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Discussion: cars and the built environmentReported This is a featured thread

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melanie
cars and the built environment
Jul 17 2006, 10:53 PM EDT | Post edited: Jul 17 2006, 10:53 PM EDT
I look forward to your essay on the growth of suburbia which, while dependent on cars, could result from either an attempt to escape from a city destroyed by cars or an attempt to escape from (urban?) society for other reasons.

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Yule
Yule
1. RE: cars and the built environment
Jul 18 2006, 1:05 AM EDT | Post edited: Jul 18 2006, 1:05 AM EDT
Oh, Melanie! You have too much confidence in me! Kidding aside, though, thanks for stopping in and leaving a comment. As for whether I'll ever write anything about suburbia, which gives me the hives, ...I don't know.

But maybe this, for now: I just listened to a couple of really interesting talks on TedBlog (see http://tedblog.typepad.com/tedblog/2006/06/sir_ken_robinso.html for example), including David Pogue (and Majora Carter, about whom I added a little entry under the "Greens promote 'denser' communities..." -- she's fantastic), and this leads me to the following snippy observation (inspired perhaps by Mr.Pogue): the city can be like a good Apple product (and I say this despite the fact that I'm mad at Apple because their product broke on me), but suburbia is definitely MS Windows all the way... Clunky, overburdened, over-tapped, badly designed. And, just like Windows, with 95% of the market share, grrr! Do you find this valuable?    

melanie
2. RE: cars and the built environment
Jul 19 2006, 6:35 AM EDT | Post edited: Jul 19 2006, 6:35 AM EDT
"Oh, Melanie! You have too much confidence in me! Kidding aside, though,
thanks for stopping in and leaving a comment. As for whether I'll ever
write anything about suburbia, which gives me the hives, ...I don't
know.

But maybe this, for now: I just listened to a couple of
really interesting talks on TedBlog (see
http://tedblog.typepad.com/tedblog/2006/06/sir_ken_robinso.html for
example), including David Pogue (and Majora Carter, about whom I added
a little entry under the "Greens promote 'denser' communities..." --
she's fantastic), and this leads me to the following snippy observation
(inspired perhaps by Mr.Pogue): the city can be like a good Apple
product (and I say this despite the fact that I'm mad at Apple because
their product broke on me), but suburbia is definitely MS Windows all
the way... Clunky, overburdened, over-tapped, badly designed. And, just
like Windows, with 95% of the market share, grrr!"
I'll download it at work. I'm still on dialup at home - not only due to my own incompetence.

Suburbia has changed too I think - especially with the advent of standardized designs and smaller blocks of land. There's a great Australian movie called <i>The Castle</i> on the subject. Do you find this valuable?