Rebecca Solnit on San Francisco

[David Morris]

Respectable cities like Boston had when I was there in the 80s, in
Charlestown, very suburban zoning.  And that's where all the townies wanted
to be.

On Tuesday, March 26, 2013, Robert Mahnke wrote:

> Just ran across this:
>
>
> http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/05/facebook_george_lucas_and_nimbyism_the_idiotic_rules_preventing_silicon_valley_from_building_the_houses_and_offices_we_need_to_power_american_innovation_.html
>
> "Mandatory suburbanism" is a good name for the problem.
>
> On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 3:50 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com<javascript:;>>
> wrote:
> > Oakland, indeed most of surrounding SF is suburban sprawl. And, shitty as
> > they are, they are very expensive too.  And they are shitty.
>  Unfortunately
> > US City/regions are too young to know better than letting or stopping
> > sprawl.  And zoning (always made by the squatters against newbies) keeps
> the
> > rich in their Big Lots,  undisturbed  by the rabble.  At least SF has a
> not
> > bad extended public transit system.  Better than lots of cars, but worse
> > than walking.
> >
> >
> > On Tuesday, March 5, 2013, Phillip Greenlief wrote:
> >>
> >> it's also too late for (most) cultural diversity - most people of color
> >> (due to economics) have been driven out of SF - and now it's happening
> in
> >> oakland - to some extent, not as widespread as SF.
> >>
> >> Phillip Greenlief
> >> 1075 Aileen Street Apt B
> >> Oakland, CA 94608
> >> 510-501-7110
> >>
> >>
> >> ________________________________
> >> From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com <javascript:;>>
> >> To: Phillip Greenlief <pgsaxo at pacbell.net <javascript:;>>
> >> Cc: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com <javascript:;>>; Robert
> Mahnke
> >> <rpmahnke at gmail.com <javascript:;>>; Prashant Kumar <
> siva.prashant.kumar at gmail.com <javascript:;>>;
> >> pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org <javascript:;>>
> >> Sent: Tue, March 5, 2013 7:30:34 PM
> >> Subject: Re: Rebecca Solnit on San Francisco
> >>
> >> On Tuesday, March 5, 2013, Phillip Greenlief wrote:
> >>>
> >>> look, it's already too late - SF has been gentrified. the alarm should
> >>> have gone off 20 years ago. i don't care what the buildings look like,
> the
> >>> majority of art spaces pre-2000 are gone. period. the buildings don't
> even
> >>> exist anymore. a lot of small, family run businesses have disappeared -
> >>> which includes every kind of retail or food service. there are zoning
> laws
> >>> that keep certain kinds of businesses out of SF (there is a limit, for
> >>> example, on how many fast food restaurants can operate in SF), but the
> >>> independent shops are disappearing quickly, and have been over the
> past 15
> >>> years.
> >>
> >>
> >> SF isn't too late, if NIBYs don't rule.
> >>
> >> Too late for Bohemia? Yes.  Too late for a populace beyond the 3%?  Yes,
> >> unless government steps in, and not just for the poor.  SF has lots of
> 2 & 3
> >> story residential areas that could use more density.  And the hills of
> SF
> >> allow for view corridor over everything.
> >>
> >> But remember NYC.  Now mostly for the very right, but politics and old
> >> density keep certain hoods vital.  Old urbanism still rules in the
> hoods of
> >> NYC.
> >>
> >> Montreal might be an ideal City Model, with dense nodes situated along
> >> very good train/transit lines.
> >>
> >> Politics rule, and are local. And US urban design is mostly
> non-existent.
> >> But Green urbanism is Old-City, plus some towers.
> >>
> >> Little known fact: Florence, a small fortressed walled city, very dense
> >> with very wealthy merchant-kings palazzos, enacted a law to eliminate
> most
> >> of the residential personal watchtowers because they were urban kudzu.
> >> Moral:  limit tower density.  A simple thing. Many ways to do so.
> >>
> >> Real good urbanism has been the rule in Yurrup for centuries.  US
> urbanism
> >> is OK in the Original Colonies, but the developments to the West were
> Wild,
> >> even the Near West.  Boomtown, if all goes well.
> >>
> >
>
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