5 ms·

The Road That Killed a City

37 points by danielam 4y ago

hirundo 4y ago
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/06/d9/20/06d920e0b7ac5d60664d22d863031bd6.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/06/d9/20/06d920e0b7ac5d60664d...
- zem 4y ago
  where is that from?
  - hirundo 4y ago
    Robert Crumb, "A Short History of America"
dexwiz 4y ago
You can do these kind of side by sides for about any American city that existed before 1880. For some reason people really think we are in a cultural dearth because we don't have the same brick general stores from 100 years ago.
- salt-thrower 4y ago
  This is a reductive straw man. People are saying that cities are dead or dying for many more reasons than the appearance of general stores.
  - homonculus1 4y ago
    The #1 reason is unmentionable
    - AnimalMuppet 4y ago
      So, are you actually going to state it, or are you going to make us try to guess what you're hinting at? Don't "vaguepost". Either say something, or don't.
      - homonculus1 4y ago
        I'm not vagueposting. Everybody knows what I'm talking about (and that's my evidence that I'm right)
        yellowapple 4y ago
        Your refusal to elaborate is definitionally vagueposting.
        mickdeek86 4y ago
        I don't know what you're talking about
        salt-thrower 4y ago
        Literally no one knows what you’re talking about.
- naikrovek 4y ago
  it's not about the brick general stores, ffs. 100 years ago you could live in any part of any city or small town, hop on a streetcar or even walk a short distance, get everything you needed for your day to day life, and be back home in 15-30 minutes. I can't drive to the nearest pharmacy to pick up a prescription and make it back home in less than 60 minutes, and I live in a sizeable clump of cities. This is a US thing, and it's spreading. When I lived in Sydney, I could leave work in North Sydney, get on a train, get off at Central, go to the butcher and the baker and a small grocery and general store, then ride a bus home. Door to door in 30 minutes during rush hour. In the US we've decided somehow that we should throw all of that convenience out the window in favor of accommodating cars at the expense of almost everything else, and it's sad. all cities of a given size look the same, now, and you can't do anything without a car or some form of public transport. there's no personality in our cities anymore unless you are in a historic district or at the city center where new roads can't be built and existing ones can't be widened.
  - AnimalMuppet 4y ago
    > I can't drive to the nearest pharmacy to pick up a prescription and make it back home in less than 60 minutes... Weird. Where are you? I've got three pharmacies five minutes away, and another one ten minutes away in the opposite direction. So, 10-20 minutes total, not counting wait time in line at the pharmacy.
    - naikrovek 4y ago
      > Weird. Where are you? in a metropolitan area of about 650k people. Walgreens either paid a bunch of smaller pharmacies to close down and didn't open closer stores, or they all decided to close on their own in a freak of coincidence. the nearest McDonald's is similarly far away. very close if I could fly, but 20 minutes each way by car.
      - dexwiz 4y ago
        Sounds like you live in a really shitty city to be honest. I have lived in car centric cities and walkable cities, and neither had that issue.
- guywithahat 4y ago
  Someone has made this comparison between other cities https://iqc.ou.edu/2015/01/21/60yrsnortheast/ https://iqc.ou.edu/2015/01/21/60yrsnortheast/ I agree though. Cities are cities because they're dense, having buildings larger than a standard house or 4-6 lane roads doesn't mean the city is dead it means it has more traffic to move
Loranubi 4y ago
In many asian countries it's even worse. Sometimes the doors exist immediatly to the streets, with maybe 30cm of space and no sidewalks whatsoever. And even these 30cm are talking up by parking scooters.
rendall 4y ago
Two good YouTube channels on this topic of the effect of mid-20th c. urban planning Not Just Bikes https://youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes https://youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes CityNerd https://youtube.com/c/CityNerd https://youtube.com/c/CityNerd
oftenwrong 4y ago
This page has overlaid aerial photographs that let one compare Hartford in 1959 to Hartford in 2013. https://iqc.ou.edu/2015/01/21/60yrsnortheast/ https://iqc.ou.edu/2015/01/21/60yrsnortheast/ It's easy to see the loss of fine-grained urban development. It's almost like Hartford was heavily bombed during a war.
guywithahat 4y ago
I wouldn't say killed. More accurately would be "highways aren't as pretty as residential streets"
theflyingelvis 4y ago
It looks like Hartford is still there. Development has just moved, refactored if you will. Killed seems a bit overdramatic. Cities Change and evolve over time. Hartford is no different.

37 points by danielam 4y ago

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/06/d9/20/06d920e0b7ac5d60664d22d863031bd6.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/06/d9/20/06d920e0b7ac5d60664d...

zem 4y ago
where is that from?
- hirundo 4y ago
  Robert Crumb, "A Short History of America"

dexwiz 4y ago

You can do these kind of side by sides for about any American city that existed before 1880. For some reason people really think we are in a cultural dearth because we don't have the same brick general stores from 100 years ago.

salt-thrower 4y ago
This is a reductive straw man. People are saying that cities are dead or dying for many more reasons than the appearance of general stores.
- homonculus1 4y ago
  The #1 reason is unmentionable
  - AnimalMuppet 4y ago
    So, are you actually going to state it, or are you going to make us try to guess what you're hinting at? Don't "vaguepost". Either say something, or don't.
    - homonculus1 4y ago
      I'm not vagueposting. Everybody knows what I'm talking about (and that's my evidence that I'm right)
      - yellowapple 4y ago
        Your refusal to elaborate is definitionally vagueposting.
      - mickdeek86 4y ago
        I don't know what you're talking about
      - salt-thrower 4y ago
        Literally no one knows what you’re talking about.
naikrovek 4y ago
it's not about the brick general stores, ffs. 100 years ago you could live in any part of any city or small town, hop on a streetcar or even walk a short distance, get everything you needed for your day to day life, and be back home in 15-30 minutes. I can't drive to the nearest pharmacy to pick up a prescription and make it back home in less than 60 minutes, and I live in a sizeable clump of cities. This is a US thing, and it's spreading. When I lived in Sydney, I could leave work in North Sydney, get on a train, get off at Central, go to the butcher and the baker and a small grocery and general store, then ride a bus home. Door to door in 30 minutes during rush hour. In the US we've decided somehow that we should throw all of that convenience out the window in favor of accommodating cars at the expense of almost everything else, and it's sad. all cities of a given size look the same, now, and you can't do anything without a car or some form of public transport. there's no personality in our cities anymore unless you are in a historic district or at the city center where new roads can't be built and existing ones can't be widened.
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  > I can't drive to the nearest pharmacy to pick up a prescription and make it back home in less than 60 minutes... Weird. Where are you? I've got three pharmacies five minutes away, and another one ten minutes away in the opposite direction. So, 10-20 minutes total, not counting wait time in line at the pharmacy.
  - naikrovek 4y ago
    > Weird. Where are you? in a metropolitan area of about 650k people. Walgreens either paid a bunch of smaller pharmacies to close down and didn't open closer stores, or they all decided to close on their own in a freak of coincidence. the nearest McDonald's is similarly far away. very close if I could fly, but 20 minutes each way by car.
    - dexwiz 4y ago
      Sounds like you live in a really shitty city to be honest. I have lived in car centric cities and walkable cities, and neither had that issue.
guywithahat 4y ago
Someone has made this comparison between other cities https://iqc.ou.edu/2015/01/21/60yrsnortheast/ https://iqc.ou.edu/2015/01/21/60yrsnortheast/ I agree though. Cities are cities because they're dense, having buildings larger than a standard house or 4-6 lane roads doesn't mean the city is dead it means it has more traffic to move

Loranubi 4y ago

In many asian countries it's even worse. Sometimes the doors exist immediatly to the streets, with maybe 30cm of space and no sidewalks whatsoever. And even these 30cm are talking up by parking scooters.

rendall 4y ago

Two good YouTube channels on this topic of the effect of mid-20th c. urban planning Not Just Bikes https://youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes https://youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes CityNerd https://youtube.com/c/CityNerd https://youtube.com/c/CityNerd

oftenwrong 4y ago

This page has overlaid aerial photographs that let one compare Hartford in 1959 to Hartford in 2013. https://iqc.ou.edu/2015/01/21/60yrsnortheast/ https://iqc.ou.edu/2015/01/21/60yrsnortheast/ It's easy to see the loss of fine-grained urban development. It's almost like Hartford was heavily bombed during a war.

guywithahat 4y ago

I wouldn't say killed. More accurately would be "highways aren't as pretty as residential streets"

theflyingelvis 4y ago

It looks like Hartford is still there. Development has just moved, refactored if you will. Killed seems a bit overdramatic. Cities Change and evolve over time. Hartford is no different.