Subways need not be boring or dreary! Someone’s compiled a gallery of 40 exceptionally well designed subways from around the world, several of which are from the Soviet bloc and feature the high-finish “palaces for the people” look. Interesting shots: futurism in Kiev (you’d think the engineering-obsessed Soviets would go more for that look), clean lines throughout Spain, delicate concrete arches in Tashkent, and huge stations in Lille — the VAL trains (identical to those used at O’Hare) must seem tiny by comparison.
Monthly Archives: October 2005
Zaha on New Urbanism
From a Miami New Times interview with Alfreo Triff:
*Alfredo Triff*: There are those who defend a more traditionalist program. I’m thinking of New Urbanism. What’s your take on it?
*Zaha Hadid*: I try to avoid decrees, so don’t have one single idea about urban planning. Spaces don’t have to be necessarily traditional in the sense of squares. We can always reinvent the idea of civic space. Some of the New Urbanism [sic] ideas are interesting. My problem is when a program becomes dogmatic and develops into something too conservative. New Urbanism has this idea of mixed-use, small streets, and accessibility. It can work well in some places, but it may not work in others. There’s no tabula rasa that works all over. The problem is when this program is realized as a gated community [apparently in reference to Aqua Allison Island].
To her credit, she apparently has moved past the fallacious understanding of NU as neoclassical architecture, but I’d still be curious to know about the contexts that require inaccessible sprawl. Certain auto-oriented land uses (malls, warehouses) might, but expensive energy might render those uses obsolete.
20-something pricing
Fall has rolled around and there’s no sign of the three-year-old 18/29 subscription for 18-29 year olds at the CSO. The former deal: when single ticket sales began in the autumn, 18-29 year olds could get preferential pricing ($18-$29, about 60% off single ticket prices) on edge-of-main-floor or terrace seats for when creating a choose-your-own subscription from a selection of concerts (lower selling, usually due to modern music on the program). Three catches: a subscription minimum of three concerts, no typical subscriber benefits, and age validation when picking up the tickets. Still, it was a great deal and seemed to work; I spent about the same in 2004 as in 2003, but went to twice as many concerts. Dozens of young people seemed to be using the option, based on eyeball surveys comparing the “allowed” seating areas with the regular subscribers. Yet it was apparently phased out in favor of the 6:30 “evening rush” concerts.
Meanwhile, the Toronto Symphony sounds almost apologetic about raising the price of “tsoundcheck” youth tickets from $10 to $12. More than 20,000 members have signed up for tsoundcheck. And the “City Opera”:http://www.nycopera.com/productions/big/index.aspx in New York has a “Big Deal” membership option which discounts two-weeks-in-advance tickets to $30 apiece after a $50 ($75 for two) annual membership fee. The integrated marketing program also includes specially designed mailers, prominently featuring lusty young singers cradling one another and super-pithy program descriptions:
bq. “Famous singer seeks help rescuing her anarchist boyfriend from a corrupt police chief. Will consider murder if push comes to shove.”
State taxation fundamentally broken
Governing magazine’s 2003 Government Performance Project begins with an overview of the structural problems of state tax systems:
The vast majority of state tax systems are inadequate for the task of funding a 21st-century government.
Most of those tax systems are also unfair. They break the golden rule of tax equity: collect the lowest possible rates on the widest possible base of taxpayers.
In addition, at a time when states are desperate to collect every dime they’re owed, many are short-changing their tax-collection departments, cutting revenue agency budgets with a heavy hand…
“It’s the old classic,” says Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. “Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”
west north 