5 ms·

FTA: "...including the fact that once I'd built East Didsbury, the strip of shops in Northenden stopped making as much money as they once were, and some were ev

by Yhippa 14y ago

FTA: "...including the fact that once I'd built East Didsbury, the strip of shops in Northenden stopped making as much money as they once were, and some were even beginning to close down as my time ran out. Walk along Northenden high street, and you'll know that feeling." This is interesting. Urban planners out there, do these types of simulations occur before an area is zoned?

waterlesscloud 14y ago
The problem with a lot of small to medium sized towns is that the people in charge of making zoning decisions are just local good ol' boys (or girls) who got voted in office because people knew who they were. They are in no way qualified to make these kinds of decisions. And so you get what you get.
- JoshTriplett 14y ago
  s/voted/appointed/ in most cities.
  - arrrg 14y ago
    My uneducated opinion is that appointed/career people tend to do better. You do not want to get politics involved, that tends to screw things up.
    - msrpotus 14y ago
      Who do you think appoints those people? It's all about politics, either directly or indirectly.
      - arrrg 14y ago
        There are ways of shielding those decisions from politics. Relying on appointed people is one such way. No shielding is perfect – but it’s better than nothing.
    - pc86 14y ago
      Having politicians appoint people they know is not going to be demonstrably better than having those same politicians ask people they know to run for that office instead.
- pfraze 14y ago
  But I bet those people would love to get their hands on a game that helps them simulate their decisions.
chris11 14y ago
You can do a lot of analysis for urban planning. ArcGIS is a very powerful piece software that will handle mapping and some types of analysis. And i2maps is a geocomputing environment that will handle traffic analysis Microsimulation of Seattle traffic: http://ncg.nuim.ie/i2maps/projects/transportation/index.html http://ncg.nuim.ie/i2maps/projects/transportation/index.html Foot traffic simulation: http://ncg.nuim.ie/i2maps/projects/simcampus/index.html http://ncg.nuim.ie/i2maps/projects/simcampus/index.html
enf 14y ago
I was just reading the Environmental Impact Report for rebuilding a Safeway supermarket in Oakland, and it does in fact have a section about predicting whether the store will "blight" any other nearby retail areas by drawing too much business away from them. (They conclude that it will not have such an effect, even though there are already vacant retail spaces right across the street from the Safeway site.) But just because the studies are done doesn't mean people will make the decisions that optimize everybody's lives. Every town wants the tax revenue from a new big box store, even if it means destroying the retail economy of the next town over.
petepete 14y ago
I'm not sure urban planning has the same impact in 'old' towns; Northenden has been around for a thousand years and other than being engulfed by Wythenshaw hasn't really undergone dramatic redevelopment.

by Yhippa 14y ago

waterlesscloud 14y ago

The problem with a lot of small to medium sized towns is that the people in charge of making zoning decisions are just local good ol' boys (or girls) who got voted in office because people knew who they were. They are in no way qualified to make these kinds of decisions. And so you get what you get.

JoshTriplett 14y ago
s/voted/appointed/ in most cities.
- arrrg 14y ago
  My uneducated opinion is that appointed/career people tend to do better. You do not want to get politics involved, that tends to screw things up.
  - msrpotus 14y ago
    Who do you think appoints those people? It's all about politics, either directly or indirectly.
    - arrrg 14y ago
      There are ways of shielding those decisions from politics. Relying on appointed people is one such way. No shielding is perfect – but it’s better than nothing.
  - pc86 14y ago
    Having politicians appoint people they know is not going to be demonstrably better than having those same politicians ask people they know to run for that office instead.
pfraze 14y ago
But I bet those people would love to get their hands on a game that helps them simulate their decisions.

chris11 14y ago

You can do a lot of analysis for urban planning. ArcGIS is a very powerful piece software that will handle mapping and some types of analysis. And i2maps is a geocomputing environment that will handle traffic analysis Microsimulation of Seattle traffic: http://ncg.nuim.ie/i2maps/projects/transportation/index.html http://ncg.nuim.ie/i2maps/projects/transportation/index.html Foot traffic simulation: http://ncg.nuim.ie/i2maps/projects/simcampus/index.html http://ncg.nuim.ie/i2maps/projects/simcampus/index.html

enf 14y ago

I was just reading the Environmental Impact Report for rebuilding a Safeway supermarket in Oakland, and it does in fact have a section about predicting whether the store will "blight" any other nearby retail areas by drawing too much business away from them. (They conclude that it will not have such an effect, even though there are already vacant retail spaces right across the street from the Safeway site.) But just because the studies are done doesn't mean people will make the decisions that optimize everybody's lives. Every town wants the tax revenue from a new big box store, even if it means destroying the retail economy of the next town over.

petepete 14y ago

I'm not sure urban planning has the same impact in 'old' towns; Northenden has been around for a thousand years and other than being engulfed by Wythenshaw hasn't really undergone dramatic redevelopment.