This post is due by Tuesday, November 5 @ midnight. No credit given for late posts.
Read the assigned chapters above, and then:
1. Provide 3 SPECIFIC observations about Cars, Culture and Media you learned from EACH chapter of our book, using 2-3 sentences combining the book and your own IYOW analysis. (Yes, the Introduction counts.)
2. Finally, ask ONE specific question you have of Cars, Culture and Media after completing our reading.
Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteCars: Cars, namely Henry Ford and the model T’s, are the season that Detroit became such a wealthy place and its wealth exploded so fast. Between 1904 and 1920 Ford’s employee went from 31 to 56,000! (p 191). The superhighways then built to move all these cars became “stakes driven through hearts of old neighborhoods, killing whatever life they touched” (p 193)
Culture: The culture of cities is very interestingly described in this chapter. How they cam to be and how they were built, with the car often contributing to their design so taht it as easy to move around inside of one. This has led to a number of problems including loss of public transit and leading to such things as the smog problem above LA which is a continuing problem and can only really be solved if we go straight to the source. what we really need is a paradigm shift.
Media: On Page 207 Kunstler talks about Los Angeles and how during the time we invaded Kuwait, LA was talking about everything except oil and the need for it. I find this to be very sad, but interesting how oblivious they are to what drives there culture. I don’t think that this is an isolated situation, but rather pretty prevalent idea throughout America. Americans rarely think of the impact they are having (outside of the money they are spending) and how much energy is going into and what is happening in other parts of the world to support their way of life. Very crazy how excepted the car culture is in our society and how unrecognized its impacts are by most people.
Chapter 12:
Cars: “Paintings with cars don’t sell” (p 240) This idea keeps being revisited, how cars are not ‘sexy’ and cars are not something people are openly proud of. They have become a sort of necessity for the way we live our lives, but they are not something that we associate comfort, relaxation and homeliness with.
Culture: The idea of escapism is addressed on page 221. The idea of Escaping from your dreary life where town are turning into businesses and mega-corporations are starting to take over. Kunstler is talking about Disney world and how people flock there on vacation time from their miserable jobs to “feel good about America”.
“The Woodstock that the tourists love is largely a figment of the collective national imagination” (p 243) going on idea of escapism, tourists come to small towns like this to be happy and to see what ‘America’ is really like. The sad fact though, is that is what America used to be like and now has been transformed by corporations, money and big business. we need more self reliance, and we are lying to ourselves if we say that is what we have, even in VT. We are better than most, but as showcased through Woodstock here, we are simply showing an imagine, and a fictional one at that...
Value of place is being forgotten in our culture..except as a sales gimmick (p 244)
Media: the way that casinos are built and made to look and feel for the gamblers is..genius. using dim lights, bright colors and mirrors, it makes people feel rich and like they are in a gigantic room. They are then apt to spend more money and make bets, ultimately losing money. They are rewarded with minor payoffs occasionally so that they keep going in hopes for the big one. Overall, an incredible market scheme to get people to hand you money...
Chapter 13:
ReplyDeleteCars: After WW II cars took over. Urban design lost its respect for the human scale and human needs. Everything began to be put on the scale with the car. “Our buildings look ridiculous largely because they are built to serve cars, not people...” (p 266 )
Culture: The loss of culture in agriculture (p248) Why have we lost the ability to grow our own food? Are we lazy, scared? don’t have the skills? We need to learn to grow our own food again, and support ourselves instead of being reliant upon supermarkets and industrial agriculture.
Building code has a lot to do with the relationship between public and private space and how these to areas can mesh together. i.e. a lot of things good for people and places are restricted by code. example: Seaside p 257.
Media: p 249: Idea of relationships =genius! buildings are not just objects in space, but rather a way of connecting relationships. Idea of Christopher Alexander...from U of California. A lot of these good building practices, practices that encourage friendliness and neighborliness were illegal via zoning laws.
Chapter 11
ReplyDelete-Kunstler describes how there was optimism in Detroit that “the automobile would transform life for the better, and that it was somehow Detroit’s obligation… to show America the way to refit a city for motoring.” As were all aware, things haven’t turned out so well for the city in recent times. In hindsight were able to see that they ignored any potential consequences for putting such faith in cars.
-Kunstler’s first line when discussing Portland, Oregon is, “could this be America?” He then goes on to describe features of a city that doesn’t seem particularly too spectacular, rather it’s probably what you think of when you imagine an efficient city that would be a nice place to live. Basic amenities such as “well-cared-for-buildings” and “fountains that work” are now foreign in many cities in America.
-Kunstler talks about how the average citizen of Los Angeles seems to be oblivious to world situations that threaten their daily way of life. LA is known for having some of the worst traffic in the country, people there love their cars. Yet, there seems to be a case of “mass denial” that helps them believe nothing bad can come of continuing their daily routines in the same fashion.
Chapter 12
-I thought it was interesting that Kunstler described traveling a long-distance on an interstate highway is “literally like going nowhere fast.” I’ve driven a lot around various parts of the country and can attest that driving through Montana and driving through Georgia (besides the obvious scenery differences) is pretty much the same, particularly at night. If it weren’t for signs constantly telling you where you are and where you’re going, it’d be so easy to get lost because everything looks the same.
-Kunstler spends some time discussing Atlantic City, New Jersey. He mentions that while driving towards the city, “the skyline rose into view above the salt marshes.” I went to AC this weekend and the casinos are scarily enormous. With almost nothing else around above three stories, they are intimidating to say the least.
-Kunstler also mentions how casinos never have any windows or clocks, and keep the lights dimmed as if it were evening. The lights never change, and the casino feels the same at all hours of the day. People lose track of time while attempting to win big and end up gambling for hours on end, “pissing away [their] daughter’s college tuition.”
Chapter 13
-I like how Kunstler worded the statement that, “the overall consequence is that we have lost our sense of consequence.” While were all environmental students who learn everyday about how our decisions are affecting the world, it’s important to remember that most people don’t care at all about the indirect results of their actions. ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ seems to be the slogan of the past few generations.
-I agree with Kunstler’s opinion that a change in our capitalist economy is necessary. We currently have an “exhaustive economy” that needs to make the shift towards one that is sustainable. Exploitation of resources until they are gone is a habit of people trying to make a lot of money, but it kills the long-term ability for others to make enough to live comfortably.
-Kunstler mentions that we need to give up “mass automobile use.” He doesn’t make the unrealistic request that people stop using their cars all together, but rather to limit use for mundane, everyday activities. Simple things such as running errands on the way to or from work, grouping errands into single trips, and using public transportation or walking when it is an option can greatly reduce how often cars are being used. Although it is ingrained in our society, not owning a car doesn’t mean that one is not an American.
Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteCARS
On page 195, Kunstler gives us insight into Detroit as Motown—“the nation’s sixth largest city fast becoming an all Afro-American metropolis.” This, he comments later, was an illusion: the utopia was as unsteady as the car industry, even the music industry moved to Los Angelos when the Japanese entered the market during the Arab Oil Embargo of the 70s. It’s interesting to read this now, having seen Detroit go bankrupt. It makes me wonder if perhaps the entire car industry itself is about to belly up in just the same way—would America go bankrupt?
CULTURE
On page 201, Kunstler talks about the value of living in downtown Portland. He says “because people live there in high density, the city can support a variety of eating places, bars, cafés, clubs.” I completely agree with him here, but I think it’s valuable to add, too, that the homes in Southeast Portland a little bit outside the downtown area, at least the ones my friends have rented, fit into that sweet spot between city and rural life. They are out in the woods, with amazing backyards and gorgeous tree-lined surroundings, but close enough to other houses and businesses that it doesn’t feel like the middle of nowhere. Not to mention, the public transportation system was able to get my friends not only to the city but to classes on time.
MEDIA
On page 210, Kunstler points out that, because Hollywood was so adept at building film sets, “the insides of buildings became much more important than the outside.” I thought it was interesting how the focus on media and film industry could change the entire landscape of a city.
Chapter 12:
MEDIA:
In his description of Tomorrowland in Disney World, Kunstler comemnts that “here, in all its silliness stands yesterday’s version of the future: a denatured life of endless leisure, where the only purpose of existence is the eventual permanent escape from planet Earth to colonize other worlds….In Disney’s future we are all consumers with our needs completely satisfied and ready to expire” (226). Reading this, I immediately thought about Wall-E, where Earth has become a wasteland of human junk while obese humans take in food and entertainment at a constant stream until they die. This film, ironically a Disney film, seems like a more accurate rendition of Tomorrowland, and would probably attract just as many, if not more people.
CULTURE:
On page 236, Kunstler compares the Boardwalk in Atlantic City (“it remains one of America’s great public spaces…it still functions as it was originally designed to”) to the timeless, depressing indoor casinos (“murky, smoke-filled, headache inducing”). It’s interesting that the two function in such close proximity: the freeing sensation of ocean breeze and public space juxtaposed to a sad, artificial room full of losers that keep on losing for fun.
CARS
Kunstler describes the tourists visiting Woodstock, Vermont, saying “you knew they were high-flyers because they stepped out of immaculate four-wheel Jeeps, or else sedans of German manufacture” (239). He goes on to describe what the small town “signified to them: the idea of a true community organized at the human scale, along with a feeling of secure remoteness from the so-called modern wolrld and all its terrors of gigantism and discontinuity” (239). The very objects that define and get us through a world made for the mobile lets us escape to the town that is a cheap replica of what we really crave in our society.
Chapter 13:
ReplyDeleteCULTURE
On page 254, Kunstler describes the type of town that Davis, Duany, and Plater-zyrbek intended to build: “the classic Southern small town,…made up of so-called “cracker cottages,” wood-framed dwellings with deep roof overhangs, ample windows, and broad porches, designed for ventilation and shade in a hot climate.” This reminded me of the book Cradle to Cradle, written by an architect and chemist, who’s main them is developing a sustainable ecomomy. One focus is on buildings that reflect the natural landscape and reduce the need for artificial air, heat, even energy. In one anecdote the authors remember attempting to build solar panels in Ireland as a complete and total failure.
CARS
In the last few pages of the book, Kunstler comments on the American-ness of cars: “to be against cars was more un-American than being against the Vietnam war—even hippies loved their microbuses, and every guitar player had his song of the open road” (274). I’ve always been quietly proud of never learning to drive. Not only is my carbon footprint pretty nice and low, but I saved so much money and saved myself from the headaches cars seem to bring. And yet, most of my friends (even the environmentally conscious) tell me that I really NEED to learn how to drive. They say it’s ridiculous that I don’t have a license. It’s ok when you’re 18 or 19, but they assert that it’s something that everybody should get eventually.
MEDIA
Kunstler describes one of the biggest problems with sprawl when he says “ignoring the relationships between things and fetishizing buildings, the cult of Modernism promoted all the discontinuities of sprawlscape” (250). I thought no other form of media exemplifies this as much as Edward Scissorhands, where the gentle monster on the hill comes down and wreaks havoc with his awesome design genius in the bland, cookie-cutter suburbs, only to be banished indefinitely.
QUESTION
How long will it take for America to shift its paradigms? What will it take in the Whitehouse for us to give up fracking and drilling in wildlife refuges and focus on big alternatives, like building design and different means of transportation? Is it happening now, or will it just be another problem to shrug off to the next generation?
CHAPTER 11
ReplyDeleteCars: I was surprised how great an influence the car and the car industry has had in shaping American cities. Detroit in particular saw a sixfold population increase from 1900-1930 and mass-produced housing. These increases were largely due to car industry employees flooding into the city. The new people and buildings caused by the automobile led to the race and economic problems that Detroit is still struggling with.
Culture: On page 194 Kunstler describes the fifties as America's "golden hour, a time of tailfins and the hoopla of annual model changes." This quote got me thinking about the film "American Graffiti" and the excitement that was occurring in our country around the automobile. We were on top of the world and it seemed like nothing could go wrong. I think that we as a country are just finally starting to realize that this "golden hour" is long gone, even though that has been the case for decades now.
Media: When discussing Portland, OR, Kunstler claims that "much of what is good about Portland came to pass because Oregon was the unofficial capital of the 'environmental' movement in the late sixties and early seventies" (204). Since Portland gave off the vibe, it was allowed and encouraged to become a highly functional city. See what perceptions and mindsets can do? If you have a population that is conscious and forward thinking, the city will flourish. Portland also showcases the importance of elected officials, with governor Tom McCall saying, "Come visit us, but please don't stay".
CHAPTER 12:
ReplyDeleteCars: I've really enjoyed reading about places that I have spent a lot of time in, because I learn new things and think about the place much differently. Woodstock is about 20 minutes from my house, and I used to play soccer there all the time. On page 240 Kunstler describes that none of the paintings had cars in them. People go to Woodstock to try to escape their busy lives, but they never really do that. Nothing changes, they are just in a different place. Even though I love Woodstock and don't fully believe Kunstler critiques, I understand his point. Woodstock uses the appearance of a rural country town to draw in customers. It is making a commodity out of the public realm like we have learned earlier. "It's was much easier to spot a car in Vermont than a cow."
Culture: The segment on casinos exposed one of our culture's biggest flaws--that we think it is possible to get something for nothing. In fact, many people in our country have been gifted success and money for doing absolutely nothing. Companies in particular play on the idea that you can get something for nothing when they never really state the true price of a product. Also, even if you do have enough money to buy something, there are still other sacrifices, like environmental health. There are always consequences to actions, but Americans don't see it that way.
Media: I was shocked at the relationships that Kunstler drew between Disney World and death, mainly because he makes such strong and convincing points. He makes Disney out to be evil and corrupt. He writes that it is a "cartoon republic of enshrining the falsehoods, half-truths, and delusions that prop up the squishy think the national character has become". He goes on to say that Disney convinces us that we are a "nation of families; hat we care about our fellow citizens;that history matters;that there is a place called home" (217). A park like Disney world is an incredible form of media--a type of utopia that evokes excitement, consumption, and a false sense of community.
CHAPTER 13
ReplyDeleteCars: On page 248, Kunstler suggest that we must rebuild our towns and cities in order to have an advanced economy. This implies that we give up mass automobile use. We don't need to fully do away with cars (we do need them in some instances), but we need to be more responsible and reasonable with our automobile use. Having a car shouldn't be a "requisite of citizenship".
Culture: I fully agree with Kunstler's point that what most Americans think of as a normal living situation is wildly inaccurate. Our built-up landscapes haven't only cost us a huge sum of money, but we have created social problems as well. "We have lost our knowledge of how physically to connect things in our everyday world, except by car and telephone."
Media: Reading this book made me think about the book itself as a form of media. The book is intended to reach an audience and help them realize that our country is simply a land of meaningless infrastructure which carries over into our personal lives. I love the book and fully agree with the points made, but I wonder if Kunstler himself uses any of the power tools to make his point more credible. Since it is for a good cause, trying to "trick" people using media tools wouldn't be a bad thing. The problem with books like this is that they reach a very selected group of people. The people reading this book for the most part agree with the author or are interested in the topic. I'm not sure how big of a change a book can make as a form of media anymore, and that is a shame.
Is "the great suburban build-out over?"
Can books be successful forms of mass media?
Chapter 11:
ReplyDeleteCars: “He was devoted to maximizing the use of the automobile, which he called “the magic carpet of transportation for all mankind.” (p.192) Sidney D. Waldon wanted to clear the streets of anything but the automobile, including street cars and halting the construction of subway systems. He believed the car should be the only mode of transportation in Detroit. I liked his reference of calling the automobile a “magic carpet,” especially with his later section about Walt Disney World. I found it ironic though, when he said the car was for all of mankind. Cars are not accessible and affordable for everyone, so getting rid of other modes of transportation created a handicap for a good chunk of the Detroit population.
Culture: “The city that spawned the auto age is the place where everything that could go wrong with a city, did go wrong, in large part because of the car.” (p.190) Detroit’s economy was largely based on the automobile industry. As more competition for the auto industry increased to make cheap cars and Detroit could no longer compete with the market. The population of the city decreased and became a slum city. The car brought wealth to the city and quickly took it away.
Media: “Vermont, for instance, got rid of billboards in 1968, but managed to pass only a squishy law, called Act 250, which did little more than control development on mountainsides above the 2500 feet elevation.” (p.204) I loved how this book has a few shout outs to Vermont. As we know, billboards have served as a popular media tools to get drivers to buy or do something and with billboards in one less state, limits the consumer demand. Driving through Vermont, I am more attuned with my environment, but when I drive through other states, I am overwhelmed by these massive signs to get me to eat at McDonalds or buy car insurance. Billboards desensitize people from their environment and are strictly distractions on the road. I wish more states would ban billboards.
Chapter 12:
Cars: “The rides and attractions here mostly have to do with the worship of vehicles: cars, tramways, airplanes, spacecraft. There is even that fabulous absurdity out of the old Radiant City trick bag, the “people mover.”” I’ve been going to Disney World since I was a year old and I never noticed how prominent the theme of cars is in the Magic Kingdom. Now that I think about it, cars have become an exponentially important aspect of the park. For example, the introduction of the movie “Cars” is all about, you guessed it, cars. All of these rides are located in this park called “Tomorrow Land” so Disney clearly sees cars in our future, as well as other modes of transportation. I can’t believe I never made the connection.
Culture: “Stripped of all its symbolic trappings and show-biz frosting, what Disney World sells is a scrap of public realm free of automobiles—or nearly so, except for a few props.” (p.218) I find it interesting how we have built our culture around the automobile, but when we seek a vacation, it’s always to a place absent from the automobile. For something we love and depend on so much, it’s funny how quickly we want to escape from it, but we don’t even realize that’s what we are trying to escape. Kunstler continues to talk about a colonial town called Williamsburg. We have built our cities and towns around the automobile, but is it too late to revert back to old colonial ways and separate the automobile from where we live? Or will we still constantly try to seek refuge from the automobile a few weeks out of the year?
Media: “In scale it is identical to Interstate Highway 4, off of which it branches. But gone is the jumble of hotels, billboards, gas stations and other architectural junk that makes the Florida landscape such a nightmare.” (p.218) This statement is definitely dated. My family and I go to Disney almost every year and I’ve seen dozens of billboards and hotels on this road, most of them being advertisements for Disney World, but alas they exist. Disney is a giant conglomerate and other companies will pay big money to put a hotel on their property or a gas station, or what have you. Disney World isn’t the same car free zone as it once was and over time the media tactics have increased.
ReplyDeleteChapter 13:
Cars: “Our buildings look ridiculous largely because they are built to serve cars, not people, and because they stand in isolation, unconnected with communities of other buildings. “ (p.266) It still baffles me that we accommodate our cars before we accommodate ourselves. Cars are inanimate objects, the livelihood and wellbeing of ourselves should come before the mode of transportation that brings us to work or school. Instead of constructing our buildings around the car, we should be thinking about how to maximize space and encouraging public transportation, but alas that goes against the grain of our culture. The car always comes first.
Culture: “…we have lost our knowledge of how physically to connect things in our everyday world, except by car and telephone.” (p.246) As a culture, we have lost our sense of place with our natural world and the public realm. We have created these little bubbles for ourselves, whether it’s in the metal shell of a car we get from place to place in or if it’s in our little cellular device we can barely rip from our hands. Some of the most concrete relationships we have are with these inanimate objects, our phones and cars, and it’s extremely depressing. There is an entire world out there. We should want to go out and explore them with people!
Media: “Between 1950 and 1990, Vermont quietly lost 90 percent of its farms, from roughly 20,000 to 2000. Though the state had some progressive land-use laws in place—an antibillboard act, a prohibition against building on mountainsides above 2500 feet—it was ceasing to be a working landscape and stood in danger of losing its physical character altogether.” (p.268) Kunstler again mentions Vermont and our antibillboard act of 1968. Living in Vermont, until I drive out of my state, I do not realize the effects billboards really have on the public. Driving down the interstate, especially when you’ve been driving for a while, and you see an advertisement for food, nothing has ever looked more delicious. Billboards are clever mediums and I’m proud that Vermont has banned them. Anyways, I was surprised to see the statistic Kunstler gave about Vermont farms. Vermont is proud of their farms and their agriculture. What happened in 1950 to begin the decline of farms in Vermont and how did the state think that banning billboards and mountainside building was going to prevent a further decline?
Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteCar: In Portland, Oregon Kunstler describes that the people their voted to bring back light rail and limit parking spots (p.203). I found this interesting because I think that light rail needs to be brought back. Burlington city buses are nice for public transit but they often get pushed aside in traffic and not always on time. Light rail would have its own routes and not physically capable to be pushed out of the way. Portland is certainly thinking smart in terms of cars by limiting parking and promoting this better means of transportation.
Culture: On page 198 Kunstler describes his encounter with a woman from Detroit on a park bench. He talks with her about why she comes here with her child and she just said she liked how peaceful it was and how nice it was to be in touch with nature. Kunstler wanted her to make the connection that there were no cars, therefore peace; this connection was never made. I agree with Kunstler completely, I hate it when I am supposed to be in nature and I can hear the roar of traffic and smell the city smog, places like these need to exist more and offer people this sense of peace and relaxation, it is just disappointing that almost all of these places are being taken over by the automobile.
Media: In L.A. businesses are no longer on the downtown strip according to Kunstler on page 211. Businesses realized how dense traffic was, and how more people spent more time in traffic than in their shops so they moved to different locations that had more parking and less congestion. This was a smart move in terms of the business but sad that downtown failed due to the insane number of cars cluttering the streets.
Chapter 12:
Car: On page 219 Kunstler talks about how people drive over 1500 miles to get to Disney World, the from there are shuttled around by bus, boat, car, all to escape into a different reality. I never really thought about how crucial of a role vehicles played in Disney. It really is the way the people transcend from their everyday lives into the world of Disney. It was a new twist to something that seems so fun-filled.
Culture: The following quote I found very interesting because Kunstler takes these places that are commonly considered great, fun places and tears them apart into something depressive. “Atlantic City was once a genuine town, but has evolved unhappily into a place of the most extravagant unreality. Woodstock, Vermont, still a town, shows what can happen when our deepest psychological yearnings are reduced to a ritual of shopping for totems” (p. 217). I loved that fact that he is so raw about his thoughts. Kunstler does not concern himself with feelings of others; he just states what he views things as and continues on. Very comical to read about.
Media: Trump’s Taj Mahal (p. 234) and Atlantic City are big media sources within themselves. The Taj Mahal is made to be this palace of riches and makes visitors want to be there; therefore they spend loads of money to be able to stay in that casino. This happens all over Atlantic City and it has become a media source with its reputation. When people want to gamble they go to Atlantic City. I found this very amusing because of the talk of bankruptcy for this area by Kunstler. Media does get places noticed, but sometimes it can destroy a place too.
Chapter 13:
ReplyDeleteCar: “Winston Churchill once said that Americans could be counted on to do the right things after they had exhausted the alternatives” (p. 274). Is this the case with cars? We are exhausting our fossil fuel resources and we have yet to make a big enough change to call it a change. Churchill’s quote is great, but in terms of sustainable futures, Americans fall short, due to our dependence on the car.
Culture: “European farmers produce an array of value-added products from champagne to Parma hams. They have a richer agriculture and a richer food culture. They even live more comfortable, civilized, middle-class lives than many American farmers, though they operate on a smaller scale” (p. 248). I liked this comment because it coincides with a lot of my beliefs. I think Europe is far more advanced than the U.S. in nearly every aspect of sustainability. For years I have wanted to move there due to their better life styles and more sustainable futures. This quote just hit home for me and proved my point further.
Media: The book Dealing with Change in the Connecticut River Valley: A Design Manual for Conservation and Development was published in the mid-80s. The book was designed to make better zoning codes for cities and towns. Clearly this book was not successful because we have so many overcrowded, crumbling cities today. It is disappointing because we need better community development especially with these places of “nowhere” rapidly growing thanks to parking lots and cars.
Question: Will cities like Detroit ever become functional again, or will they just be considered wastelands? (I would like to think that maybe they will be the areas that start the new wave of green automobiles, like the home of the electric car or something since they have the foundation for it)
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ReplyDeleteCh.11
ReplyDeleteWhen it became apparent that a few businesses wanted to rent office space there [the Renaissance Center], Ford ordered 1700 of his own employees to evacuate their suites in suburban Dearborn and set a good example by moving into the bright new complex downtown" (p.196). You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. This goes to show that we won't buy these new, and awful design concepts. I've been wondering how it is we have come to accept these new patterns of design, but this makes it obvious; things get this way when we become Ford's employees, and don't have a choice.
"The unstated bottom line was that Oregonians were going to have to find new ways of doing things: of making a living without destroying land, building real towns and city neighborhoods instead of tract housing pods and commercial strip smarm...thinking about long-term consequences instead of mere short-term gain" (p.206). Nowhere is easy. Just roll out rows and rows of strip malls and housing developments. But, places of value are harder to maintain, as they are not as simply created out of the blue, but rather are emergent phenomena. Taking the cheap and easy way out leaves us without places of consequence.
"Banham calls it [The Pacific Electric Railroad] 'a masterpiece of urban rapid transit..." (p.211). To me, 'urban rapid transit' sounds like an oxymoron. But this is exactly Lutz's point, that we have not had good foresight in the planning of our cities, to the point that I associate 'urban' with 'slow moving.'
Ch. 12
"And then, when vacation time rolled around, they'd flock back to Disney World to feel good about America" (p.222). It's funny that in a nation of no-place, we still like to have these pockets of some-place we can go to. Even though our communities no longer look like what Disneyworld is designed to appear as, we somehow still value it as someplace of value, as if it were an instinct to return there, like a salmon swimming up stream.
"In Tomorrowland, the oil crises of the 1970s haven't happened yet. There's no hint about global warming, acid rain, holes in the ozone shield, or any other unforeseen repercussions of our technologic heedlessness" (p.226). We tend to have this notion of the future which is positive. Tomorrowland is all about how the future will be better, the answer to our problems is in the future. However, such a notion is pure romanticism. We need to see that the future isn't a premade solution to society's problems any more than prefab, cookie-cutter housing developments are solutions to our community's problems. Just as communities are emergent phenomena, so too are the solutions to our problems.
"Yet, for all its fakeness, it is a good thing that Woodstock is there for people to see, and however pathetic their shopping fetishism may be, it is a good thing that people come to see it" (p.244). It is ironic that the same is not said for Disney's amusement parks. Perhaps because Woodstock at least has authentic roots as a small town with a local economy- it may be a shell of its former self, but at least it's an authentic shell. Unlike Disney's parks, which were built to only be the shell of a sense of place.
Ch. 13
ReplyDelete"Perhaps they are ashamed to put in a garden- afraid the neighbors might take it as a sign that they are too poor to go to the supermarket" (p.249). A strange notion, that the farmer don't want to grow their own food, because we place value in being able to afford things, but don't value making them ourselves. "Homemade" is often taken to be "poorly made."
"The best patterns also held in common a quality Alexander called 'aliveness.' They supported the good qualities in patterns they were connected with...'Deadness' was the result of bad connections" (p.252). It is interesting how similar the language of Alexander and Kunstler are in regards to place. Kunstler says "nowhere" and Alexander says "Dead," especially when you consider that for Kunstler, places which aren't nowhere are communities, synonymous with economies; interconnected, "living" things. Both give the idea that being isolated is death, as you can't make connections to the things around you, and since that's what makes things 'alive,' you can't live.
"Bob Yaro, since departed from his new job with the NYRPA, offered this final assessment in a phone interview: 'When they come to chronicle the decline of this civilization,' he said, 'they're going to wonder why were debating flag burning, abortion, and broccoli eating instead of the fundamental issues of how we live and use the environment" (p.267). This is the kind of thinking that gets us communities that look like the ones we have today. It is thinking based on symptoms of larger problems, viewed, in typical American style, in isolation from everything else.
How do we ensure that the designs we may come up with to address all of these issues don't conflict with future technologies as they do now with cars?
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ReplyDeleteChapter 11
ReplyDeleteCars: The production of Ford Model T’s brought great wealth and opportunity to Detroit but at the same time it brought great destruction. What was once a well-rounded diversified city soon became a broken down ghost town thanks to the automobile. Detroit wanted to refit their city to accommodate the automobile when in fact they should have focused on refitting their city to meet the needs of its people and turn it into a thriving community again. “They were like stakes driven through the hearts of old fashioned neighborhoods, killing whatever life they touched, and erasing thousands of houses and small businesses from the tax rolls.”
Culture: “The big three automakers failed to adjust to changing times for reasons that boiled down to corporate gigantism.” This reminded me of “Who killed the Electric car” we saw large corporations like GM and gas companies not adapt to the changing times and need for cleaner more efficient cars (Hummer Vs. Hybrid). They chose not to adapt and make fuel efficient cars because they still have oil in the ground they want to make money off of even if it’s what the people want. For Detroit this lack of adaptation resulted in the crash of an entire cities economy.
Media: “The point was not simply to limit the number of cars pouring in, but to stifle the incentive to replace existing old buildings with easy-profit parking lots” parking lots act as advertisement for automobile drivers. By putting a limit on those spaces it makes driving less convenient and highlights the accessibility of the bus and the “light rail” in the town. Portland seems to be a light amongst all our other poorly designed cities and towns. “They understood that the city was only as good as its connections.”
Chapter 12
ReplyDeleteCars: “The private world of home and family was everything; the public realm was out. When middle-class families took a vacation, it meant a trip by car to a national park, or perhaps to a second home by a mountain, lake or beach” the theme of cars causing isolation throughout communities in America is something we have seen over and over. There is a lack of cohesion among the people and also the infrastructure thanks to the suburbs caused by the car culture. Neighbors hardly know let alone talk to each other. Growing up everyone knew everyone in my neighborhood, even if you lived on opposite ends. There were constantly kids playing and neighborhood picnics going on at the neighborhood park (a plot of grass and huge maple trees). Slowly as I got older the dynamic and vibe of the neighborhood began to change, as the older folks moved away they were replaced by new parents starting their family. My neighbors started to feel like strangers. There were less and less people attending neighborhood events and the quality of our community park degraded as no one found it part of their responsibility to keep it up. People have isolated themselves and are only concerned about their family needs rather than the common good.
Culture: “What they did in the world and what they yearned for were at odds with each other. “ People aren’t willing to make changes in their lives even if they know it would be for the better. People may want the condition of our environment and our habit of overconsumption to change, but no one ever wants to change themselves. We continue to convince ourselves that we aren’t the problem. “Everywhere in America, cars have destroyed the places themselves, and yet Americans could not conceive of life without cars. They couldn’t imagine any modifications in their living arrangements that would make their home places more humane.”
Media: “Typically, there are no windows in any of the casinos. Nor are there clocks.” It was scary to read about all the different techniques casinos used in their infrastructure and décor to influence people to spend more and hopefully lose more. They strategically strip you of all your conception of time and place, completely immersing you in this never ending world of money and thrill. “In the Trop World Casino, around midnight, the scene was exactly the same as it has been at two in the afternoon except that by now many of the players had developed a certain glazed expression.”
Chapter 13
ReplyDeleteCulture: “Most important, we have lost our knowledge of how physically to connect things in our everyday world, except by car and telephone.” Even though technology has a way of connecting people all over the world, it has caused us to lose sight of the importance of physical connection. In a previous class someone talked about the idea of “alone together” we are able to talk and communicate with each other while remaining completely alone the whole time. People have become uncomfortable with real conversation, they don’t have the same control they have when they are hiding behind their phone, just like how people have become comfortable with isolation brought to their life by the automobile. They feel more comfortable and in control behind the wheel of their car compared to walking or public transportation. “…we have forgotten that connections are important.”
This implies that we shall have to give up mass automobile use. By this I don’t mean an end to all cars but rather, that every individual adult need not make a car trip for every function of living.” I wish I could feel more optimistic about this shift. It is definitely going to take a long time and encouragement for people to start making changes and seeing it less as a sacrifice and more of a step toward moving to a better economy, standard of living, and sense of community.
Media: “It was our very inability to see past objects in the landscape and understand the relationships at work between them that has led us to create such a symbolically impoverished everyday environment.” It’s the places connections that shape an entire community and nation. Without these important connections we have lost what it really means to have a home. We are living in our isolated worlds, but with creative infrastructure techniques and understanding the relationships in a landscape we can start to rebuild those lost connections.
Question-“But a collective world view is made up of many ideas, all operating dynamically, and when the consensus about what they all add up to is shaken, the result can be convulsive social change. Enough people move to one side of the raft and suddenly the whole thing flips over.” - I really like this quote a lot. My question would be, do you think that we could ever actually create a convulsive social change against how our cities are being designed and run. Is it possible to take the power out of the hands of large corporations and into the hands of the people?
Chapter 11:
ReplyDeleteCulture: “Historically, cities contain the essence of a civilization. They are the marketplaces for ideas and cultural values as well as material goods. They are the repositories of cultural memory. The city, above all, is the public realm monumentalized.” (189) I really enjoyed this quote for it’s influence on culture, I think it proves the significant purpose of containing society for both the limitation to sprawl but also for the necessity to build a culture based on a community interacting, which doesn’t occur when people are excessively driving and spending time in the confinements of their vehicles and not interacting with the outside world. “The city in some form, and at some scale, is necessary.”
Cars: “the magic carpet of transportation for all mankind.” (192) The introduction of the car was compared to the magic carpet, I can see that during a time when global warming was not really recognized yet, a form of transportation let the individual go anywhere and everywhere and not defined by the limitation of street cars could seem exciting and full of potential. However this change, “urged the clearing of existing streets of streetcars, the construction of subways for five miles out from the city’s center, and the building of twenty new 204-foot-wide “superhighways” stretching over 24 miles into three counties.” (192) This magic carpet brought not limitations, and meant expansion to no limits, it’s hard to think that these technological advancements that people ravished about, put us on the path to where we stand today and help structure this detrimental society and landscape... yet how could they have known...?
I really enjoyed reading about Portland, Oregon. I’ve always had this desire to move there after graduation and for reasons mentioned in this book precisely. The sidewalks are full, there are electric trolleys, and cops travel by bike, and the weather is ideal for agriculture. Two points I really valued, “The rugged geography has kept the downtown area necessarily compact.” (201) Having physical limitations to sprawl helps cities grow up instead of out, which leads to my next point, “office towers rise alongside apartment buildings. Museums, theaters, and commercial emporiums nestle in between.” (201) I think this idea of everything living cohesively exemplify the famous ides of Jane Jacobs, especially her idea of “ideas on the road” and the way to make a community and have a place thats safe for people to travel at night, that’s busy by day, even comparing it to modern Manhattan, some streets at night are unoccupied and appear sketchy as the city in some places is split up as being strictly businesses or strictly residential, but by combining all aspects of living, a true safe community is created.
Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteCars: This chapter really drove home to me how hidden the issue of cars in our society is. The visit to greenfield village, where none of the tourists "mentioned the absence of cars"(199) shows how we dont even think about our addiction to our method of transport. Car companies however thought about how to create this addiction and squashed Detroit "streetcar lines and replaced them with General Motors buses"(192).
Culture: The culture of detroit has fluctuated over its history, but the passage in the book describing white flight and black infiltration of the downtown area was very interesting to me. In a time when there was lots of immigrants, the wealth afforded to blacks who had been in the detroit area before the mass entrance allowed them to transform their living areas into cultural hubs. The transformation of Detroit to "an all afro-american metropolis"(195) was an interesting effect of white flight to crummy suburbs, leaving their beautiful 50 year old houses behind.
Media: Media comes in many forms, but one reiterated through this book is the importance of street level appearance to promote pedestrian usage. No one likes to look at a blank wall, and it is much more beneficial to use that wall as a place of business. In Portland, Oregon the laws "requires buildings to have display windows... also must be built out to the sidewalk"(202) resulting in engaging and attractive walkways for pedestrians.
Chapter 12
Cars:The trip to disney world is a classic one in many american child's minds. The long drive from wherever you start along interstates that go forever. You drive for countless hours, with the eventual goal of arriving in a fantastical place: Disney World. After the many days (sometimes not hyperbole) you arrive at a massive parking lot, and you escape your vehicle. This sometimes feels like more a relief than the fact that you are at disney world itself.
Culture: Unfortunately, one inside disney world, it may feel like you are in a car again. Not in the way that you are trapped inside a container, moving very slowly in rush hour traffic, rather that your every movement is watch and controlled. Most people like driving on empty winding roads in the country side and hate driving in traffic. The same is true for walking, controlled, slow, stop-and-go, walking is terrible and resembles evening commutes. Disney world is full of lines, and the imagery of cars at traffic lights is monumental.
Media: If you arrive early in disney land, you are forced to wait in an area whose sole purpose is to sell souvenirs. The amount of useless goods sold in disney land is ludicrous, they even offer to let you change money for "disney money" that can only be used in disney land.
Chapter 13
ReplyDeleteCars: Zoning seems to have destroyed much of the possibilities for good town growth, not allowing buildings to be made comfortable for pedestrians, as well as allowing ease for parking lot creation. Together these two have made large cement car housing structures the major aspect of many cityscapes.
Culture: Thanks to urban sprawl "two generations have grown up and matured in America without experiencing what it is like to live in a human habitat of quality"(245), and therefore many of us are unaware what we are missing. We don't understand the appeal of a beautiful downtown area, where pedestrian traffic is the preferred method of transport. In our lifetimes, the "culture of town planning was handed over to lawyers and bureaucrats"(245) who dont necessarily have the people's best interest at heart.
Media: The media of the front of a building or a house can impact both the viewers looking from the inside and out. A picked front yard allows passersby to see that there is a beautiful yard to play in, but "it is not for you". Similarly, the decorations on windows tell a lot about what people think of their surroundings. If a house lacks exterior shutters, the view of a window is simply from the inside looking out, uninvolved with the exterior, less inviting.
Question: How much energy would be needed to power pedestrians (food) if many people switched over from cars to walking, or biking? Does biking or walking require less energy over long or short distances?
Chapter 12:
ReplyDelete“Ask fifty customers what they like about the place and the last thing you will hear is that they appreciate the absence of cars.” (218) After reading this quote, I remember my experience at disney, and immediately I remembered the monorail, and feeling like I was in this futuristic environment that cars didn’t exist and we cruised into this false dreamy society, but in reality it’s a money making hubbub. Disney could function as demonstrating a way of living fully with out vehicles, but I think it gives false hopes, especially as children grow tired of lines and heat, all they want to do is escape into the air conditioned in the car at the end of the day, wait in backup traffic leaving the park, off to their hotel rooms, it’s a funny false reality.
“The most obvious physical characteristic of the town today was how successfully it had been transformed from a dense city of blocks into a narrow strip.” 231Referring to Atlantic City in this reference and the changes it’s experienced from it’s creation, to battling to survive during WWII and closing of it’s boardwalks, I think this idea really epitomizes the idea that people make a place feel alive. While the structures could be in place, and this idea of strip malls and tall buildings could define the city, whether or not you have people there interacting, determines whether or not a community has been formed.
“Everywhere in America, cars has destroyed the physical relationships between things and thereby destroyed the places themselves, and yet Americans could not conceive of life without cars.” (240) This quote really emphasizes the idea of place, and a sense of place. Even relating this back to local towns like Woodstock, Vermont in this chapter, towns once full of a sense of place, a local economy, busy downtowns where people walked from local shop to local shop, interacting with the community, and embracing the world around them, instead of the confinements of a vehicle traveling to strip malls and anxiously chaotic supermarkets of modern times. What once was seen as a community enriching beneficial endeavor of shopping in a local market, now has been replaced by modern implementations of stressful supermarkets and transporting.
Chapter Thirteen:
ReplyDeleteNumber Five on the list of facts of West Coast Suburbia: :it fails to provide decent public places that bring people into casual face-to-face contact.” (260) Reiterating what i’ve said and noticed throughout this book, the necessity for fact-to-face contact changes and shapes a community. My brother told me a fact once, that it has been proven that if you say more than five words to a person working at a tollbooth, you can reduce chances of suicide drastically. Well this is an extreme case I think this proves the ideas of community, and interaction. Face to Face interactions are much more meaningful than people realize until they are deprived of it.
“Typical zoning laws now only failed to protect the landscape, they virtually mandated sprawl.” (264) I found this concept really interesting, that originally the 2-5 acre requirement was in place, recreating New England villages was essentially illegal, this was in place to “preserve the open character of the landscape,” which evidently resulted in an expansion of sprawl, furthering destroying the natural landscape. I feel as though through history ideas have spread and transformed our landscaping in what appealed to the current population, and weren’t able to look into the future impacts at that time. It’s still hard to predict what will happen in our future, but we can be cautious.
Between 1950 and 1990, Vermont quietly lost 90 percent of its farms, from roughly 20,000 down to 2000 (p. 268). Due to what appears to be governmental regulations and limitations and lack of economical growth, and what i’d imagine to be a vast spread of our state and need for transportation to reach these farms. Yet, I just learned that Vermont is the number one state in the U.S. to have the highest number of farmers markets and CSA’s per capita, showing how important the local economy and farmers are to this society.
Question:
How can we reshape and design our neighborhoods to better enhance a sense of community? What policies could help limit sprawl and encourage if not force people to grow upward instead of outward?
Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteCars
“The subway was never built, and for good reasons. Detroit had become such a spread-out, low-density, metropolis of single-family houses that a system huge enough to serve it was mathematically unlikely to attract enough riders to pay for itself.” (Page 192)
This was true for so many places during this time period of creating sprawl, people lived too far apart and the amount of money it would take to create an effective public transit system would be too costly. Also in Detroit cars were so important, many people in the area were working for car companies and everyone wanted a car. It was also easier to move throughout the city limits in a car and gave the people freedom to go where they wanted.
Culture
“Now the results of this grand experiment are in, and the news is not good: the metropolis is strangling on its own patented brand of “growth.”” (Page 212)
Los Angeles was built on the concept of growth and it seemed like a great idea. It is built different than any other city, there are not many skyscrapers and there are multiple downtown areas. This has created a heaven for cars and with the massive amounts of cars throughout the city limits the air quality is one of the worst in the country.
Media
“Its earthly riches have had a lot to do with molding Oregonians’ mentality toward land development.” (Page 201)
People move to Oregon for the lifestyle that people have there, but they only know about this lifestyle because of media and Oregonians broadcasting about how great their state is. The culture has the mindset about conservative land development, but it’s the media that takes it and uses it to attract tourism and new homeowners.
Chapter 12
Cars
“Paintings with cars don’t sell.” (Page 240)
This sentence struck me because it later explains in the paragraph that everyone who comes into this gallery drives fancy cars and pays a lot of money for paintings, but they do not want any paintings of cars. Cars to these people are strictly about being seen driving them around town, they do not have a passion for cars they just have a passion for being seen in a fancy car.
Culture
“This new wealth was spent on suburban houses, and on cars to get to them and appliances to put in them. It transformed American culture.” (Page 229)
This is true throughout the country, owning a house in the suburbs compared to the city is different because there are items that are necessary for each one. If you live in the suburbs you will need at least one car and then you have to factor in all the maintenance and insurance you will pay to keep the car running, also the utilities for you house are typically higher in the suburbs because you have a larger home. The suburban minivan driving soccer mom was created when they are explaining this time period in America, we chose to build more suburban neighborhoods.
Media
“You knew these people were high-flyers because they stepped out of immaculate four-wheel-drive jeeps, or else sedans of German manufacture.” (Page 239)
The media tells us everyday that if we are driving fancy cars and looking put together that it tells the world we are doing well in life and we live a lavish lifestyle. In class all the music videos we watched always presented people getting out of fancy cars with fancy jewelry and it was a symbol that they had made it and were making enough money to have fancy items.
Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteCulture: pg 189- I found it really interesting that Kunstler describes cities as being " optimal contact between people" and compares this with the suburbs, which do just the opposite, and yet people strive to live there. Our culture has become such chaos that we no longer want to live among our own kind, especially not in close quarters, but rather removed- and the farther removed, it seems, the more ideal.
Cars: pg 192- I was amused, and found it ironic, that the major auto companies of Detroit did not mind and even supported the street car system because it was EFFICIENT to move mass numbers of workers and PUNCTUAL. Anyone else see what I'm getting at here? The car made easy street car commutes into an unreliable, individualistic nightmare.
Media: pg 204- Finally, the right direction! I was relieved to read about the early implementation of the Metropolitan Service District in the city of Portland, and kept nodding my head while reading because I believe that they truly have/had the right idea. However, Kunstler never fails to make sure I have an abrupt let down after a moment of hope by reminding me that there was an oil crisis and the plan seemed to be for not.
Chapter 12:
Cars and Culture: I couldn't pick two specific quotes or pages for both of these topics, as the majority of the chapter is about Disney World/Land. It is so incredibly true that, because cars are the unfortunate norm, once automobiles are removed we feel that we are in a different land, time or galaxy even. However, when asked, as Kunstler highlighted, most everyone who visits the amusement park would not even mention the absence of cars as what made it so "magical". To me this is a mind blowing realization- I would absolutely not think about there not being any cars when describing how amazing my trip as a child to Disney was-- we are so wrapped up in automobility at this point that a place without it seems foreign, and yet we long for it. A place without cars is like our favorite cartoon characters coming to life in a place with a castle and a different currency. Crazy!
Media: pg 223- John DeGrove describes in his own words what living near a Disney theme park is like. I find it ridiculous that an operation of such enormous scale that involves so many people and resources is/was exempt from at least paying for a fraction of their damage/consumption. Especially because, since it's a magical park, most of their extra usage is for unnecessary uses such as fountains or roller coaster operations.
Chapter 13
ReplyDeleteCulture: pg 247- Our planning methods were so horrible and hurried along in the post-war era, I gathered, that we can't even reuse the buildings because of bad construction. This is just another window into the here and now mindset of America as opposed to what will be best for the future and the next generations. We are always so wrapped up in making money, most of the time we don't even care how we get it and about the consequences earning that money may cause- for example, the materials needed in building these awful structures that cannot be reused and will be destroyed.
Cars: pg 266- At this point it didn't matter what people thought of buildings, or how the buildings worked in with the environment- just as long as they were easily accessible for cars, not a care was given to how or where they were built. Cars shaped our way of life, and we aimed to please them instead of each other.
Media: Overall, Kunstler himself does an incredible job at making his opinions, as well as his concrete and thorough facts and findings, apparent and blunt especially in this book. It works as an exposure, so that no person who takes the time to read even ten pages of this book will walk away without being at least slightly more conscious of the society in which we live today. Although Kunstler is not exactly known for solution-based media, and this book is not a solution, it is a call to action for people to loosen their white-knuckled grip on fossil fuels and automobility, because it is not necessary and it is not what is best for our future.
Would our culture and relationships with people change significantly for the better if we were "forced" to live within cities versus having the option and "dream" to live in the suburbs?
ReplyDeleteChapter 13
ReplyDeleteCars
“For the tourist industry, which needs Vermont to preserve its rural character for when t starts to look like New Jersey the tourists might as well stay home.” (Page 270)
Cars play a large part in tourism and keeping people coming to certain areas for a reason. Vermont is a unique place and when it looses its special character people will stop coming. With the easy access with the mobility of a car it gives people to option to travel and see other parts of the country that are not near their homes.
Culture
“ The great suburban build-out is over. It was wonderful for business in the short term, and a disaster for our civilization when the short term expired.” (Page 245)
Development was great for our economy, it provided jobs after WWII to help build suburbia such as all the Levittowns. In the long run it would have been more efficient to create bigger cities during this time and never create the idea of suburbia as it is today. Suburban areas are high in energy needs and consume much more resources than cities, but there are also advantages to suburban areas that allow people to create different cultures.
Media
“The average citizen-who went to school in a building modeled on a shoe factory, who works in a suburban office park, who lives in a raised ranch house, who vacations in Las Vegas-would not recognize a building of quality if a tornado dropped in his yard.” (Page 245)
This statement is the average suburban American that lives in a small town with a nice neighborhood and commutes in a car to work. For most people in our generation this will be us in around ten to twenty years with families and although this might seem like the norm to us, we can change the norm and live in more sustainable environments. We can live and work closer together and live in sustainable buildings were we will not consume as many resources as previous generations.
Cleopatra Doley
ReplyDelete11
- Only a few business wanted rent out spaces, the car company ford offered to house it’s own employees. Ford employees were in the system of having enough to buy ford cars and live in ford complexes, but not enough to make a living on entrepreneurship, nor did they advertise creativity.
- Even parking lots were part of media interaction for car companies. Companies made car parking cheap and accessible and thus this increased the amount of incentive there was behind commuting with your car everyday. But in cities or towns, the pricing of parking actually went up to dis-encourage car commuting.
- Detroit is such an interesting city. I’m annoyed the author used the term “Black infiltration” to describe White flight, but whatever I suppose. I think it’s interesting how cities are increasingly segregated, and then neighborhoods are suddenly marginalized.
12
- People in Atlantic City got to change how their city looks today. Blocks used to look very dense, and now they look narrower. Community is forming, but the narrow strip of block creates a less pedestrian safe city, and gears it more towards cars.
- People and Disney world is an interesting concept. Disney is a huge deal for families that they go on excessively long road trips to get there. To get to their dream family vacation spot, families need access to cars or transportation in general to get anywhere.
- I was super surprised that Disney them selves sells cars. Disney is a huge company, and they have a lot of power in many different industries, and obviously most of all in the industry of entertainment. This fact illustrates how far companies can go to dip their feet in many industries.
13
- As someone from the inner city, it was difficult to attach and relate this idea that we only see the world by “car and telephone”… if th author just said telephone, that would be more plausible. But “we” actually just refers to (probably White) middle class suburban folks, not someone like me who comes from the inner city, and has less money. So I disagree that the “we” includes me, it doesn’t.
- The idea that one can even ‘fetishize” buildings is kind of a stretch for me. But I think the idea of modernism is a way of fetishizing urban spaces is true. I mean, in NYC urban planners continued to “modernize” when in fact they were just further marginalizing communities, and making the city worse by making it car based instead of people based.
- The loss of culture is something I would attribute to farm culture it self changing. When farmers have access to tools that make things easier, more people go unemployed, less people substance farm, more people go to the cities to work. I don’t think it’s about our feelings towards growing our own food at all, I see it has the technological shift that replaced many farm workers.
Question
How does the car relate to cities like Seattle? What’s their car culture like?
Chapter 11
ReplyDeletePage 190: “The city that spawned the auto age is the place where everything that could go wrong with a city, did go wrong, in large part because of the car.” It’s quite ironic that the thing that made Detroit flourish, is the thing that brought it down. But from the ashes could rise something great. With so much of Detroit in tatters, it could be used as a test city for a more sustainable model. You would not have to sacrifice useful buildings, just tear down the ones that no longer function.
How did all the smart people get to the positions of power in Portland? From the section on the city, it seems like it was just the right people at the right time that were in positions to make the decisions needed to plan and govern Portland efficiently. How did that happen and why can’t we get people like that in the positions to make similar decisions?
Page 206: “What planners call “growth” today might be against the law tomorrow, when the greenhouse effect starts to play its nasty tricks on us.” Nope, it’s not. People’s idea of growth needs to change. The growth we are so focused on now is exhausting our resources and destroying the planet, and while we are starting to see and feel the nasty tricks, our version of growth is still legal.
Chapter 12
Page 219: “…long-distance car travel on an interstate highway is literally like going nowhere fast.” Amen brother, I went on a 3500 mile road trip this summer and the majority of it was highway. We spent 48 hours behind the wheel over the course of 12 days. My favorite vacation ever, but every hour on the highway was excruciating. One day driving from North Carolina to Alabama we tried to find a route not on the highway and it took us through the Great Smokey Mountains and it was one of the most beautiful drives I have ever been on.
Page 221: “…and mass-merchandising started wiping out local commerce---in short, when corporate gigantism had started to kill off local economies and thereby destroy the character of small towns.” Bringing back the local economy will lead to the return of small town character and prosperity. I believe a return to more local economies is something that is needed in the future (ideally now but that isn’t going to happen) if/when we start to live more sustainably.
Page 240: “Everywhere in America, cars had destroyed the physical relationships between things and thereby destroyed the places themselves, and yet Americans could not conceive a life without cars. They couldn’t imagine any modifications in their living arrangements that would make their home places more humane--- for example, changing the status quo, or their own ideas about it.” I think the reason we haven’t been able to change the way we think about stuff like this is that it is so radical. It would be flipping the paradigm in which we look at things on its head and it unnerves people. I have come to realize over the past few years, more recently, that I am somewhat of a radical person who understands and supports these kinds of ideas. I just wish I had the power to make it happen.
Chapter 13
ReplyDeletePage 245: “…two generations have grown up and matured in America without experiencing what it is like to live in a human habitat of quality.” The villages of Europe bring to mind a human habitat of quality. My girlfriend was telling me about how some of her family in England lives in communities without the need of a car. They walk to the baker, butcher, and grocer each day and develop relationships with those people.
Page 246: “These issues will not enter the public discourse until something of a paradigm shift occurs in American society.” Kunstler continues to talk about this onto page 247 and is something I totally agree with. He talks about changing our present exhaustive economy to a sustainable economy because we will not be able to fully get rid of capitalism, and maybe we shouldn’t. He ends with, “The future will require us to build better places, or else the future will belong to other people and other societies.” Brilliantly said and not a truer statement could be made.
The pedestrian pockets idea is something we should model our development on. I don’t think we will be able to transition back to a country full of small towns with small economies with the current population that continues to grow. This is a way to be smarter about how we design our society in our current situation and I have no idea why we can’t start doing it now. We could possibly use Detroit as a testing ground for this type of set-up as well as other more sustainable ways of designed our society.
Question: How long will it take for America to reconfigure it’s communities to be able to live in a changing world?
Chapter 11:
ReplyDelete- The first city examined in chapter 11 is Detroit, a once wealthy, industrial city that has entered into economic hardship in recent decades. Poor race relations and an ineffective public transit system (the “people mover”) only exacerbate the issue. Although Kunstler accurately portrays the drab condition of Detroit, I have high hopes that it may rebound. Berlin, Germany is a case in point – up until the fall of the Berlin wall, the eastside was little more than a communist pile of dung. Over the past 20 years, however, it has become a cultural metropolis with a strong economy.
- Portland, Oregon is on the opposite end of the spectrum from Detroit; it is a healthy city with mixed income housing, zoning/buildings codes that simultaneously discourage suburbanization and large, “dehumanizing” skyscrapers. Governor Tom McCall and mayor Neil Goldschmidt originally championed these ideas, with the help of 1960’s environmentalists. I’d like to note that in popular culture, environmentalists are often portrayed as self-righteous, ineffectual hippies. Portland’s success clearly debunks such a notion.
- The repurposing of railroads systems into freeways, “hodgepodge” building schemes brought on by the birth of Hollywood, and a “growth” mentality has caused LA to become entrenched in a polluting, car culture. Unfortunately, reverting back public transit based infrastructure (which would be possible, but quite expensive), might be ineffectual – LA’s lacks an economic center, requires that people drive to and from their work places.
Chapter 12:
- Disney world, similar to automobility as a result of Taylorism, represents an escape from a depressing American reality. The most shocking point here, however, is that this fantasyland is specifically geared towards children. I think Kunstler would agree that Disneyland is a sick admission that life in contemporary American society is unsatisfying…
- In my opinion, Kunstler is a bit harsh in recounting the history of Atlantic City; over time the city came across hardships in the great depression and World War 2, and responded the best it could on the fly. Yes, it is no longer a place of high-culture entertainment (unless female wrestling is considered high-brow), but there has to be somewhere that will fill that the more affordable, Vegas-like niche. The way history played out, that just happened to be Atlantic City. Moreover, it could see a turn around if future developments mirrored those of Portland, Oregon...
- Although I agree with Kunstler that current living spaces are lacking – which requires that we decorate them with “totems” – I am not sure how to fix the issue. The original suburbs sought to do this decades ago by escaping into the country, but that paradigm has obviously failed. Meanwhile, living in a great city like Portland may still be lacking a certain rustic feel and closeness to nature…
Chapter 13:
ReplyDelete- Again, although I agree with Kunstler that so much could be done better in terms of our automobile and living infrastructure, I feel that he is overly cynical. Many Americans now know that suburbia has failed. We are moving forward, looking for better options. And with the help of technology and existing infrastructure that got us into this cultureless predicament in the first place, we will likely make these moves towards a brighter future faster than ever before in human history.
- Seaside sounds like a nice town, but could that template really work everywhere? Is it nothing more than suburbanization under the guise uniqueness and bricks, rather than repeated templates and pavement? Also, so much degradation has occurred from suburbanization, that creating these improved suburbs would eat up an impossible amount of arable land. And redesigning old suburbs… well, who knows?
- Pedestrian pockets sound like an exciting and promising antidote to relieve of us of suburbia and a culture of automobility; a tight sense of community can be fostered while simultaneously reducing the need for cars. Again (and Kunstler partly makes note of this), I feel that biggest challenge will be in how we transition from our current home infrastructure to this one mentioned.
- Q: can we actually effectively reverse suburbanization?
Chapter 11
ReplyDeleteKunstler does suggest that cities in some form are necessary. Unlike ‘private’ suburbs, cities optimize the possibility of contact between all different types of people. Historically, the city/suburb subdivide is “where the politics of place coincide with the politics of race”. In our current culture of automobility, those who can afford to leave the city often do, and it is these communities that employ some of the lesser-skilled members of the lower socioeconomic classes. Everyone is commuting to work, and crossing paths in and out of the city as they do so. Not only is it impractical, but it is putting more strain on those who can afford it less.
Portland Oregon, employs the Urban Growth Boundary (UBG) a law that basically states “beyond this line you cannot develop commercial projects, housing, retail, or otherwise”. This is a valid attempt at preventing sprawl, which took farmland off the market and made it difficult for speculative builders, especially those who needed large parcels of land for shopping centers. The UBG is encouraging a new way of doing things: “of making a living without destroying land, building real towns and city neighborhoods instead of tract housing pods and commercial strip smarm, eliminating unnecessary car trips and commutes, and most of all, thinking about long-term consequences instead of mere short-term gain”.
Existing infrastructure is important to consider when planning our transition to a more sustainable economy and human habitat. Kunstler notes the problem that the “developed world faces is how to fashion an economy that is not an enterprise of destruction”. A transition to a cradle-to-cradle approach to industry could create a thriving city economy, and create a central nervous system of sorts.
Chapter 12
Kunstler discusses the perception Americans have of a community, or of what a town should look like. We are drawn to places like Disney World as a way to “feel good about America”. There, the “two—and three—story buildings are architecturally unified, but individually various—out of an era when rooflines were interesting, when windows meant something more than holes in a wall, and when building ornament relied on patter rather than symbolistic doodads”.
It is these places that we are drawn, where people see an “assemblage of symbols that spoke to them of a more spiritually gratifying way of life than the one they lived back home… in suburbia”. Despite the depictions of small town and rural life, these landscapes don’t have the values of a community. “Community is something different from a commodity”, says Kunstler. These so called ‘communities’ lack a “web of practical interrelationships between neighbors who understand their mutual dependency and honor it by competently caring for their work, their town, their offspring, and each other”.
While Kunstler would consider these communities artificial, “it is a good thing that Woodstock is there for people to see”. Unfortunately, those who are touring Woodstock do not understand what they are seeing. “Whatever they took from the experience… was not apt to make their hometowns better places”. Instead, we must work to make the functioning small town economy whole again, and erase the idea that “it was much easier to spot a car in Vermont than a cow”.
Chapter 13
ReplyDeleteThree Consequences:
Kunstler addresses the chief consequence of American living arrangements, which are “bankrupting us both personally and at every level of government”. As a nation, we expect bigger and bigger, and make purchases to fit our maximum needs, rather than daily life. We continue to purchase at our maximum (or beyond!) budgets. “This is the true meaning of the word deficit, which has resounded so hollowly the past ten years as to have lost its power to distress us”. Buzzwords like ‘deficit’, similar to ‘global warming’ and ‘climate change’ have been used so frequently that we as a nation are almost completely immune to the idea.
A further consequence, Kunstler notes, “is that two generations have grown up and matured in America without experiencing what it is like to live in a human habitat of quality”. Our youth do not experience a connection to place, and at the same time are being conditioned towards dependence on chain stores and convenience. Social normalities are changing, and we are losing “bodies of knowledge and sets of skills that took centuries to develop”.
The final consequence of our current culture as argued by Kunstler is that “we have lost our sense of consequence. Living in places where nothing is connected properly, we have forgotten that connections are important. To a certain degree, we have forgotten to think”. THIS. This is an incredibly insightful final consequence. In a small community, everyone is responsible for their actions, their purchases, and their waste. Today, we don’t think about our consumption, we mindlessly drive to food and shopping chains where we spend money on products not built to last which we will later throw in a dumpster, the last we see of it. Out of sight, out of mind. We perceive our actions have no direct associated consequences, and thus continue on a trend of disregard for the public realm.
Question: The idea of a central nervous system would be interesting to explore, how might a collective community attitude change our culture of place and automobility?
Ch 11
ReplyDeleteChapter eleven is divided into three sections, each ultimately describing the impact of transportation on the unique city. The first city is Detroit, aka Motown. This city followed path of the classic boom town in which it experiences massive growth beyond national levels then inevitably hits a wall. An interesting aspect of Detroit’s rise and fall is that unlike other boomtowns like those formerly in Texas and presently in Alberta and North Dakota, Detroit was from the industry of the automobile not energy.
The next city is Portland Oregon, which followed a very different path of development. The local government from the bottom-up planned it with public transportation in mind. This city, as Kunstler puts it, is unprecedented in America where the world revolves around the automobile.
The final city Kunstler mentions is Los Angeles. This city was made for cars, being highly spread out and for the most part lacking public transportation. In recent times it has been developing a public transport system. Kunstler is incredibly pessimistic on the prospects of this cities survival in future because it is, “in the enterprise of destruction,” but honestly it about the third most productive (in terms of GDP) city in the world and will most likely will be going BAU for the long term.
Chapter 12
The first section of this chapter Kunstler utilized a good number of the persuasive power tools in his thesis that Walt Disney created Disney World as a place to take advantage of the disillusioned American public that still views the country as a, “place called home”. This section is riddled with humor (“ooga booga,” “gee wiz,” “I Pledge Allegiance…) and hyperboles primarily. I do not want to be over critical on the guy but frankly he is kind of flaunting his BA in theatre in this section; I find it an over dramatized stretch on the subject and his tone unconvincing. I’m not a Disney guy but of all the huge American capitalists in history why Walt Disney, who profits on creating family experiences (as opposed to Carnegie, or Rockefeller)?
Similar to the previous section this one too utilized a lot of persuasive techniques like both humor (rant on the Trop Casino and the final sentence) and hyperbole. Being a New Jerseyian this is the worst review of AC that I have ever read. Naturally as a casino city it preys on “losers” with innately high-risk (for the gambler) games.
The final section of this chapter discusses Woodstock Vermont and its descent from a local economy to one more integrated with the national economy. The greater phenomenon here that Kunstler is highlighting is a shift from locally based economies of the past to the present nationalized economy where events reverberate across the board.
Chapter 13
Seaside Florida is a development that is modeled after a small town. This diverges from the typical urban sprawl car oriented layout of many other towns. Kunstler observes that there are no parking lots, and strict zoning codes. The unique zoning codes are focused around a vision in the effort to prevent what has happened to many other American towns.
Another optimistic thing in response to car culture is the Pedestrian Pocket Scheme in San Francisco. This involves connecting the suburbs with a light rail system, and the creation of more public space. This is definitely a shift for the city considering it abandoned the trolley system about half a century ago.
On page 264 Kunstler revisits an old topic briefly of the effect of highways on rural communities. Amherst is the example here where the population went from 8,000 to 38,000 in 40 years (probably does not include the student population). This is a reoccurring theme through the book and in class where we have observed the development of the interstate highway program.
Rev it up, CARS posse!
ReplyDeleteClearly, we are enjoying Kunstler. :)
Dr. Rob