth Mountains.  I appreciate their beauty, wonder and natural state.  Getting out there in nature is one of the most calming and clarifying things and individual can do.

When I think about these mountains, and all wilderness areas, I am reminded that they will be preserved for future generations.  As long as the protections aren't watered down, generations 200 years from now will appreciate them in the same was we've been able. We'd do well for ourselves to consider these very long-term aspects as we move forward in our civilization.

It's time to make the connections!

Are we in a Dark Age in (most) cities?

We have a feeling that something isn't right. We're used to the cities we live in and, many, don't bother with a different vision for the cities.  It seems normal to us.  However, there is a feeling that something isn't quite right.  How do I know this?  I know it by looking at pictures. A photo of the same place taken in the 1800s and today have much different perspectives and framing.  Take, for example, Battle Monument in Baltimore.  Let's compare two photos:

Battle Monument, Baltimore, 1838, www.archives.gov

The picture to the left shows the Battle Monument in 1893 and the one on the bottom is from 2007.  The top one shows the activity of the street, while the bottom one seems to try and block out the activity of the street.  I came across the picture on the left first and, then, did a Google image search.  Believe it, or not, the bottom image is the one I found that best shows the ground and surrounding level for anything of the new times.  I see this again and again in pictures. We block out or don't shoot what we don't like.Beyond the pictures though, we live in a time where there is reduced urban literacy, population declines in urban centers, a widening wealth gap, and a loss of the community sphere.

Battle Monument, Baltimore, 2007, www.hmdb.org

Fifty years on either side of the 19th century, something magical was in the air.  People felt as though they'd been liberated for the first time.  We'd been living a life restricted by the forces of nature and adapted.  Everything built had to be, what we call today, human scale.  Systems were limited to their ecological restraints - for the most part. As a society, we were limited to "current sunlight" and wind.  Suddenly, we could tap into all of the stored sunlight under the ground in the form of hydrocarbons. Suddenly, all of the rules we'd known had gone out the window and this opened up a whole new world.  You could, now put write the name "R. Mott" on a urinal and call it art.  Forget about everything we'd known about beauty, place-making, and building anything worth caring about.  We had a brand new, modern, world! 

During this modern time, things beyond our art began to change. Cities began to change.  We moved industry into the cities and, as a response, the urban planning profession was born to deal with the health conditions of the declining urban environment.  We introduced, for the first time, blanket zoning ordinances and the courts withheld their challenge. Urban planning had saved the day!!  People began to move the new streetcar suburbs and architectural modernism began to take shape.  We did away with all of the past knowledge and starting thinking about theories, models and planning on map or on paper.  This became so dramatic that the world actually produced a city called Brasilia. To highlight this point of forgotten knowledge, in my Masters program for urban planning (at a reputable university), our urban planning history class started with the late 1800s and the Chicago World's Fair.  I asked my professor, "What about everything before that? Planning didn't start then!"  He told me there were no classes offered.  Luckily, I found one architecture class that touches on the basics of past planning - a sort of survey class - but nothing in depth. 

Modernist Brasilia at ground level, World Affairs

Many factors led to the past dark ages.  One of the biggest factors lead to all of them - from Greek to Pre-History America - was the sacking and large-scale demolishing of culturally and economically important cities. People fled the cities for the countryside and/or became enslaved by the conquering body. It seems to me that we've done the same thing in most cities around the world to build highways and parking lots.  City after city - especially in the United States - demolished vibrant and active neighborhoods to bring in the Interstate Highways.  Everything was done for the automobile and with an esteem for the future and a removed connection the past.  It also appears as though we place very little thought on future generations.  When was the last time anything of great pride was constructed?  It seems most of the time it's a concern with trying something new and "inspired."  Though I like James Howard Kunstler's idea of the "fuck it!" approach.

Now, with all of these great 'advances' in urbanism, what have we got? Stip malls, blank facades, an over-dependence on the automobile and world of cities completely disconnected from their urban context (for the most part). Women, and I stress the word women, have to drive their children to daycare, school, practice, friends' homes, etc.  Also, what kind of world does this create for children?  What about disabled or poverty stricken people?  I read in the book, The Right to Transportation, that the number one barrier to getting off of Welfare is mobility and the lack of an ability to get to where the jobs are located.  Beyond these concerns, we have essentially no public sphere beyond bars.  When I lived in Maastricht, in the Netherlands, I'd go outside with my friends everyday to the city-center and walk around.  We'd often just people watch and be out in the community.  This is missing from most cities (especially U.S. cities).  Instead, with the modernist principles people are locked in isolation - in their cars, homes, or offices.  Where we've completely forgotten about the past as professionals, how can we not be in a dark age.  All of the signs point towards, yes.  If we weren't in a Dark Age for cities, how else would we end up with architecture like what is shown below and no attention paid to the ground level? The human level ...

Soul-less Stip Malls

Empty Parking Garages

 Militaristic Modern Facades

Enrique Peñalosa: Planning Cities for People

Influential urban thinker, Enrique Peñalosa, delivers to a May 2012 crowd at the Gerding Theatre in Portland, OR. 

Here is a video from a project I worked on over this past spring, as the Co-Chair of the PSU Urban Planning Club, to bring Enrique Peñalosa to Portland for a lecture.  He's known as the former Mayor of Bogotá and an influential urban thinker.  He appears in the film Urbanized, which ranked #2 in my top ten list of urban documentaries. 

He did two events while in Portland. One at Metro regional government and another for the public at Portland Center Stage. They went over really well.  I didn't want to blog about it right after because I already posted a video with him in the last post and I wanted some space in between. I just thought you all might be interested in the video. 

Here is the video:

Some things I learned from Enrique while spending three days with him:

1. Stop and smell the flowers

2. Dream big and keep the vision 

3. Get involved in politics and network

4. Write

5. Don't be afraid to push for what you truly believe in. 

Top Ten Documentaries about Urbanism and Suburbia

I decided to put together a list of some of my favorite urban planning documentaries, after looking around the internet and coming up short.  This is certainly not a comprehensive list and I'm constantly looking for new ones to watch.   Let me know if you have a good one not on here. I hope you find this useful. 

TOP 10 URBAN DOCUMENTARIES

1. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces 

This is a classic and important documentary covering the research of William H. Whyte on public spaces. His humor mixes with a scientific approach to answering the simple question, "What makes good public spaces work and others not?"

While this is a film from 1980 and of poor technological quality, to today's standards, the content of the film is the highest available.  An absolute top of the list for urban films. Available on Vimeo. I've only found this one suitable preview, though it's not great.

2. Urbanized 

This is a fantastic film that examines cities from the U.S. to Latin America, Europe and beyond.  This documentary highlights many important aspects of urban, beyond New Urbanism, including transportation, public space, community, affordable housing, and the urbanization in developing countries.  It includes interviews with some of the world's top urban thinkers. A must watch for urban enthusiasts!

3. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

One of the most notorious social housing projects in the U.S., located in St. Louis, was demolished just a few short decades after being touted as "the answer."  Critics often use examples such as Pruitt-Igoe to rail  against modernism and social housing. 

While I - generally - don't like much about the modern movement in architecture or art, this film examines the deeper social reasons for the collapse of this development and the community it once supported.  This film looks into the broader context of St. Louis as a part of the reason for its failure.  Excellent film.   

 

4. e2: Adaptive Reuse in the Netherlands | season II episode 5

While many of the episodes I've seen in the documentary series seem to leave out the human/community aspects (including scale) and I mostly dislike much of what Brad Pitt advocates as "green", I found this particular episode useful despite some of the same old repetition of large scale and repeating facades. 

This short documentary examines a new development in Amsterdam that focuses on human needs and the importance of integrated incomes. One of my favorite sections of the episode comes at the end where they highlight a portion of small lots developed by individual homeowners creating a great mix. It can be seen on Hulu. 

5. Chávez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story

At number five on the list, this short film tells the story of the vibrant and mostly immigrant community that used to sit where modern-day Dodgers Stadium is located in Los Angeles. This documentary shows the human-side of those who were displaced mega projects during Modern Era and causes one to think about the need to consider equity impacts in urban planning.


 

6. Sprawling from Grace: The Consequences of Suburbanization

This film encapsulates one of the primary reasons I became interested in urban planning: the environmental impacts of our urban development patterns. Beyond these impacts, the movie looks at the reality of peak oil and the upcoming brick wall our economy faces when the realities of the situation become fully realized. 

Beyond the natural environment, this documentary also considers some of the consequences to the human environment and loss of community that comes from the suburban lifestyle.  While this movie hits homes many of the generally very important concepts, there is little new in the movie, earning it number six on my list.

7. A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil 

From the home of BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) and many other innovative approaches to solving issues facing urban centers around the globe, this movie should almost be number one on my list because it focuses on answers.  However, the lower production quality and lack of a hard-hitting storyline place this at number seven. 

This film demonstrates the importance of innovation in transportation, housing, public space, poverty and the environment. Curitiba is an  example to the world and many cities are following their lead (from Bogotá to New York City).

  8. Radiant City

This is another one of those films that could easily have made the top of my list, but didn't for reasons I'm not going to tell you because it'd give away some of the movie.  

This movie examines the life of suburban families in North America and critiques the lonely and car-dependent lifestyle in a humorous and engaging way.  A very entertaining film that will keep you watching.

 

9.The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and The Collapse of The American Dream

Another film much like Sprawling from Grace.  To be honest with you, this film only makes the list because there are such a limited number of strong urban documentaries out there.  It basically makes the argument that environmental constraints will bring an end to suburbia and stars James Howard Kunstler.

 10. Portlandia

I know, I know ... this isn't a documentary.  But it's so awesome that I had to put it on the list.  I mean, it does take place in an urban center and the town I call home. This is a hilarious series about the cultural idiosyncrasies that are Portland.  I suppose, amongst this list, you could say it is a social critique on the culture of what Richard Florida calls the "Creative Class."  An absolute, five-star, must watch.  On another list, it'd be number one.  

So, what did I miss?  What are your favorites?

Comments about my selection and any that are in your top list and didn't make my selection are welcome.

Radical idea: people-way/ park beltway in Portland

In life and all of the hustle-and-bustle it's often difficult to find time to get in touch with nature.  We much too often do not take the time to smell the flowers.  Plus, if you live in a city, you may have to travel a ways to find quality public natural space and it's one of the most pleasurable experiences.  If you are like me, you find that you're blood pressure drops and you get a sense of peacefulness in the natural settings.

And if you're a child living in the city you must often be driven around.  Many people like Gil Peñalosa talk about the importance of making cities safe for children and "vulnerable" citizens - 8:80 he calls it.  We make our cities work for people who are 8 years old and those who are 80 and it works well for everybody.  He discusses the concept in this video.  Most people in the planning profession I talk with accept the idea.

In Portland, bicycling has become a more mainstream form and transportation.  This has not happened in a vacuum.  The City has made very concerted efforts over the past 20 years to improve bicycle infrastructure and has moved from 1% of trips by bicycle up to nearly 10% by some estimates.  It's a case of "if you build it they will come."

Now, with that in mind, I make a proposal that will probably be very controversial to some.  I fully understand reality and the post Jane Jacobs world of not touching anything (mostly from people's interpretations of her writings and not her actual writings).  However, we must consider that cities change all of the time and, sometimes, big projects can bring much more happiness to the citizens.  It's with that in mind that I make the following proposal.

Why not create a very large park/people-way loop in the inner SE part of Portland?  Think about how this sort of improvement would benefit your life.  You could enter the area and be totally secluded from the noise and pollution from the city and enjoy nature.  You could bring your children there and it would be safe to ride their bikes.  It would be a safe and pleasant area for your grandmother to walk (I love my grandmother, who doesn't).  This could not only improve life, but help save lives.  This could be part of a bigger picture to protect our quality of life for future generations.

We've done this sort of thing before with the City Beautiful movement around the turn of the 19th/20th century and we're very happy with it.  We have a long history of these sorts of projects.  With that, here is a visual proposal:

We can create this (greenbelt people-way park):

From what we already have:

Inside the people-way could look like this:

This is just a first proposal and, of course, would need much refining.  But why not think about it?  Think about how much it would improve your life. 

Pedestrian safety is more important than commuting times

In reading two different articles about transportation tonight I found a connection, which may seem unconnected at first, but are actually are very closely related. 

The First Article

The latest Planning Magazine (May/June2012) shows the page above about pedestrian deaths, which caught my attention.  As I was looking over the well-presented statistics, I began to think of my friend from elementary school, Casey, who died at the age of 10 one week after moving to the suburbs.  He chased a ball into the street and had his head ran over by a car. The arrow points to the year it happened.  There's a slight bump that year. A bar graph in the bottom-right corner shows "motorists" as the top reason people feel threatened with the highest percentage in the rural. 

The Second Article

This was not actually an article but a book.  A rather dumb book in my opinion, Still Stuck in Traffic. The general thesis is that congestion is bad and we should work to solve it. As an example, Anthony Downs, writes about free parking and suggests that perhaps employers should offer free parking or a "cash-out"option. While it may work, it's just another subsidy to the automobile.  Limit parking and charge for it.  Duh. That's another post. In the middle of the book he shows an interesting pie chart with commute times. The context of this chart is summed up when he writes, "A powerful motive influencing many commuters to travel long distances or tolerate time wasted in traffic is their desire to work and live where they choose [far apart]."

Public vs. Private Concern

The first article highlights an example of a public problem. This occurs in the public realm and is something that decision-makers should care about.  The second article is not.  It is a private issue.  It should only be a private concern. If people want to live in low densities far from everything they need, fine.  That is their choice. We should not be concerned about whether they need to leave five minutes earlier to arrive at work in private vehicles. We we should concern ourselves with trying to make changes to the streets to marginally reduce their travel time. Instead we should lower speed limits and focus on pedestrian safety.  That is the public concern.  People can move.  If their commute is too long, move.   

Car friendly OR people friendly cites: can't do both.

Car Friendly
We've all tried to cross an über busy street, while walking, near the Wal-Mart(s) in town or can imagine it. The street is screaming with traffic (mostly single occupancy private vehicles) and it seems the only way you can crossis to walk to the stop light (if there is one near) and / or running across the wide street in a life-threatened dash. There may be a sidewalk and there may not - in any case walking is an after thought, if a thought at all, to the designers. You can almost feel like you're breaking the law and waiting for the police to stop you and ask what you're doing ... Dude! Where's my car?

People Friendly
On the other side of things, you may be in a quant little district or downtown area - perhaps sitting outside enjoying a refreshing drink with friends - and you decide to leave. It's easier to get across the street; perhaps there are curb extensions and other traffic calming installments. It's certainly an easier and a much more pleasant place to walk. If you're lucky, perhaps the street is completely closed to people inside of automobiles. You feel at home and a part of the community. If you were in a car, you would want to park it and get out. It's a place for people outside of cars!

Can't Have Both
That's where Enrique Peñalosa comes into the equation. He made a name for himself as the mayor of Bogota, Columbia in the early 2000s. He removed parking, took away lanes for automobiles, installed bus rapid transit, and created a car free day that takes place one time per year - on a week day. This guy makes a lot of sense to me. His basic argument is that we can build cities for cars, or we can build them for people, but we can not do both (think of the two examples above). We must first decide what we want and whether we want a city like Houston or Amsterdam. We must then have the VISION and COURAGE to follow through with that vision.

Watch an interview: