Friday, April 6, 2007

Response to a Toothache Critique of Planning Buzzwords

This blogger’s agrees with Mr. O’Toole’s comment about Frank Lloyd Wright in a previous blog at this web site. This architect is truly unique and in an elite class of visionary thinkers of all time. The proliferation of his works takes a back seat to no one. The blogger’s reference to his name and other design professionals of previous generations was to show a mild comparison with the current generation of New Urbanists and others. The latter group are far from “do nothings” and have made significant contributions to the field of planning. At a recent planning conference about two years ago, the speaker of one the presentations happened to be a fellow graduate of the Yale University of Architecture with the likes of Duany and Soloman. The presenter relayed a story about one of the his professors who basically called these future New Urbanists “slouches” and that they would fail to accomplish much in the field.

With regards to Mr. O’Toole’s comments on Herbert Gans’s writings, his works somewhat underlie a theory of similarity in our society and its resultant transformation over time whether in an urban area or suburban setting. Whether this is influenced by the forced urban renewal of Boston’s West End or the creation of Levitt’s suburban development in New Jersey maybe moot.

This blogger is somewhat familiar with both locations. With regards to the West End, his father-in-law’s business had to be relocated to another city neighborhood closer to the inner ring suburbs. Many of the same customs and traditions that were practiced in the West End were repeated in his new location in Brighton.

With regards to the second community, this blogger recently viewed the sister community of Levittown, New York out on Long Island. This blogger did not recognize anything out of the ordinary with the surroundings other than the noted names of places within the community. Over time, the enormity of this tract development has blended into the fabric of Long Island. Today, Levittown, New York does not demonstrate any unique advantages or disadvantages of suburban communities.

The concept of community has uniformly changed over time. For many people on the go there is limited interaction with neighbors whether in the city or suburb. In many ways, one could make the argument that the suburban communities may have edge on community cohesiveness. For example, in the third tier suburban community where this blogger works, there is a heightened level of volunteer involvement, while in the blogger’s home community there is more of a resignation that “you can’t fight City Hall.”

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