Comments on: In My Back Yard http://westnorth.com/2005/12/05/in-my-back-yard/ an irregular view on cities Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:50:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Joel http://westnorth.com/2005/12/05/in-my-back-yard/#comment-33 Joel Mon, 05 Dec 2005 17:12:33 +0000 http://paytonc.wordpress.com/2005/12/05/in-my-back-yard/#comment-33 Would you use a freestanding book to function as a bookend on your shelf, even if it did look like all the other books? No, because it has neither the bulk nor the traction to hold the rest of them up. What do these people think a commercial street is, if not the bookend of the neighborhood? I know you know this, and your argument approaches it from all relevant angles (by-right zoning, density to sustain services, true historical context of the street, etc.), but the inability of people to read cities is what is most discouraging to me. Chicago has never really grown into its grand frame and as such remains a lopsided city: larger-than-life intensity on the lakefront and downtown, but wide streets barely challenged by the building mass on either side of them. What the opposition proposes does not help it to grow, it causes the muscles to atrophy on the bone. Would you use a freestanding book to function as a bookend on your shelf, even if it did look like all the other books? No, because it has neither the bulk nor the traction to hold the rest of them up. What do these people think a commercial street is, if not the bookend of the neighborhood?

I know you know this, and your argument approaches it from all relevant angles (by-right zoning, density to sustain services, true historical context of the street, etc.), but the inability of people to read cities is what is most discouraging to me. Chicago has never really grown into its grand frame and as such remains a lopsided city: larger-than-life intensity on the lakefront and downtown, but wide streets barely challenged by the building mass on either side of them. What the opposition proposes does not help it to grow, it causes the muscles to atrophy on the bone.

]]>