i used to think that i was an overly-concerned keeper-cleaner, but then i started living with my wife. now i understand that EVERYTHING is relative. ...and i'm a relative slob, i guess.
....because that's what I say to people about myself. And it's true. I'm not naturally a clean person, but I make a real effort when it comes to common spaces. Apparently I'm not exaggerating my level of cleanliness enough.
I TOLD you not to look behind the IKEA-hacked bookshelf.
And honestly, I was much better when I was living in a group house. Living with my bf is in some ways like living by myself. Once you've been with someone for more than half a decade, all pretense is dropped.
rationalist - great question. After a little research and chatting with some archi-friends in Aruba and Curacao I have an answer. The limestone in most places averages between 50 to 60 cm, and is a sedimentary layer above volcanic/igneous rock <- typically used as bedrock. The quality is fair good, and can be used for construction (as they do in Barbados). It does wear down, as it organic - I couldn't find it exactly but Barbados coral stone is wears about .5mm per annumm (that's without treatment)
I hate fascists and nationalists.
I hate fundamentalists.
Here's a question. Why do christians associate fundamentalists in the Islamic faith with hate, yet we seem to ignore the same fundamentalists in Christianity or Judaism? They are the same, are they not?
How can mainstream elements in the Islamic community make an outreach to those on the side of sanity in Christian, Judaism, and non-believers, in order to create a better society? And vice-versa?
beta, I can only agree. I made the mistake of trying to be logical with the Christians in my office with regards to suicide bombers and such once, will never bother again. My arguement was: if you really BELIEVE that god is God, and he controlls all, wields the fate of the universe, and you truly BELIEVE this with all of your heart and (possible/debatable) soul, then if you are taught that God wants you to die for a cause, who are you to say "no, thanks. I'll continue to worship you whilst ignoring your intentions for me because I'm selfish."??? They basically reacted like I was a terrorist. I still don't quite understand, but this may be a result of my outsiders (agnostic) perspective on God, because I don't understand half-assed worship. If I really believed in God, then damn straight I'd be doing whatever He wanted.
techno- many, many thanks! I have no idea whether this will pan out. It's one of my dad's potential new business ventures, and I'm actually rather hoping he doesn't go through with it, as I'd feel much better if he came back to the US, but if he does I think I'm automatically on board to help... The idea is to economize things by constructing the majority of walls with the limestone found on-site, as most Bonairians are accustomed to masonry walls anyways. For some reason, the vast majority of people built out of CMU there, so you've got to dispose of the limestone in some way, and pay for the CMU. So theoretically, if one just took a bit more care with how they excavated the limestone, these two problems would be done away with. Of course the excavation gets more expensive, so Mr. Wanna-Be Developer has to figure out whether it's more expensive to excavate carefully or more expensive to excavate shittily and then buy CMU.
Well, I've been in NYC for about 24 hours now, and I finally have a minute to catch my breath after running all over the place for errands and official Columbia business.
I left Chicago around 5:30 PM on Saturday (a few hours later than I was hoping, but oh well), spent the night near Cleveland, and got into NYC around 3:30 yesterday. Aside from the usual traffic delays around Chicago and NYC and some construction delays in Pennsylvania, the trip was uneventful. As of yesterday, at one time or another I have moved from Chicago to each of the three biggest cities in the northeast: Chicago to Boston in 2000, Chicago to Philly in 2002, and Chicago to NYC in 2007.
Funny how each time I moved back to Chicago, it didn't take me long to remember why I left in the first place... Never say never, of course, but this time I have the feeling that I've finally left Chicago for good. Maybe I would have felt more inclined to stay in Chicago if I had a better job there or if all my old friends there hadn't gotten married, started having kids, and/or moved away or if there were better education options there. Oh well... I'll always have some fondness for Chicago, but for now I'm just glad to be out.
Upon arrival at Columbia University I got my housing assignment, which is for a fairly large private room within a suite on 113th Street. Nothing special, but it will suffice. So far my cat seems to be handling dorm life without any problems. He's behaved very well throughout the trip.
Today I dropped my car off at a garage over in Newark, took PATH back into the city, did some paperwork for Columbia housing, got my Columbia ID, and took care of a few other odds and ends. Hopefully I'll be meeting AP and larslarson for beers later this evening.
Last night I was able to take a stroll around Greenwich Village, and today I did some walking around the financial district... I had forgotten just how much of a sensory overload this city can be. There's usually something interesting to see no matter what direction you're looking... It's thrilling when you first arrive here, but it can become wearisome after a while... I think the secret to staying sane in NYC is to have some sort of escape destination outside the city you can head to when things get crazy here.
I haven't decided yet, but tomorrow I may head down to Philadelphia while I still have my car and some free time... It's been a while since I've been back there, and it would be nice to see the old stomping grounds again. And one of these days I'll make it up to Boston for a visit... I haven't set foot in that city since 2000.
And now I'm updating from CT! It's so beautiful and relaxing here. I'm in no hurry to unpack, so my box count is diminishing slowly but steadily. I've just got to hang my curtains tonight - that's important!
The weather is perfectly sunny and clear, not too hot. I have a tree with a bird's nest outside my window, and woke up to birds chirping and a breeze.
The night before I left, Swedish meatball party with many old & new friends (including AP, AP-GF, and larslarson). One of my most beloved friends came with me for the first 2 days (June 30/July 1). Carried my goldfish safely on Metro-North and he is back in his bowl with the woman's-head sculpture. The night of arrival we had a bottle of champagne with the couple of good friends I have in town. Yesterday I went to a BBQ with a bunch of drama MFAs, and had a few good meals and icecreams in restaurants. I wish AP/GF had moved to NYC earlier! And that I hadn't just missed LIG (though I will be back a couple of times between now and summer class.) Sometime soon I'm going to have dinner with my high school prom date, who is now in the medical school! This was the un-loneliest move ever. But I'm jealous of the WK/LB meetup!
I don't have internet at home yet and am waiting to sort it out because I live so close to a school building that i may be able to use their wireless once class starts and my computer is configured. I will not be on much until I figure that out.
rationalist, I sure hope everything works out. In Barbados where they use alot of the coral stone (simply limestone with fossils) they typically mine it off site and transport to the site. Its used mostly on expensive villa and resort developments.
tumbles, i like to call 'em folumns. been there, happy to have left.
namby, glad to hear you're getting settled in...and the birds/nest are a gift from the GF and I...we met them at the park the other day (before you left) and had them follow you. the phoned to let us know they happily set up shop outside of your window.
thanks, techno. Actually I hope that something else works out. Having my dad thousands of miles away putting everything he's got into such risky ventures makes me have nervous breakdowns. They would probably end up as rich people vacation homes though.
namby, it sounds so quaint. Exactly what I would expect of Connecticut (having never been there before).
nambypanbics welcome to Connecticut, the land of ever increasing taxes and less govenmental service, cause we pay our criminal x-governer his full pension. Oh....July 1 is when we get to dish out half of our yearly property taxes...in this case July 2 because of July 1 falling on a Sunday.
Well you shouldn't have to worry about such things being a student. Just be sure if your moonlighting....they pay you cash! Cash is King or Queen on your part...
When living becomes to Gritty in New Haven to much this Fall.....head for the North West Hills.....of Connecticut...in October....for some good inspirational leaf peeping!
I am feeling really guilty about the plate, mug, and two pieces of silverware that have been sitting unwashed in my sink for 73 hours.
damn, tumbles, that is me exactly.
i wouldn't say being a neat-freak is all that great... i feel uncomfortable when my things are messy or dirty, but because i work so much (and PARTICULARLY in arch school!) that is often the state of my apt (to my relative perspective). Thus I often feel a vague undercurrent of anxiety hanging in the back of my mind just because, for example, I know I haven't put away my clean laundry yet (that one is today's). Ugh. Drives me nuts.
Anyway good luck with the roommie search. You're in luck if you ain't as concerned about this stuff as me because it will mean you'll have a much easier time finding a good place to live!
had a confusing but nice experience last night that convinces me that i'm losing my healthy cynicism in my old age.
we visited friends that have opened a business in and moved to a live/work building in the center of louisville's new duany-designed 'town', norton commons. these friends have just moved back from a few years in italy, he's become an educated professional gelato maker while away, and they've opened a little gelato shop. (amazing stuff!)
we really just went out for the gelato, but we saw some other people we knew out on the sidewalk at the pub near the town center. then we decided to join our friends in walking down a couple of blocks for some beer and bocce in the green. (yes, the 'green' has a bocce course built into the landscape, complete with chipped stone surface and limestone boundaries.) while i played and drank, my wife talked with the people that were there hanging around in the grass and my daughter ran around with other kids.
i have to say the place is working - even though it's only about half built. sure, it feels completely artificial. the residents even joke about having 'drunk the kool-aid' and that they're still looking for the developers' chip that must have been embedded in them to keep an eye on them. they were given a stocked picnic basket by the developer as a welcome present, for pete's sake. the difference in the histor-icky houses and commercial buildings, though, is that they're done really well - nicely made, designed correctly/proportionally, detailed extremely well, not 'builder' at all.
we've planned to go back and spend some sundays with them for bocce and swimming in the town pool. my firm has been pursuing some work there: firehouse, church/school, doctor's office.
coming away from it, i still resent the artificial nature of it, especially the exclusionary nature of it. the cost of buying in is huge - certainly more than we could afford. but, at the same time, it's clear that the concept has some merit. there's some basic things that simply work, and they're things that aren't often done anymore.
Steven, this will be worth more discussion, as I'm feeling similarly. In Indianapolis, I'm following the local architecture proposals (recladding of a downtown tower, convention center expansion, lots of condo developments) and yet seeing nothing of interest and none of the occurrences that would make downtown a diverse, active, desirable community (grocery stores being #1).
Outside the city, especially in Carmel, I'm seeing fairly dense "urban" mixed-use proposals, attention to pedestrian quality, and even (if I may - ahem - pimp my husband one more time) a brand newcontemporary art museum .
West Clay, the planned community adjacent to Carmel that has been around for at least 10 years, makes me physically ill every time I have to enter it. Like you, I despise its exclusionary quality (I feel every person there is staring at me thinking "That car doesn't live here...what's she up to?" and its silly historicism. That said, I think in 20 years it might be a lovely place to live: the trees will have grown, the CCRs covering remodeling might have loosened, and the whole place will have some patina.
And I do feel there is something going on outside the city core that feels like it has more potential than what I see going on downtown. I can imagine 20-30 years from now that downtown could easily be only used for recreation - sports arenas, zoo, etc - while the surrounding region is a series of clustered village-type developments all hopefully linked by light rail. I've started taking a dispassionate, removed attitude toward Indy's built future, and I'm curious to see where it goes.
Oh, and also keep in mind that public consumption of alcohol while playing bocce on the town green can greatly enhance one's enjoyment of same. (Really, you can drink beer there?!?)
lb- why, oh why can't a downtown have a decent grocery store in it?! Downtown LA has the same problem, as does the most populous area of Hollywood. You can shop at Grand Central Market (which I believe WonderK is currently enamoured with) which is a kind of produce-stand/taco-stand mixture, but it's not open the hours that a normal supermarket is, so that can be hard. And there's no WonderKitty food there, that's for sure.
not to be overly proud of my new town, but I have to say one of the great things Chicago has going for it is PLENTY OF GROCERY STORES all over the place!!! And local, small-market options galore as well. Woohoo! Beats the pants off Boston--took me FOREVER to get to the grocery store there and it was not only way out of my way (nowhere near a convenient train line between work and home) but it was also RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE. I took a receipt home to Orange County once and some items (milk!) were literally almost double the cost there. MILK! MILK comes from VERMONT, it's not like you have to truck it 2,000 miles! That grocery store was insane.
We even have grocery stores (full size ones!) in the first floors of some of the high-rise buildings in the heart of downtown. It is sweet, sweet, sweet. THey are really doing a good job of making downtown chicago an easy place to live.
there IS a grocery store in downtown indianapolis. i just walked there last night?!? they have organic food, they have sushi, they have wine and beer, they have fresh meat and seafood, they have fresh flowers, they have lotto tickets, they have cigars, they have iams pet food, they have a pharmacy, they have fresh coffee beans and tea..
there is also a revitalized and renovated city market which will have small indy grocers, and merchants.
vado please clarify - there is ONE good grocery in downtown Indy. Downtown Philly has FIVE that can easily be walked to: two organic, two regular, and Trader Joes. And that's not even counting the many tiny produce storefronts, the medium-sized Old City market, anything in West Philly, and the Wawas.
Also if anyone in Philly really has a need to shop at Home Depot, WalMart, and an enormous bigbox grocery (Meier?), there is a direct downtown bus to get there.
vado - are you visiting the twincities???? I'll be pissed if you are and didn't even drop me a line to say hi!
...t.... my trick to shopping mitsua and other asian food stores is to look at the mandated US nutrition label that will have a translation of the ingredients/name of product and is often the only english on the package... and have fun.
even little ol' st. petersburg (florida) has a grocery store downtown... granted it is just a publix and not some fancy schmancy gourmet type place... there are a few other small market type places... and the promise of a whole foods (or similar) store within a few years... it is even close enough for me to walk to (about 6 blocks) for small stuff (at least when its not a scorching 95 degrees outside)...
Not just grocery stores, but transit, laundry facilities, etc. Not having to go far out of our way to do daily chores is a big thing. Who can enjoy life when a trip to the grocery store takes an hour, a trip to the laundromat three (because you have to sit on the machine to make sure nobody steals your clothes), a trip to the post office 45 minutes? That's the sort of shit that stresses people out all the time.
I mentioned in GTC, but it's now been 2 months since I filled up my car with gas, and there's still a bit left in there. That's bloody brilliant, as I HATE going to the gas station.
has anyone else seen evan almighty? i saw it last night... definitely not a great cinematic achievement (not that i expected much)... i knew that it was going to be bad when the first preview was for the bratz movie (ugh... shudder)... anyways i digress... the only thing that struck me about the movie was the constant nature=good vs. development=bad undercurrent... dare i call it green?
spoiler alert (if you care, which i doubt)...
anyways in summary, evan is a hummer driving new congressman that signs on to co-sponsor a bill that will open up portions of the national parks for private development... god shows up to tell him to build an ark and shows him the once verdant hills where his gated suburban community now stand... nature (in the form of the 2x2 animals) shows up to help build the ark and then the flood comes in the form of a broken dam that wipes out the suburbs and carries the ark all the way to capitol hill...
Wooo! A grocery store! Downtown! If they gave us a Trader Joe's, I'd be quite pleased.
Oh, BTW:
Speaking of me, and California, I know you're tired of hearing about it but earlier today I was told I was the "famous WonderK from Archinect". Turns out my Mom used to work with another archinector, and now he's at UCLA, and between the Mom-vine and the ACfA/garpike UCLA connection, I played "6 Degrees of Architecture". Our world is so small.
re: grocery stores downtown. the idea that there aren't any may be a mis-statement in many places. louisville has had a growth in downtown residential over the last few years and, with that growth has brought with it the opening of two downtown markets. they're not where you'd do most of your shopping, just your daily pick-ups and some specialty items.
there are, however, 2 krogers within 5 minutes drive. these are totally off the radar of most downtown residents. they think that, because they have to drive there, it's not serving their needs as downtown residents. unless you're in ny or chicago, where people are less likely to have cars, when was the last time you did your major shopping on foot? when was the last time you drove less than 10 minutes? you can walk to the neighborhood market for your daily shopping and drive for your weekly shopping. as critical mass moves downtown, if there is a 'market' for a bigger grocery within walking distance, it will come.
Thread Central
oh wait, unless that's you, rationalista. in which case i would say, "rock on! but you can't live with me, i would kill you in seconds. :) "
i used to think that i was an overly-concerned keeper-cleaner, but then i started living with my wife. now i understand that EVERYTHING is relative. ...and i'm a relative slob, i guess.
....because that's what I say to people about myself. And it's true. I'm not naturally a clean person, but I make a real effort when it comes to common spaces. Apparently I'm not exaggerating my level of cleanliness enough.
Oh my god! You girls would hate living with me then!
I totally "keep my mess" to my own room. And I never clean under the toaster! Ha ha. I'm like a boy.
rationalist, you can heed these warnings but you may miss a really cool roommate if all you pay attention to is their "mess potential".
rationalist I've seen your room! Don't lie!
I TOLD you not to look behind the IKEA-hacked bookshelf.
And honestly, I was much better when I was living in a group house. Living with my bf is in some ways like living by myself. Once you've been with someone for more than half a decade, all pretense is dropped.
hi winka.
rationalist - great question. After a little research and chatting with some archi-friends in Aruba and Curacao I have an answer. The limestone in most places averages between 50 to 60 cm, and is a sedimentary layer above volcanic/igneous rock <- typically used as bedrock. The quality is fair good, and can be used for construction (as they do in Barbados). It does wear down, as it organic - I couldn't find it exactly but Barbados coral stone is wears about .5mm per annumm (that's without treatment)
Ms Wonderful thanks for the inclusion on yer new blog...its good to be able to rant in multiple platforms
fuck.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/world/europe/02croatia.html
Lessons Learned from WWII?
Hardly.
I hate fascists and nationalists.
I hate fundamentalists.
Here's a question. Why do christians associate fundamentalists in the Islamic faith with hate, yet we seem to ignore the same fundamentalists in Christianity or Judaism? They are the same, are they not?
How can mainstream elements in the Islamic community make an outreach to those on the side of sanity in Christian, Judaism, and non-believers, in order to create a better society? And vice-versa?
WTF?!
one word, 60 seconds....the minute men!
beta, I can only agree. I made the mistake of trying to be logical with the Christians in my office with regards to suicide bombers and such once, will never bother again. My arguement was: if you really BELIEVE that god is God, and he controlls all, wields the fate of the universe, and you truly BELIEVE this with all of your heart and (possible/debatable) soul, then if you are taught that God wants you to die for a cause, who are you to say "no, thanks. I'll continue to worship you whilst ignoring your intentions for me because I'm selfish."??? They basically reacted like I was a terrorist. I still don't quite understand, but this may be a result of my outsiders (agnostic) perspective on God, because I don't understand half-assed worship. If I really believed in God, then damn straight I'd be doing whatever He wanted.
techno- many, many thanks! I have no idea whether this will pan out. It's one of my dad's potential new business ventures, and I'm actually rather hoping he doesn't go through with it, as I'd feel much better if he came back to the US, but if he does I think I'm automatically on board to help... The idea is to economize things by constructing the majority of walls with the limestone found on-site, as most Bonairians are accustomed to masonry walls anyways. For some reason, the vast majority of people built out of CMU there, so you've got to dispose of the limestone in some way, and pay for the CMU. So theoretically, if one just took a bit more care with how they excavated the limestone, these two problems would be done away with. Of course the excavation gets more expensive, so Mr. Wanna-Be Developer has to figure out whether it's more expensive to excavate carefully or more expensive to excavate shittily and then buy CMU.
is the word for the day. July 2, 2007.
ratio, and of course those fundamental's on the Christian right have no prob when it concerns terrorist acts on doctors at clinics in this country.
Well, I've been in NYC for about 24 hours now, and I finally have a minute to catch my breath after running all over the place for errands and official Columbia business.
I left Chicago around 5:30 PM on Saturday (a few hours later than I was hoping, but oh well), spent the night near Cleveland, and got into NYC around 3:30 yesterday. Aside from the usual traffic delays around Chicago and NYC and some construction delays in Pennsylvania, the trip was uneventful. As of yesterday, at one time or another I have moved from Chicago to each of the three biggest cities in the northeast: Chicago to Boston in 2000, Chicago to Philly in 2002, and Chicago to NYC in 2007.
Funny how each time I moved back to Chicago, it didn't take me long to remember why I left in the first place... Never say never, of course, but this time I have the feeling that I've finally left Chicago for good. Maybe I would have felt more inclined to stay in Chicago if I had a better job there or if all my old friends there hadn't gotten married, started having kids, and/or moved away or if there were better education options there. Oh well... I'll always have some fondness for Chicago, but for now I'm just glad to be out.
Upon arrival at Columbia University I got my housing assignment, which is for a fairly large private room within a suite on 113th Street. Nothing special, but it will suffice. So far my cat seems to be handling dorm life without any problems. He's behaved very well throughout the trip.
Today I dropped my car off at a garage over in Newark, took PATH back into the city, did some paperwork for Columbia housing, got my Columbia ID, and took care of a few other odds and ends. Hopefully I'll be meeting AP and larslarson for beers later this evening.
Last night I was able to take a stroll around Greenwich Village, and today I did some walking around the financial district... I had forgotten just how much of a sensory overload this city can be. There's usually something interesting to see no matter what direction you're looking... It's thrilling when you first arrive here, but it can become wearisome after a while... I think the secret to staying sane in NYC is to have some sort of escape destination outside the city you can head to when things get crazy here.
I haven't decided yet, but tomorrow I may head down to Philadelphia while I still have my car and some free time... It's been a while since I've been back there, and it would be nice to see the old stomping grounds again. And one of these days I'll make it up to Boston for a visit... I haven't set foot in that city since 2000.
beer is on, as far as the GF and I are concerned. lars has yet to confirm.
Excellent... You have my number.
And now I'm updating from CT! It's so beautiful and relaxing here. I'm in no hurry to unpack, so my box count is diminishing slowly but steadily. I've just got to hang my curtains tonight - that's important!
The weather is perfectly sunny and clear, not too hot. I have a tree with a bird's nest outside my window, and woke up to birds chirping and a breeze.
The night before I left, Swedish meatball party with many old & new friends (including AP, AP-GF, and larslarson). One of my most beloved friends came with me for the first 2 days (June 30/July 1). Carried my goldfish safely on Metro-North and he is back in his bowl with the woman's-head sculpture. The night of arrival we had a bottle of champagne with the couple of good friends I have in town. Yesterday I went to a BBQ with a bunch of drama MFAs, and had a few good meals and icecreams in restaurants. I wish AP/GF had moved to NYC earlier! And that I hadn't just missed LIG (though I will be back a couple of times between now and summer class.) Sometime soon I'm going to have dinner with my high school prom date, who is now in the medical school! This was the un-loneliest move ever. But I'm jealous of the WK/LB meetup!
I don't have internet at home yet and am waiting to sort it out because I live so close to a school building that i may be able to use their wireless once class starts and my computer is configured. I will not be on much until I figure that out.
I never talk about politics, sex or architecture at work.
rationalist, I sure hope everything works out. In Barbados where they use alot of the coral stone (simply limestone with fossils) they typically mine it off site and transport to the site. Its used mostly on expensive villa and resort developments.
tumbles, i like to call 'em folumns. been there, happy to have left.
namby, glad to hear you're getting settled in...and the birds/nest are a gift from the GF and I...we met them at the park the other day (before you left) and had them follow you. the phoned to let us know they happily set up shop outside of your window.
thanks, techno. Actually I hope that something else works out. Having my dad thousands of miles away putting everything he's got into such risky ventures makes me have nervous breakdowns. They would probably end up as rich people vacation homes though.
namby, it sounds so quaint. Exactly what I would expect of Connecticut (having never been there before).
nambypanbics welcome to Connecticut, the land of ever increasing taxes and less govenmental service, cause we pay our criminal x-governer his full pension. Oh....July 1 is when we get to dish out half of our yearly property taxes...in this case July 2 because of July 1 falling on a Sunday.
Well you shouldn't have to worry about such things being a student. Just be sure if your moonlighting....they pay you cash! Cash is King or Queen on your part...
When living becomes to Gritty in New Haven to much this Fall.....head for the North West Hills.....of Connecticut...in October....for some good inspirational leaf peeping!
damn, tumbles, that is me exactly.
i wouldn't say being a neat-freak is all that great... i feel uncomfortable when my things are messy or dirty, but because i work so much (and PARTICULARLY in arch school!) that is often the state of my apt (to my relative perspective). Thus I often feel a vague undercurrent of anxiety hanging in the back of my mind just because, for example, I know I haven't put away my clean laundry yet (that one is today's). Ugh. Drives me nuts.
Anyway good luck with the roommie search. You're in luck if you ain't as concerned about this stuff as me because it will mean you'll have a much easier time finding a good place to live!
namby - there is supposed to be a great pizza place in new haven, I'm hankering to try their clam pie.
there is also the great hamburger place in New Haven....home of the Hamburger.
I haven't been to CT in ages. I didn't like it, seemed like a state of suburbia
archi....I don't live in suburbia.....listening to the traffic roll by my house.
had a confusing but nice experience last night that convinces me that i'm losing my healthy cynicism in my old age.
we visited friends that have opened a business in and moved to a live/work building in the center of louisville's new duany-designed 'town', norton commons. these friends have just moved back from a few years in italy, he's become an educated professional gelato maker while away, and they've opened a little gelato shop. (amazing stuff!)
we really just went out for the gelato, but we saw some other people we knew out on the sidewalk at the pub near the town center. then we decided to join our friends in walking down a couple of blocks for some beer and bocce in the green. (yes, the 'green' has a bocce course built into the landscape, complete with chipped stone surface and limestone boundaries.) while i played and drank, my wife talked with the people that were there hanging around in the grass and my daughter ran around with other kids.
i have to say the place is working - even though it's only about half built. sure, it feels completely artificial. the residents even joke about having 'drunk the kool-aid' and that they're still looking for the developers' chip that must have been embedded in them to keep an eye on them. they were given a stocked picnic basket by the developer as a welcome present, for pete's sake. the difference in the histor-icky houses and commercial buildings, though, is that they're done really well - nicely made, designed correctly/proportionally, detailed extremely well, not 'builder' at all.
we've planned to go back and spend some sundays with them for bocce and swimming in the town pool. my firm has been pursuing some work there: firehouse, church/school, doctor's office.
coming away from it, i still resent the artificial nature of it, especially the exclusionary nature of it. the cost of buying in is huge - certainly more than we could afford. but, at the same time, it's clear that the concept has some merit. there's some basic things that simply work, and they're things that aren't often done anymore.
Steven, this will be worth more discussion, as I'm feeling similarly. In Indianapolis, I'm following the local architecture proposals (recladding of a downtown tower, convention center expansion, lots of condo developments) and yet seeing nothing of interest and none of the occurrences that would make downtown a diverse, active, desirable community (grocery stores being #1).
Outside the city, especially in Carmel, I'm seeing fairly dense "urban" mixed-use proposals, attention to pedestrian quality, and even (if I may - ahem - pimp my husband one more time) a brand new contemporary art museum .
West Clay, the planned community adjacent to Carmel that has been around for at least 10 years, makes me physically ill every time I have to enter it. Like you, I despise its exclusionary quality (I feel every person there is staring at me thinking "That car doesn't live here...what's she up to?" and its silly historicism. That said, I think in 20 years it might be a lovely place to live: the trees will have grown, the CCRs covering remodeling might have loosened, and the whole place will have some patina.
And I do feel there is something going on outside the city core that feels like it has more potential than what I see going on downtown. I can imagine 20-30 years from now that downtown could easily be only used for recreation - sports arenas, zoo, etc - while the surrounding region is a series of clustered village-type developments all hopefully linked by light rail. I've started taking a dispassionate, removed attitude toward Indy's built future, and I'm curious to see where it goes.
Oh, and also keep in mind that public consumption of alcohol while playing bocce on the town green can greatly enhance one's enjoyment of same. (Really, you can drink beer there?!?)
i've started reading this book -
http://www.amazon.com/Rabelais-His-World-Mikhail-Bakhtin/dp/0253203414
and i am becoming hooked, reading about carnivals, and feasts...i hope i don't loose steam....
my new favorite archi-word = histor-icky
i felt ok displaying the sam adams on the bocce course, but when we ran out and i had to switch to bud i wrapped a napkin around the bottle.
[kidding!]
lb- why, oh why can't a downtown have a decent grocery store in it?! Downtown LA has the same problem, as does the most populous area of Hollywood. You can shop at Grand Central Market (which I believe WonderK is currently enamoured with) which is a kind of produce-stand/taco-stand mixture, but it's not open the hours that a normal supermarket is, so that can be hard. And there's no WonderKitty food there, that's for sure.
not to be overly proud of my new town, but I have to say one of the great things Chicago has going for it is PLENTY OF GROCERY STORES all over the place!!! And local, small-market options galore as well. Woohoo! Beats the pants off Boston--took me FOREVER to get to the grocery store there and it was not only way out of my way (nowhere near a convenient train line between work and home) but it was also RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE. I took a receipt home to Orange County once and some items (milk!) were literally almost double the cost there. MILK! MILK comes from VERMONT, it's not like you have to truck it 2,000 miles! That grocery store was insane.
We even have grocery stores (full size ones!) in the first floors of some of the high-rise buildings in the heart of downtown. It is sweet, sweet, sweet. THey are really doing a good job of making downtown chicago an easy place to live.
ahh, i miss the california asian markets. now those you have to go to chinatown for, here. it is on the train, though.
there IS a grocery store in downtown indianapolis. i just walked there last night?!? they have organic food, they have sushi, they have wine and beer, they have fresh meat and seafood, they have fresh flowers, they have lotto tickets, they have cigars, they have iams pet food, they have a pharmacy, they have fresh coffee beans and tea..
there is also a revitalized and renovated city market which will have small indy grocers, and merchants.
vado please clarify - there is ONE good grocery in downtown Indy. Downtown Philly has FIVE that can easily be walked to: two organic, two regular, and Trader Joes. And that's not even counting the many tiny produce storefronts, the medium-sized Old City market, anything in West Philly, and the Wawas.
Also if anyone in Philly really has a need to shop at Home Depot, WalMart, and an enormous bigbox grocery (Meier?), there is a direct downtown bus to get there.
philly is also much denser and has twice the population according to the 2000 census.
vado - are you visiting the twincities???? I'll be pissed if you are and didn't even drop me a line to say hi!
...t.... my trick to shopping mitsua and other asian food stores is to look at the mandated US nutrition label that will have a translation of the ingredients/name of product and is often the only english on the package... and have fun.
even little ol' st. petersburg (florida) has a grocery store downtown... granted it is just a publix and not some fancy schmancy gourmet type place... there are a few other small market type places... and the promise of a whole foods (or similar) store within a few years... it is even close enough for me to walk to (about 6 blocks) for small stuff (at least when its not a scorching 95 degrees outside)...
Not just grocery stores, but transit, laundry facilities, etc. Not having to go far out of our way to do daily chores is a big thing. Who can enjoy life when a trip to the grocery store takes an hour, a trip to the laundromat three (because you have to sit on the machine to make sure nobody steals your clothes), a trip to the post office 45 minutes? That's the sort of shit that stresses people out all the time.
I mentioned in GTC, but it's now been 2 months since I filled up my car with gas, and there's still a bit left in there. That's bloody brilliant, as I HATE going to the gas station.
mmmm... unibrouwe beers...
has anyone else seen evan almighty? i saw it last night... definitely not a great cinematic achievement (not that i expected much)... i knew that it was going to be bad when the first preview was for the bratz movie (ugh... shudder)... anyways i digress... the only thing that struck me about the movie was the constant nature=good vs. development=bad undercurrent... dare i call it green?
spoiler alert (if you care, which i doubt)...
anyways in summary, evan is a hummer driving new congressman that signs on to co-sponsor a bill that will open up portions of the national parks for private development... god shows up to tell him to build an ark and shows him the once verdant hills where his gated suburban community now stand... nature (in the form of the 2x2 animals) shows up to help build the ark and then the flood comes in the form of a broken dam that wipes out the suburbs and carries the ark all the way to capitol hill...
It's MitsuWa. Innit Ralphs opening at the end of the summer? That's South Park; pretty close to me an dubK.
Wooo! A grocery store! Downtown! If they gave us a Trader Joe's, I'd be quite pleased.
Oh, BTW:
Speaking of me, and California, I know you're tired of hearing about it but earlier today I was told I was the "famous WonderK from Archinect". Turns out my Mom used to work with another archinector, and now he's at UCLA, and between the Mom-vine and the ACfA/garpike UCLA connection, I played "6 Degrees of Architecture". Our world is so small.
re: grocery stores downtown. the idea that there aren't any may be a mis-statement in many places. louisville has had a growth in downtown residential over the last few years and, with that growth has brought with it the opening of two downtown markets. they're not where you'd do most of your shopping, just your daily pick-ups and some specialty items.
there are, however, 2 krogers within 5 minutes drive. these are totally off the radar of most downtown residents. they think that, because they have to drive there, it's not serving their needs as downtown residents. unless you're in ny or chicago, where people are less likely to have cars, when was the last time you did your major shopping on foot? when was the last time you drove less than 10 minutes? you can walk to the neighborhood market for your daily shopping and drive for your weekly shopping. as critical mass moves downtown, if there is a 'market' for a bigger grocery within walking distance, it will come.
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