Library
Between Kevin and Matthew in the Herald-Sun*, you've got most of the details in place about last night's public meeting on the future of the downtown branch of the Durham Public Library.
There's just a couple of things i want to add. First, at one point a slide was presented showing how much of downtown is within a quarter mile and a half mile of the current library location. It's not the distance from people and things and other buildings that makes the library feel so isolated. It's the nature of that distance. As long as Roxboro St. remains the one way on/off ramp between NC 147 and I-85 that it currently functions as, the east side is going to be isolated from the west side. Instead of treating each project as an individual component, isn't it time we started to implement the bicycle and pedestrian plans that the city spent so much money drawing up a couple of years ago? Didn't they call for making Durham a less car-centric community? Doesn't that require making decisions about our future infrastructure that stops privileging the automobile?
And that leads to the second point. Jeffrey Scherer, a consultant who is not involved int he decision-making process on the library, but who is involved nationally in discovering trends on library usage and redesign, at one point made the observation that Americans are almost genetically programmed to expect suburban amenities, like plentiful, self-contained parking lots, in urban environments. (Paraphrasing). Of course, the natural corollary to this is that, if it's "genetically programmed" that it's natural, and that design of those urban environments needs to take that into account. In other words, the preference for suburban amenities can't be unlearned.
Bullshit.
Far from being "genetically programmed," that preference is almost entirely a conditioned reflex in response to a specific set of historical factors dating back only about 65 years, or since the end of World War II. The city of the next 50 years is not going to look like the urban landscape of the past 50 years. It simply will not be sufficient for our decision makers to throw up their hands and say "What could we do? People are genetically disposed to want all that parking."
I'll be in San Francisco for a couple of weeks later on this summer. I'm looking forward to catching a day game at the new Giants ballpark. Here's an overhead shot from Google maps of A T & T park.
Toastie says those parking spaces go for 30 bucks each. A powerful incentive to take public transportation. (To be fair, there are parking spaces just to the south of the crop in this photo. I assume those are the 30 buck "dedicated" spaces mentioned above. No idea what that space is used for on non-game days, but i'll find out when i'm out west.)
Here's the Oakland A's stadium just across the bay, built about 40 years ago. It'll be gone in the next couple of years, if things go according to plan. You can see some renderings of the new park here.
Let's not limit our thinking about the new library, and its role in creating a more walkable, less car-centric Durham, OK?
=================
* - And for more on the Herald-sun, check this out.
There's just a couple of things i want to add. First, at one point a slide was presented showing how much of downtown is within a quarter mile and a half mile of the current library location. It's not the distance from people and things and other buildings that makes the library feel so isolated. It's the nature of that distance. As long as Roxboro St. remains the one way on/off ramp between NC 147 and I-85 that it currently functions as, the east side is going to be isolated from the west side. Instead of treating each project as an individual component, isn't it time we started to implement the bicycle and pedestrian plans that the city spent so much money drawing up a couple of years ago? Didn't they call for making Durham a less car-centric community? Doesn't that require making decisions about our future infrastructure that stops privileging the automobile?
And that leads to the second point. Jeffrey Scherer, a consultant who is not involved int he decision-making process on the library, but who is involved nationally in discovering trends on library usage and redesign, at one point made the observation that Americans are almost genetically programmed to expect suburban amenities, like plentiful, self-contained parking lots, in urban environments. (Paraphrasing). Of course, the natural corollary to this is that, if it's "genetically programmed" that it's natural, and that design of those urban environments needs to take that into account. In other words, the preference for suburban amenities can't be unlearned.
Bullshit.
Far from being "genetically programmed," that preference is almost entirely a conditioned reflex in response to a specific set of historical factors dating back only about 65 years, or since the end of World War II. The city of the next 50 years is not going to look like the urban landscape of the past 50 years. It simply will not be sufficient for our decision makers to throw up their hands and say "What could we do? People are genetically disposed to want all that parking."
I'll be in San Francisco for a couple of weeks later on this summer. I'm looking forward to catching a day game at the new Giants ballpark. Here's an overhead shot from Google maps of A T & T park.
Parking:
The Giants encourage the use of public transportation as the primary means of getting to the ballpark. Parking, however, will be provided to meet the demands of those who wish to drive to the ballpark. In addition to the 6,500 parking spaces within a five- to 10-minute walk of the ballpark, the Giants provide up to 5,000 additional spaces dedicated for ballpark use.
Transportation:
AT&T Park is served by more public transportation than any other ballpark in the country and is within walking distance of downtown and many city neighborhoods. Fans are able to take Muni Metro streetcars and trolley buses, BART (via an in-station link to Muni Metro), CalTrain, buses and ferries to the ballpark. Those choosing to drive to the ballpark have easy access to Pacific Bell Park via the Bay Bridge, Highways 101 and 280 and major San Francisco thoroughfares, including Third Street and the Embarcadero.
Toastie says those parking spaces go for 30 bucks each. A powerful incentive to take public transportation. (To be fair, there are parking spaces just to the south of the crop in this photo. I assume those are the 30 buck "dedicated" spaces mentioned above. No idea what that space is used for on non-game days, but i'll find out when i'm out west.)
Here's the Oakland A's stadium just across the bay, built about 40 years ago. It'll be gone in the next couple of years, if things go according to plan. You can see some renderings of the new park here.
Let's not limit our thinking about the new library, and its role in creating a more walkable, less car-centric Durham, OK?
=================
* - And for more on the Herald-sun, check this out.
Labels: Library, Pedestrian safety, transportation issues
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5 Comments:
The new A's stadium is in Fremont? Criminy.
By
Joseph H. Vilas, at 11:58 PM
Barry,
You might consider reading the book the long emergency by james howard kunstler sometime. Or excerpts from his blog. You might enjoy his not-so-subtle distaste for the parking-parking everywhere attitude that a lot of architects seem to think is correct.
-sv
By
skvidal, at 12:34 AM
I like a place that I can commute to by kayak. :-)
Ironically, my first car was purchased because I was working a block from here (King St. on the other side of 3rd St.). But that's because I was getting off work at 1am. In later years, when I lived on the Peninsula and worked in SOMA, I could hop the Caltrain and walk the 3 or 4 blocks to work.
By
Anonymous, at 11:22 AM
Excellent rejoinder to my comments (in the public meeting) regarding people's predilections for suburban convenience. Thank you for making the point clearer.
By
Jeffrey Scherer, FAIA, at 12:02 PM
Thanks for stopping by, Jeffrey. I suspected that you were trying to make the point that the "disposition" towards suburban expectations in urban environments was not a good thing, but i couldn't really tell. It was clear that your role during the public meeting at least was not to tell people what they should or shouldn't be expecting in a library redesign.
Fortunately, i'm under no such constraints on the blog. I hope you understand there's nothing personal intended in my comments. I'm looking forward to seeing how the thinking about the library evolves as the public gets more involved in the process.
By
Barry, at 12:35 PM
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