vision2020@moscow.com: Re: pieces of the puzzle

Re: pieces of the puzzle

Diane Prorak (prorak@uidaho.edu)
Fri, 12 Apr 1996 13:18:28 -0700 (PDT)

But okay, at some point (often too late) people start to dislike the mess
they have created by building solely for autos. Ask people in the Chicago
suburbs if they really like the traffic messes they have created? Do they
have any place they really like in their communities? Do they really
like miles and miles of strip malls? So is the only choice we
have is to give up and let Moscow become strip malls and parking lots like
most everywhere else?

Or can we somehow get people to consider the tradeoffs when you "pave
paradise and put up a parking lot?"

Diane

On Fri, 12 Apr 1996, Fritz Knorr wrote:

>
> >Actually, it's shorthand for my usual rant about:
> >"The-organizing-principle-of-America-is-the-automobile-people-won't-go
> >where-they-can't-drive-and-park-dammit-would Walmart-build-parking
> >lots-where-customers-ride-shuttle-buses?-only-kids-under-sixteen,-
> >pointy-headed-professors-and-granolas-ride-bikes-public-buildings
> >need-adjacent-parking-for-customers-and-employees,blah,blah,blah.
> >
> >Aren't you glad I abbreviated it? :-)
>
> OK. But I also detected a note of
> we-keep-deluding-ourselves-that-anyone-wants-a
> liveable-community-all-they-really-want-is-a-place-to-drive-and-park-if-we-w
> ant something-nice-it'll-only-come-by-sneaking-it-along-with-some-other-ugly
> development-because-a-direct-approch-to-a-human-scale-livable-community-will
> always-fail.
>
> I dunno, poetry is always open to interpretation.
>
> Let's face it - automobiles are the dominant species in out community.
> Humans have completely lost control. Autos are greedy and dangerous, and
> taking them on in a direct confrontation will always fail. They got us
> beat. The only way to get something built for humans is to _sneak_ it by
> the autos. The Mountain View project failed because it was human oriented
> construction right on the auto's turf. It was a direct provocation. They
> figured it out right away.
>
> So, for downtown, remember, autos really don't like parkades. You can
> squeeze in urban autos when you really have to. But even they never
> actually like it; although they'll tolerate it, barely. But you take the
> country born and bred autos around here; why, they would never go in one of
> those things.
>
> 50 cents an hour?? Forget it. Let's go to wal-mart.
>
> Fritz
>
>
>


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