The Way of Life

I am interested in many subjects but most of all I am interested in cities. I am interested in how they are designed, constructed, maintained, and envisioned through time.

At this very moment I am sitting in a piazza waiting for a friend to arrive for morning coffee. The cafe is located in a shopping center on a hill with great views out to the Pacific Ocean, San Diego’s downtown skyline and the surrounding hills.

The Piazza is very nice. there is an outdoor fireplace, a central water fountain and many places to sit and converse. The piazza is at the center of an “L” shaped strip mall bordered by a huge parking lot. The surrounding streets are six lanes with cars traveling at high rates of speed.

Directly across the street is a senior assisted living facility. If an older person that doesn’t want to drive wanted to visit the coffee shop, they would have to cross that street, then walk up the fairly steep driveway. This is a daunting task for anyone really, let alone someone elderly.

It seems like the problem is the way our roads are designed and built. It is not only that however, it is a wide variety of issues that create obstructions for the public and ultimately affects the long term quality of life. Our system of planning is horrible. That system is outdated and lacks the ability to properly adjust even when all the signs say that moving forward in this way is a bad idea and is literally killing people.

In today’s paper alone, there were four pedestrians killed after being struck by vehicles. It is mind boggling how we have created a world where this is a huge problem.

Many people believe that robots will take our jobs away, but that role reversal of humans and machines occurred decades ago. We build our cities for cars rather than people. We live in cities that create a higher priority on housing parked cars than it does for housing people. It is absolutely crazy.

We can build hybrid cars and make adjustments with climate change in mind, yet we are so far behind in the development of the hybrid city.

As I continue to write, I understand that this topic can become a book. I am sure that there have already been many books written about the subject. Unfortunately, change is very slow and courage is sparse. We need things to happen now. We need leaders to step up and take control now. We need leaders to be the generators and executors of needed policies rather than devices which require public input. The public does not know what it needs. They know what they want but not what they actually need. We allow this flawed design strategy to corrupt future generations.

When a new development is proposed, parking is sometimes the main focus. How much parking will the development have? The community wants to be able to park right in front of their homes. When will there be a leader that steps up and tells the community to walk - park the car wherever there is a parking spot even if it is three blocks away and walk home.

We need to get people moving again. Walking to the car doesn’t count. We need to get people outdoors and exercising in any way possible. As leaders of the built environment, we almost need to force people to move. We need to move people physically, mentally, and emotionally. That is the way to create lasting change.

How do we measure our success? Easy. When those folks at the senior home can easily walk at their own pace and get a cup of coffee so the local shop without being exposed to danger. Wide sidewalks, gravel trails with ranch style post and beam borders and fancy landscaping directly adjacent to a six lane avenue does not entail walkability. True walkability is generated naturally by reducing roads and compressing the built environment.

Many people mistake that for density. Unfortunately, density is a bad, six-letter word. It scares people. Communities are living in constant fear; a fear of things have have not yet occurred. They fear… other people. They fear young people. We build parks but fear that certain groups of people might actually use it. People fear the echoing sounds of children playing.

Maybe what we should be fearing is that we are building cities that create detrimental conditions that are self-inflicted. Sometimes I don’t understand how this could occur. Although I want to see change, I don’t want to understand. When you get focused on that fight it is a distraction from actually getting things done the right way, a way that will uplift the American quality of life.