vision2020@moscow.com: C d'A: The Rural Town
C d'A: The Rural Town
Steve Cooke (SCOOKE@marvin.csrv.uidaho.edu)
Mon, 5 Jun 1995 10:15:53 PST8PDT
Dear Visionaries,
Re. the C d'A meeting, some highlights for me.
Michael Harrison: chief planner of district and neighborhood
planning for Portland, OR.
Harrison dfn of community is shared values w/ neighbors and pride
of place. This is realized as overlapping circles or networks of
family, friends, neighbors, schools, shops, workplace,
entertainment, cultural events, public services, etc. In a community,
these networks overlap. When these networks do not overlap, you feel
alienated and isolated. (The image of the virtual community is to be
continuous in your car w/ a celular phone, modem, and laptop.)
Harrison also spoke to the trade off between density of settlement
and sense of community. Density was measured in terms of pedestrian
city (10 sq miles), bike size city (100 sq miles), car/bus size (300
sq miles), freeway size city (800 sq miles). Harrison argues that as
density increases, the sense of community increases and the cost of
the infrastructure decreases. He also admits that a sense of
communty often comes at the expense of individual freedom.
The quest for individual freedom has lead to sprawl through the
pursuit of the suburban dream of a car(s), a single family home, and a
dog w/ a yard. The alternative to this according to Jonathan Reich is
higher density housing w/ privacy w/ parking.
Steve Cooke
This archive courtesy of:
First Step Internet