Parks replace downtown freeways

November 14, 2022 1:11 AM

The U.S. city of the future - "What does the city of the future look like in the USA? Let's take a trip to Any City, USA of the mid 21st century. With a look at the existing situation, current trends, and recent government policy, let's take a look at where we'll work, how we'll get around, and where and who we'll live with in the coming decades."

Back in 2021 I wrote a post about some of the people who are trying to imagine the future of the American city. Among these, the person I’ve taken the most inspiration from is Alfred Twu. An artist and architect who works on housing and transportation projects, Twu is currently a planning commissioner who is running for a seat on the board of AC Transit. His website and Twitter account are treasure troves of images of what our cities could look like, as well as various other incisive urbanist commentary. So I’m quite happy that Alfred has agreed to write a guest post about the future of the American city.

Twu’s central thesis is that the future city has to be something we evolve toward — we can’t and won’t tear up and rebuild our cities, so we have to think about how to change them gradually in the direction of something that’s more livable for everyone.

thread: "Density doesn't mean cramped living spaces, in fact, the whole point is to fit more square feet of living space on the same piece of land. The urban American dream isn't a windowless bedroom pod, it's a 1,800 square foot condo with large balconies and windows on all sides."

also btw...

• @TernerHousing: "Data-driven analyses are critical for helping local officials and policymakers better understand the likely impacts of policy choices on future housing supply. Using a new data tool, we simulate policy scenarios to encourage new housing in Los Angeles."
• @Noahpinion: "Imagine if America was willing to build more than one (1) dense walkable mixed-use city."
• @BrentToderian: "Never forget that when Seoul, Korea removed the Cheonggyecheon expressway in 2003 & replaced it with a restored stream & 1000 acre park in the city's centre, not only did it transform the city's public life & economic success, but the traffic got better."
• @Airport2Park: "In Seoul, South Korea, they just turned another FREEWAY into a PARK!"
• @jake_gotta: "Forget HSR, just build Amtrak corridors through all the blobs."

The housing theory of everything - "Western housing shortages do not just prevent many from ever affording their own home. They also drive inequality, climate change, low productivity growth, obesity, and even falling fertility rates."[1]

Land is a Big Deal - "Why rent is too high, wages too low, and what we can do about it."[2]

Land and Liberty to Build: On Georgism and YIMBYism - "Only an alliance of Georgism and YIMBYism is capable of addressing rising housing costs and economic inequality."

Pursuing an Abundance Agenda - "What can be done to supercharge growth and make key goods like housing, food, and transportation more accessible to all?"[3,4,5]

• What would a progressive version of supply-side economics look like, an economic policy focused on both plentiful supply and fair distribution
• How different would America, and other developed nations, look with abundant energy, abundant homes, and abundant educational opportunities?
• Are there countries that have successfully pursued an abundance agenda? Are there countries that have tried and failed to pursue one? What can we learn from both
• What political incentives are there to create scarcity? Are the barriers material or ideological? And can they be overcome?

posted by kliuless (15 comments total)

oh whoops, re: Amtrak corridors, here's the map!

@GabrielsNotes: "The best cities fix their mistakes and move on." :P
posted by kliuless at 1:23 AM on November 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

We clearly need to exterminate automobiles, including Teslas, etc, which yes frees up road space, but "supercharge growth" goes dark places fast.

Ain't likely but hopefully the AdBlue shortage wrecks the trucking industry in Europe, and forces shipping onto electric trains.
posted by jeffburdges at 1:28 AM on November 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

We could "supercharge efficiency" though with policies like import tariffs, revoking subsidies on energy, food, etc., increased taxes on meat, gas, other energy, etc., and increasing taxes for companies without work-from-home policies.
posted by jeffburdges at 1:38 AM on November 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

Boy, "we" sure do have endless bounty of vision, wisdom, and political power to do it all right. Of course, "we" always means me more than you.
posted by 2N2222 at 4:58 AM on November 14, 2022

2N2222: snark is easy but doesn't accomplish anything. As a fair number of the people linked above are explicitly recognizing, building political support depends on people seeing how better options could work for them. The fossil fuel and auto industries have been very successful at pitching the car-only suburban lifestyle as the one everyone should aspire to so anyone trying to do better should be thinking about how to make alternatives seem possible, and one powerful way to do that is by linking it to larger economic trends, replacing the status quo assumption that suburbs are cheaper by looking at the full cost of that lifestyle.
posted by adamsc at 5:52 AM on November 14, 2022 [17 favorites]

Rather than a penalizing stick, which mostly impacts the poor, rewarding carrots would include rent control, and free public transit (that goes more places).

Case in point: I love my car. But I moved to a place where the rail network is robust and commuting that way makes more sense. So I drive it far far less than I expected I would. If I could afford to live in the city proper, or the place I lived more walkable, I might not need it at all. You don't need to penalize me, cars are expensive and I wouldn't buy one if I didn't need it.

Telling people there are penalties for buying meat? Why not subsidize and promote better proteins and let them choose?

Make something cheaper and easier and people will do it.
posted by emjaybee at 6:42 AM on November 14, 2022 [13 favorites]

People with more to give should indeed give more. Or have more taken away, if they're selfish old fucks.
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:31 AM on November 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

This is a subject that's very dear to me, being a civil engineer who has specialized in highway design for 20 years, but luckily that's recent enough that my impact has been more about maintaining the already-committed atrocities instead of planning the clearance of urban areas (if that's a redeeming factor).

Recently I have moved back to my hometown, a city also damaged by carving an interstate through its Victorian mansions in the '50s, which is trying to resurrect its riverfront downtown area. I CANNOT believe how 'parking' is still the number 1 issue for property developers, when if you look at an aerial photo it feels like half of the downtown area is ALREADY surface parking. People from the suburbs fear coming downtown, regardless, and vast acreage of easy parking isn't going to be what plies them inward.

We do have a philanthropic billionaire who also came back home, and in between restoring otherwise uneconomic historic structures he has proposed capping our depressed interstate through the downtown area and building a linear park. But the damage is done, the historic houses are gone, and who wants to hang out in a narrow park with a traffic rumble that's next to 4 parking lots?
posted by hwyengr at 7:34 AM on November 14, 2022 [8 favorites]

Vancouver BC has been trying to do some of this.

The model seems to be to approve condo development in reclaimed land while requiring parks, affordable housing, etc, and using the required community amenity contributions to fund the highway infrastructure work.

See demolishing north Granville bridge loops to create approximately 1000 homes, and the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaduct demolition to eventually result in around 12,000 homes plus parks and various other stuff.

If there were endless pools of money, it would be nice not to involve property developers, but it is better than leaving the useless highway there.

Another downside is delay - the developers have put projects on hold because of construction costs and inflation, so now nothing is happening.

I'm not aware of an alternative way for the city to get the capital to do this kind of work under the existing system, unfortunately. This isn't coming out of the regular very strained infrastructure budget, instead being paid for solely by mandated developer contributions.

Seemingly small amounts of highway can make space for a surprising amout of housing.

Alternatively, give the land back! The 10.5 acre awkwardly shaped parcel next to the Burrard bridge, returned to the Squamish nation (after the already tiny but much larger reserve in that area was shamefully reappropriated and the permanent village forcibly moved), is becoming the development Sen̓áḵw, with 6000 primarily rental homes, carbon neutral, with only 10% parking stalls. The development plan did not require city zoning approvals, and it is supposed to be done in 5 years. It's far more visionary than anything that could be accomplished in the private developer model, and actually meets the housing needs of the area in a timely fashion.
posted by lookoutbelow at 10:35 AM on November 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

Giulio Mattioli's tweets are a wonderful resource on transport research and policy.
posted by jeffburdges at 10:37 AM on November 14, 2022

Or have more taken away, if they're selfish old fucks.

There's a ton of selfish young fucks, too. Every generation is full of 'em.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:38 AM on November 14, 2022

From what I can tell, only rich people will be able to live in the city of the near American future.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:00 AM on November 14, 2022 [4 favorites]

“Abundance” for the poor means only 50% odds of a “synchronous maize crop failure” during the 2040s.
posted by jeffburdges at 1:22 PM on November 14, 2022

I'll add too that it doesn't take a huge project or massive land transfer to create signs of hopeful change. The Sen̓áḵw site is nothing more than two intersecting railway right-of
-ways, and yet it's result has been (before ground is even broken) wide-spread support and pushing for more of the same (but for the residents of the extremely NIMBY-ish neighbours in Kitsilano who "wish they had been consulted"! Ha. Ha.) Most people have totally lost faith with city governance on the housing issue. I can't see how we can make any progress without dramatic changes in approach.
posted by lookoutbelow at 1:30 PM on November 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

I am teary-eyed at the optimism of supposing there will still be a US by the mid-21st Century.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:11 PM on November 14, 2022 [1 favorite]