Blame Canada
April 10, 2009 6:02 AM   Subscribe

This Ain't Flint

Flint residents are not happy.
posted by various (78 comments total)
 
That's not very polite. May I suggest they give themselves a Reverse Rick Moranis?
posted by splatta at 6:21 AM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


I'm not happy either. It gets harder to like Canada now that its chief export is smug.

The site also fits into the theme of Canada's national identity being based on reminding people that Canada is not the United States.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:24 AM on April 10, 2009 [6 favorites]


Can't we all just get along?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 6:24 AM on April 10, 2009


I can understand when a city/regio/country wants to say "Hey! We're ok! We've not been hit that hard by the recession!"

But using Flint in 1989 is setting the bar a little low for a comparison, dontcha think, Ottawa?
posted by djgh at 6:29 AM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


If you don't want to live in Flint in 1989, you have numerous options besides Ottawa.
posted by kingbenny at 6:30 AM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Region. I am so firing my stenographer.
posted by djgh at 6:31 AM on April 10, 2009


The site also fits into the theme of Canada's national identity being based on reminding people that Canada is not the United States.

It's hard to compete with the United States when our national identity is based on reminding people that we are, in fact, the United States, and we're really bad-ass and can mess you up if you so much as look at us funny.
posted by setanor at 6:41 AM on April 10, 2009 [6 favorites]


It's not "Ottawa" (which implies something funded by the Canadian federal government), it's just some people who live in Ottawa. More specifically, it's a marketing company looking for eyeballs and attention by being schmucks on the internet. Why was this posted? Do you want them to have those eyeballs?
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:47 AM on April 10, 2009 [3 favorites]


It's hard to compete with the United States when our national identity is based on reminding people that we are, in fact, the United States, and we're really bad-ass and can mess you up if you so much as look at us funny.

Oh, come on. Even Canadians think we're rad as hell.
I keed I keed. Let's all have a big North American Group Hug.
posted by cimbrog at 6:48 AM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


It gets harder to like Canada now that its chief export is smug.

Wha?
posted by DU at 6:51 AM on April 10, 2009


This is crap in so many ways.
posted by HuronBob at 6:56 AM on April 10, 2009


It may not be Flint, but it is lame.
posted by oddman at 6:57 AM on April 10, 2009


This Nova Scotia-based radio chain is behind the domain, at least...
posted by setanor at 7:00 AM on April 10, 2009


Ugh smug - this ain't the "best of the web".
posted by jkaczor at 7:02 AM on April 10, 2009


No, actually this is Flint.
posted by GavinR at 7:14 AM on April 10, 2009


    It gets harder to like Canada now that its chief export is smug.
Dude, it's shorthand for "snuggle mug". It's a mug that snuggles. Why do you hate snuggling?
posted by Decimask at 7:17 AM on April 10, 2009 [2 favorites]


Actually, I'm glad to find out WTF is up with those billboards. I thought they were for a punk band.
posted by Decimask at 7:19 AM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


if flint was leeching taxes from the rest of the country it wouldn't be flint either

fuck ottawa and their government sustained superiority
posted by pyramid termite at 7:19 AM on April 10, 2009


I thought Canadians were supposed to be nice.

I'm a Flint expat, and I am offended by the ad, but not because it portrays Flint in a bad light. Flint does suck, and it's very depressing for me to go back to visit family. Hell, it's worse now than in 1989.

I'm offended because the ad is sloppy and cheap. Wanna know why they used "Flint in 1989" as the barometer? It was so they could simply steal repurpose video, images, and facts from Michael Moore's 1989 opus, "Roger and Me."

I'm sorry Ottawa, but I'm going to have to ask that you do your own work from now on. This was just lazy, and I'm a bit disappointed in you, eh? Now get back to work!
posted by mattybonez at 7:42 AM on April 10, 2009


The monotonous delivery of the announcer reminded me of Tommy Carcetti.

That video was a basket full of strawman on a bed of righteous indignation, with a little bit of self-satisfaction sprinkled on top.

No thanks.
posted by orville sash at 7:50 AM on April 10, 2009


If they're trying to compare contemporary Ottawa to some dire point in recent history, why do they have to go back 20 years? They could have chosen from the bombing of Kosovo, the Rwandan massacre, or something from our own decade, like the Darfur refugee camps or New Orleans during Hurrcane Katrina.

Hey, Newcap Radio. Don't pull your punches. Why compare your target market to the consequences of corporate mismanagement when it can look even more glorious in comparison to epic human tragedy that destroys the lives of millions? Ping me if you want to brainstorm, I'm always available.
posted by ardgedee at 7:59 AM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Flint is the largest one-syllable named city in the United States.
posted by Lucinda at 8:01 AM on April 10, 2009


It gets harder to like Canada now that its chief export is smug.

Actually, I heard about this a week ago from a Canadian woman whose blog I read; she thinks it's one of the weirder things she's ever seen. (She actually got so carried away with "what the hell is this" that she ended up delving into the history of the entire campaign and reading up on it.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:13 AM on April 10, 2009


...Spousal Abuse, *cut to skinny white lady*...
posted by Monstrous Moonshine at 8:16 AM on April 10, 2009


Huh?
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:18 AM on April 10, 2009


The monotonous delivery of the announcer reminded me of Tommy Carcetti.

A better VO choice would have been his deputy campaign manager. That dude's voice is practically subsonic.
posted by hifiparasol at 8:18 AM on April 10, 2009


A few weeks ago there was a discussion about how a late-night "comedy" show on FOX News made fun of Canada and the Canadian military, and a number of people (including Lewis Black on the CBC) were adamant that angry Canadians should not judge all of America by a few stupid comments made on Fox. Likewise, Americans should not judge Canada by one website from a marketing agency in Ottawa.

FWIW, the Canadian unemployment rate hit 8% last month, with both Alberta and British Columbia taking a hit along with Ontario. People like Stephen Harper and the makers of this website really need to shut up about Canada not being as badly affected (or however they're weasel-wording it this week) by the recession as other countries.
posted by spoobnooble at 8:24 AM on April 10, 2009 [3 favorites]


the more I think about it, I'm sorry we gave this crap more legs by posting it here...

I vote for example.com ing it...
posted by HuronBob at 8:33 AM on April 10, 2009


This is just payback for that Billy Bob Thornton interview, isn't it?

*shakes fist at Canadian radio*
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:33 AM on April 10, 2009


So are the makers of this ridiculous website (why would they say there's a need to "get this thing moving again" if everything was really hunky-dory?) as gung-ho to say that This Ain't Hamilton, Windsor, or Port Huron as they are to say This Ain't Flint?

The last time I visited those three Ontario cities, which was well before the recession started, they weren't exactly putting on the ritz.
posted by blucevalo at 8:39 AM on April 10, 2009


Sorry, I meant Sarnia, not Port Huron. Haven't had enough caffeine this morning.
posted by blucevalo at 8:41 AM on April 10, 2009


Now we have to do a "This Ain't Port Huron" video, bluvecalo... nice, like I had time to do that this morning! I'm already planning to run over to Windsor and spend the day screaming "This Ain't Detroit" at everyone!
posted by HuronBob at 8:45 AM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


I understand the desire to convince everyone to keep calm and carry on, but this is a lame way to do it.
posted by orange swan at 8:50 AM on April 10, 2009


(/me Actually sits through the whole video)

Yeah, that's not cool at all. As a Canuck living in the NCR temporarily, my apologies to Flint, to Michigan, and to the United States in general.
    The unemployment rate in Ottawa is the lowest in the country.
Oh f*** off. That's because the entire public service for this massive country is centered here. PM Harper is blowing a whole lot of smoke. Fine, the banks are more tightly regulated, so they don't have the same exposure to CDS's, etcetera, but something like 70-80% of our economy is tied to the fortunes of the elephant.

Not impressed. I'm trying to find who to complain to at OC Transpo about this ad.
posted by Decimask at 8:53 AM on April 10, 2009


After watching Reno! 911 and Parks and Recreation last night, and seeing "This Ain't Flint" this morning, I felt like it was a TV parody of what local government would create, though the set-up was longer than most parodies would go. It was almost half of the video! It seems like someone got carried away with MINDBLOWING OLD FACTS they found online, and didn't want to edit it down.

Why not focus on the general US trends vs. local Ottawa facts? Why not go back to the recession? "People had to get by SELLING APPLES AND MATCHES! LOOK AT THIS SAD, DIRTY MATCH SELLING GIRL!"
posted by filthy light thief at 9:01 AM on April 10, 2009


As a Canuck living in the NCR temporarily

Oh, Jesus, did the bombs drop already?!
posted by adamdschneider at 9:02 AM on April 10, 2009 [2 favorites]


spoobnooble, the EMPLOYMENT rate in Calgary is still an astonishing 73.3%. There is only one city in Canada- Saskatoon- that has a PARTICIPATION rate that exceeds our EMPLOYMENT rate. So yes, Calgary's "unemployment" rate has increased to a not-bad-at-all (AT ALL) 5.5%, but this is with a labour market that is still working too much and too hard. If we had a typical rate of labour participation in Calgary we'd have an "unemployment" rate well below zero.

This ain't Flint. And the point that the economic bad times ARE in fact influenced by bad NEWS bears mentioning, and bears repeating. It doesn't have to be done as was in this link, but we have to remind ourselves-- in Calgary moreso than in Ottawa, because Calgary's employment landscape is still the strongest in the country with the highest rate of employment by far- that things aren't as bad as the media, US and otherwise, are claiming is the case everywhere. It's not.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 9:08 AM on April 10, 2009


    Oh, Jesus, did the bombs drop already?!
Worse. Grad school student employment.
posted by Decimask at 9:16 AM on April 10, 2009


I saw these yesterday while dodging the scary ranting streetpeople and demolition sites on Bank St. Stay classy, Ottawa!
posted by scruss at 9:25 AM on April 10, 2009


ethnomethodologist, may I suggest the use of the <em></em> tags? And Calgary as you say is an outlier; have the recent, substantial job losses in the oil sands trickled back to the city yet?
posted by sixswitch at 9:27 AM on April 10, 2009


The context missing here is not that Ottawa has a lot of public sector employment (it very much does), nor that we're doing better than say, Oshawa, but that the other major employer in town is Nortel. The same Nortel, that's been imploding since 2000, the same company that shed over 6000 jobs in the last month.

Not that this excuses the horrible little ad video, but Ottawans are in the middle of our major private sector employer disappearing. People are concerned that the region is on the edge of the cliff, about to plunge over. But still, nasty pieces of fluff aren't going to help, either.
posted by bonehead at 9:33 AM on April 10, 2009


as gung-ho to say that This Ain't Hamilton, Windsor, or Port Huron

s/Port Huron/Sarnia, Ontario's chemical capital/
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:39 AM on April 10, 2009


The video isn't working for me, but Ottawa-Gatineau (the National Capital Region for us government employees) isn't all roses. A few years ago Ottawa was the "hi-tech capital of Canada". Today... not so much. In the first half of the 20th century, we had a large industrial economy built around wood (matches, paper, lumber), but we lost most of it after WWII; today, the remaining plants are closing.

We probably don't have as many boarded up houses as Flint did in 1989, but there are some decrepit parts in our cities. And we have an homelessness problem all right.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 9:43 AM on April 10, 2009


Canada is lovely. Canada is also quite boring.
posted by bardic at 9:46 AM on April 10, 2009


Cool! Smug, boring and a lame marketing effort, all in one package. I still like Canada though, mostly because they have all my tax money.
posted by sneebler at 9:52 AM on April 10, 2009


This is not Ottawa, and this is not Canada. Some radio station created these spots.

Anyway, besides the slur on Flint, the spot is stupid in any number of ways: Ottawa is the coldest national capital. Everyone I know who lives there wants to get out.

Canadians have been telling themselves since September that the recession won't affect us, but we have our heads buried in the sand: manufacturing has collapsed, commodities have collapsed, construction has collapsed, energy has collapsed. We're just coasting along based on remaining the momentum of the past five years, but 2010 is going to be ugly.

But, once again, some brainless talk radio personalities created this spot, not Ottawa.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:53 AM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


The context missing here is not that Ottawa has a lot of public sector employment (it very much does), nor that we're doing better than say, Oshawa, but that the other major employer in town is Nortel. The same Nortel, that's been imploding since 2000, the same company that shed over 6000 jobs in the last month.


Yeah, but the bright side of the Nortel collapse over the past decade is that the talent freed up from that company has gone on to create many new startups and SMEs in the Ottawa region. Ottawa is still an advanced technology centre, and something people in Ottawa should be proud of.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:56 AM on April 10, 2009


I live in Ottawa. Why the heck is this on Metafilter? Most Ottawa residents either don't know what this is about, or think it's painfully stupid.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 9:57 AM on April 10, 2009


It's amazing to see so many people get offended over a terrible student-run ad campaign. It's even more amazing to see people blame Ottawa for it. Seriously?

Actually, I heard about this a week ago from a Canadian woman whose blog I read; she thinks it's one of the weirder things she's ever seen. (She actually got so carried away with "what the hell is this" that she ended up delving into the history of the entire campaign and reading up on it.)

Yes.
posted by Jairus at 9:57 AM on April 10, 2009


I was in Ottawa a few months ago, for the first time in my life as an adult. "Wow, for the capital city of my country, this place sure is a dinky little run-down shithole," I kept thinking to myself.

Ottawa - it sure ain't Vancouver.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:58 AM on April 10, 2009


So the plan was to boost morale and provide reassurance to Canadians by shitting on Flint Michigan?
Anybody know how that's working out for them?
If it's really effective we could start work immediately on a vid shitting on Juarez to boost morale in Temecula. ("Chamber of Commerce? I have a really bitchin' idea for you...")

Sigh...
posted by speug at 10:04 AM on April 10, 2009


Ottawa - it sure ain't Vancouver.

Sure ain't.
posted by Jairus at 10:05 AM on April 10, 2009 [2 favorites]


I think they should go one step further, make it the new tourism/economic development slogan.

Ottawa: Still Better Than The Poster Child For American Industrial Decline!

Or maybe

Ottawa: At Least Our Shuttered Workplaces Used To Supply White-Collar Tech-Sector Jobs!

In any case, there's an apples-and-oranges thing here. You want Canada's Flint, look no further than Windsor, whose downtown would be a dystopic ruin (or, depending on your point of view, more of a dystopic ruin) if not for the fact that what's left of Detroit still comes across the bridge periodically to gamble and ogle strippers. But hey, at least the crusaders at the CAW have got their back.

In fact, these Ottawa ad wizards should totally take over the CAW Save Our Severance campaign. Someone should register www.this-aint-flint-but-it-soon-will-be-if-we-stop-colluding-with-the-Big-Three-to-extort-money-from-government-to-keep-our-obsolete-businesses-operating-so-keep-fighting-the-good-fight.com ASAP.
posted by gompa at 10:05 AM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Flying into Toronto for a airplane transfer, I go the impression the the Center of the Universe is also a shithole.

It's a good thing those out East don't often bother to come West. They'd never go home happy. The coasts and mountains are where the beauty is found.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:10 AM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


I just read Audra's blog post.

Wow. Sorry about our douchebags in Ottawa, Flint. How embarassing.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:14 AM on April 10, 2009


Like all things, shitholeness is relative.
posted by Decimask at 10:14 AM on April 10, 2009


"This ain't Flint—we let 19-year-olds drink!"
posted by klangklangston at 10:16 AM on April 10, 2009 [2 favorites]


spoobnooble: A few weeks ago there was a discussion about how a late-night "comedy" show on FOX News made fun of Canada and the Canadian military, and a number of people (including Lewis Black on the CBC) were adamant that angry Canadians should not judge all of America by a few stupid comments made on Fox. Likewise, Americans should not judge Canada by one website from a marketing agency in Ottawa.

True, but ask people living in Buffalo about their day-to-day encounters with Canadians, and the answers will go beyond "they're lowsy tippers". Canadians don't hold back any punches when it comes to mocking and criticizing Buffalo, even when they're south of the border visiting the malls and shopping districts of the city they love to hate. Unfortunately, there is such a thing as an "ugly Canadian".
posted by elmwood at 10:22 AM on April 10, 2009


This is Flin Flon
posted by isopraxis at 10:34 AM on April 10, 2009


I like the idea of trying to counteract unnecessary hysteria from mainstream media, but this video has an overpowering feeling of a de-programming hypnosis video. Dear Leader is the way! You will follow him! You love Dear Leader!
posted by ElmerFishpaw at 10:36 AM on April 10, 2009


This is Flin Flon (slyt)
posted by isopraxis at 10:37 AM on April 10, 2009


Canadians don't hold back any punches when it comes to mocking and criticizing Buffalo, even when they're south of the border visiting the malls and shopping districts of the city they love to hate.

I kind of got that same sense about the two Niagara Falls. Discernible mockery and snootery on the Ontario side toward the New York side.

Toronto is still pretty awesome, though.
posted by blucevalo at 10:54 AM on April 10, 2009


Flying into Toronto for a airplane transfer, I go the impression the the Center of the Universe is also a shithole.

YYZ is a pretty bland airport (still better than Trudeau). This goes double for the now-demolished Terminal 2.
posted by oaf at 11:17 AM on April 10, 2009


the EMPLOYMENT rate in Calgary is still an astonishing 73.3%

just does to show you, we all have our crosses to bear
posted by pyramid termite at 11:23 AM on April 10, 2009


Not the airport, the city itself. It looked like an ugly environment in which to live.

But different strokes for different folks. I live in a small town that itself is fugly in many areas. But at least I have a skiiable mountain, beautiful large lakes, green hills, farms, and other assorted beauty. If I were to choose a big-city experience, Vancouver and Calgary are both orders of magnitude more beautiful. I don't "get" the attraction to a grey, flat, old city.

Maybe I need to walk its streets. But having been in San Francisco, I think I'd find Toronto to offer less than Vancouver.

But it must work for a bunch of people because, by god, you'd swear Toronto were the heart of Canada.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:28 AM on April 10, 2009


Not the airport, the city itself.

Is Pearson even in Toronto? I thought it was in Mississauga. Either way, the airport is really far out in the burbs. "The city itself" is about an hour away.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:52 AM on April 10, 2009


Who wants to live beside an airport? Nobody. No wonder when you flew in you probably saw a rail yard and several hundred warehouses. Queens isn't that nice from the air, but I wouldn't judge New York on that basis.

Does this really need to turn into yet another "Vancouver is so pretty discussion?"
posted by maledictory at 12:11 PM on April 10, 2009


Does this really need to turn into yet another "Vancouver is so pretty discussion?"

In my experience, any conversation with a VanCity/VanI resident has a better than average chance of proceeding eventually to a "Vancouver's so pretty aren't you jealous?" track. It's like the Godwin's law of West Coast social interaction. It's like they think they built the mountains or something. Or that you can't see them clearly from the eastern side of them, through 300-plus days of southern Alberta sunshine.

Back in the early '90s when I was in undergrad in southern Ontario with a bunch of transplanted Vancouverites, there was a second track where they explained to you the innate cultural superiority of their hometown, usually using Starbucks and A&B Sound as the pillars of their argument. (Starbucks arrived in Vancouver almost a full decade ahead of the rest of Canada; A&B Sound had cheaper CDs than most places. On such weak sauce was superiority built in those days.)
posted by gompa at 12:19 PM on April 10, 2009


Does this really need to turn into yet another "Vancouver is so pretty discussion?"

Me, I'm happy with continuing the "Ottawa is a dumpy shithole" discussion.
posted by Meatbomb at 12:52 PM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Me, I live in a log cabin beside a remote creek in a remote arm of the an inland mountain chain, subsisting on a diet of grubs and berries. Toronto? Pah! Vancouver? Double-pah!
posted by five fresh fish at 1:05 PM on April 10, 2009


You have grubs? Luxury.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:15 PM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Ahh, Appalachia. I'm glad all these folks think you're a dumpy little-sister region full of toothless hillbillies.

* pets hound dog, flosses tooth.
posted by sonic meat machine at 3:48 PM on April 10, 2009


Anyway, besides the slur on Flint, the spot is stupid in any number of ways: Ottawa is the coldest national capital. Everyone I know who lives there wants to get out.

Colder than Reykjavik or Moscow? Because those places are very cold.

Flying into Toronto for a airplane transfer, I go the impression the the Center of the Universe is also a shithole.

No, central Mississauga (where the Toronto airport is located) is a shithole. North-western Etobicoke is pretty bad and large parts of North York are also dire. And the suburbs look like suburbs anywhere.

But the traditional urban and semi-urban areas of Toronto are very elegant and well-laid out attractive roads and lots of greenery. I should know - I've done long-distance walking around Toronto (3-4 hours in one direction). I found it more walking friendly than Vancouver, and better transit than either Vancouver or Montreal.
posted by jb at 5:00 PM on April 10, 2009


Maybe I need to walk its streets. But having been in San Francisco, I think I'd find Toronto to offer less than Vancouver.

Yes, you need to walk its streets. I've done hours of walking across both cities. Both have their nice areas (which are remarkably similar in feel a layout), and their ugly areas.

Then again, Vancouver could just be more extreme - Toronto has nothing as pretty as the mountain Simon Fraser is on, and our waterfront isn't as nice. But we also have nothing as sad as East Hastings Street. (And, yes, I have hung out at Queen and Jarvis).

But in general, from street level (not from the air), Toronto is a green grid city. It's very North American in layout and feel, in being based on grids, but large parts of it are early North American in that it was established in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and are very walkable and pedestrian oriented, with low-rise commercial mainstreets, and backstreets with lovely gabled houses and green folliage everywhere. And we have so many beautiful ravines filled with parkland and even wilderness winding through the city. Vancouverites look up to the horison for their nature, we can slip away into secret green places and not even see the city.
posted by jb at 5:10 PM on April 10, 2009


jb speaks aright. Robert Fulford put together a book of his urban design columns on Toronto, called Accidental City. In the column/chapter on what goes on beneath the surface (where he discusses both the underground passageway network in the core and the ravines that crisscross the city) he mentions that because the original grid laid out by military by engineers totally ignored the contours of the land. Because of this, the ravines with their hiking trails and bike paths are a totally separate network where wildlife still hangs on and it is quite possible to travel a surprising distance in the middle of a city of three million without seeing a building.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:29 PM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]


Yeah, maybe Ottowa is better than Flint, Michigan. But Ottowa sucks ass compared to DC, LA, NY, Chi, NO... on and on.

Slightly pathetic when your ad campaign is - see this economically troubled city, well at least we are not that bad.
posted by Flood at 5:48 AM on April 11, 2009


I saw one of those ads the other day and wondered what it was about. Pretty tasteless.

Ottawa isn't a dumpy shithole though. It's desolate. That was always what struck me when I came back here after spending time in other cities. There's no street life, no sense of activity. It's very static. People expect that because it's the capital it's going to be a big city, but it's not at all. If you compare the population density of Ottawa to the other major cities that have been mentioned in this thread you'll see that they have densities several times that of Ottawa. That's why this place doesn't really feel like a city. I also noticed that Toronto is remarkably green for all the shit people talk about it being a concrete jungle.
posted by benign at 8:40 AM on April 11, 2009


I also noticed that Toronto is remarkably green for all the shit people talk about it being a concrete jungle.
posted by benign at 11:40 AM on April 11 [+] [!]


The Bay/King area is pretty dire - just massive sky-scrapers, and cold, damp concrete where the sun truly never shines. That's the Toronto of banks, head offices and the stock-exchange. Also that stupid underground mall that all the tourists seem to have heard of, but which is a terrible shopping place.

But most Torontonians avoid that area if they can - Yonge and Queen, Yonge and Dundas, that's where the downtown crowds are. The whole of Yonge street above Queen is scruffy and colourful and that's where you find boutiques nestled in against discount stores.

The green starts up as soon as you start getting low-rise residential, which is within a 10-20 minute walk of Yonge Street on both sides. It's still very dense (narrow two to three-storey houses, small yards), but I find it greener than similarly dense low-rise development, like you see in urban Britain. Just little things, like leaving 1-3 feet worth of a mini-lawn, rather than having the door come right to the street, also having more tree-lined streets. I think it shows a more late 19th/early 20th cent fashion of development, rather than the early-mid 19th cent dominance (which had much less interest in greenery) that you see in many places in Britain.
posted by jb at 10:38 AM on April 11, 2009


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