Any decrease in car dependency will require re-establishing dense population patterns: it's simple geography.
I started out to write about the current state of the 'inner city,' schools, race, crime, etc., but this contribution from Meagen Farrell on +Rust Wire , an important blog by +Angie Schmitt once again knocked me on my ass:
Living in Hough
You absolutely must read not only that contribution, but the 4 preceding ones, to which links are provided at the top.
I live in a Cleveland neighborhood known as Tremont, (or The Southside if you're a traditionalist,) in which I was lucky enough to purchase a house in 1993, just as the area was beginning to grow in popularity.
First, the usual suspects, The Artists began purchasing crappy homes from slumlords and the children of older ethnic families in the 1980s. Then the Bars and Restaurants moved in. (Michael Symon's first big hit "Lola" started here.)
It is now too expensive for most young people to acquire a house despite the poor quality of the late 1800s (worse) to early 1900s (better) construction.
There are many expensive rehabs and expensive modern construction homes in the last 2-10 years as well.
All well and good. I expect, and have personally benefitted from this kind of change, well aware of the anger, unfairness, and controversy it can cause among the dispossessed and/or early 'pioneers' not as lucky as myself. I am willing to move again however, as the disparity on display here has begun to bother me.
Point is, most people are wondering where the next neighborhood is going to be.
Freshwater Cleveland is publishing a series on that very topic, such as this one on the North Collinwood effort:
Next Neighborhood
Distressingly, I see most people forced out of Tremont heading West in a pattern eerily similar to that of my parents, who ended up far East in Mentor, Ohio where I went to school, and learned nothing. (So much for good school systems.)
Mentor was once a tiny, quaint village now turned into a hellhole of strip mall sprawl by the federally supported mandate to clear the cities, provided by the gazillions of dollars invested in the highway system.
The way the Feds still pour money into these systems, you would think the mandate were still in place.
Why are my friends trickling West, (even those who started East as I did?)
I am a white guy.
My father, (born in Hough) is a frightening spectre on the beach. That side of my family is as white as Obama's maternal grandfather:
Chris Rock
This is where black people live in Cuyahoga County:
Nodis GIS
None of my friends are racist. They are all good-hearted and right-minded people.
We are all deeply affected by racism.
This is a conversation avoided for over 50 years.
It may finally be happening.
Hi - Just wanted to say I'm happy to have found your blog. I'm a "non-vehicular commuter" (transit rider and walker during the winter, biker during the summer) in Buffalo and think a lot about many of the same issues you talk about here. Luckily, Buffalo remains a relatively dense and not particularly auto-dependent place from a statistical standpoint. But talking to the people around here, the perception is very different - basically, that the only people that matter are drivers. Transit users - despite the fact that the system is relatively efficient and well-used - are the scum of the earth. If we have any hope of changing that, we need to change the perception of non-drivers. As you say, re-densifying the cities will have a strong impact on that.
ReplyDeleteGlad to meet ya Loosh! I'm pretty much just getting started here.
ReplyDeleteI've been posting much to my Google + Page of the same name if you're interested.
The experiences in the cities of the Great Lakes region are very similar.
Transit riders in the automobile breadbasket are viewed as either unfortunate or medical oddities.
One of the worst parts of this issue, from the perspective of your blog, is how non-walkable the east side neighborhoods are...despite the larger proportion of carless people. The houses are larger and harder to maintain as single family homes or even duplexes. The lack of density means fewer businesses. We'd had three bus routes within 1 mile of our home stopped since we moved in 7 years ago. It started with a little bit of racism and has snowballed into an environmental and economic avalanche! I look forward to hearing more of your analysis about some of the underlying factors, too, and working towards workable solutions.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest that with the exception of neighborhoods VERY close to the city center, (many of which are gone now,) the linear development pattern was already underway. There were horse-powered vehicles originally.
ReplyDeleteIf you examine the illustrations of the Millionaire's Row homes, the idea was always to have this grand promenade for carriages off the front of the property. This was on the once better off east side of course.
Also, I would offer that the E 55th and Broadway intersection provided an excellent walkable environment, a 'mini-downtown' at one time. It could be again.
This type of intersection for primary economic activity is a little harder to define for other east side neighborhoods:
E 105 and St Clair in Glenville, (now a horrible strip mall.) The failed East Side Market still looms.
St Clair or Superior and Addison.
Five Points in Collinwood.
Mayfield and Euclid, and of course, Little Italy
Woodland and E 55th
Buckeye and Woodhill
In Hough it was E 79th and Hough Ave.
I would love to see a true attempt at a village-style development within the city of Cleveland, patterned much like you may find in Europe or New England or even when Cleveland itself was just beginning.
Where that might happen would be subject to the usual political insanity, I'm sure.