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When you make lots of room for driving fast and parking you’re pushing buildings farther and farther apart and imposing the costs on pedestrians. Postwar Americ

When you make lots of room for driving fast and parking you’re pushing buildings farther and farther apart and imposing the costs on pedestrians. Postwar American cities are unwalkable by design. Hot places should have narrow streets and three or four story buildings so there’s always shade somewhere on the street (as was the norm nearly everywhere before cars).

munificent 7y ago
> Hot places should have narrow streets and three or four story buildings so there’s always shade somewhere on the street If you do that in Florida, your city will now flood every afternoon in the summer monsoon season. Florida has zoning laws that require a certain percentage of non-paved land so that the ground is able to drain rainwater fast enough. Again, this is another example of tacitly assuming the way Northern cities do it is right and that Southern cities doing it differently are because they're stupid and not because, just maybe, they understand their particular climate. > Postwar American cities are unwalkable by design. Yes. Another way to say it is that they are drivable by design. And in an area where driving is significantly more comfortable than walking, there is a good argument that that indeed optimizes for human needs better than transplanting Philadelphia circa 1834 to Central Florida and then wondering why the buildings keep sinking, flash floods keep washing everyone away, and the downtown corridor is dead because there's no parking and still no one wants to walk there because it's too hot even for a dozen blocks.
- viburnum 7y ago
  Nope, the Netherlands is one of the densest countries in the world and it’s below sea level. Sprawl is not necessary.
  - munificent 7y ago
    > it’s below sea level. Sea level has nothing to do with it. Orlando is 82' above sea level. Average July temperature in Amsterdam is 54-68°F. In Orlando, it is 76-92°F. It feels good to be outside in the Netherlands. It definitely does not feel good to be outside in Florida most of the year, unless you're in a swimsuit in the shade. As far as water goes, as I said in my comment, what matters is rain. Peak precipitation in Amsterdam is December, with about 2.4 inches accumulating in the month. Peak in Orlando is July, with 6.0 inches accumulating. But the important number of urban planning is peak rainfall. Florida has a monsoon season which means intense but short-lived rain. You can get flash-flood levels of rain and then have it sunny two hours later. The highest single-day rainfall in Orlando was 8.19 inches. In most places, a couple of inches of rain in a single day is a 100-year storm. In Florida, that's a Tuesday.
    - viburnum 7y ago
      There are plenty of walkable cities that manage monsoon rains in Japan and Korean. It's completely possible for people to get around without having to move five thousand pounds of metal with them.

munificent 7y ago

> Hot places should have narrow streets and three or four story buildings so there’s always shade somewhere on the street If you do that in Florida, your city will now flood every afternoon in the summer monsoon season. Florida has zoning laws that require a certain percentage of non-paved land so that the ground is able to drain rainwater fast enough. Again, this is another example of tacitly assuming the way Northern cities do it is right and that Southern cities doing it differently are because they're stupid and not because, just maybe, they understand their particular climate. > Postwar American cities are unwalkable by design. Yes. Another way to say it is that they are drivable by design. And in an area where driving is significantly more comfortable than walking, there is a good argument that that indeed optimizes for human needs better than transplanting Philadelphia circa 1834 to Central Florida and then wondering why the buildings keep sinking, flash floods keep washing everyone away, and the downtown corridor is dead because there's no parking and still no one wants to walk there because it's too hot even for a dozen blocks.

viburnum 7y ago
Nope, the Netherlands is one of the densest countries in the world and it’s below sea level. Sprawl is not necessary.
- munificent 7y ago
  > it’s below sea level. Sea level has nothing to do with it. Orlando is 82' above sea level. Average July temperature in Amsterdam is 54-68°F. In Orlando, it is 76-92°F. It feels good to be outside in the Netherlands. It definitely does not feel good to be outside in Florida most of the year, unless you're in a swimsuit in the shade. As far as water goes, as I said in my comment, what matters is rain. Peak precipitation in Amsterdam is December, with about 2.4 inches accumulating in the month. Peak in Orlando is July, with 6.0 inches accumulating. But the important number of urban planning is peak rainfall. Florida has a monsoon season which means intense but short-lived rain. You can get flash-flood levels of rain and then have it sunny two hours later. The highest single-day rainfall in Orlando was 8.19 inches. In most places, a couple of inches of rain in a single day is a 100-year storm. In Florida, that's a Tuesday.
  - viburnum 7y ago
    There are plenty of walkable cities that manage monsoon rains in Japan and Korean. It's completely possible for people to get around without having to move five thousand pounds of metal with them.