Los Angeles leaders are pinning their hopes on smart growth, the utopian planning vision that solves all the problems. Politicians, planners, developers and their architects say smart growth, sometimes described as “new urbanism,” will relieve the region’s housing shortage, diminish its traffic woes and solve L.A.’s overall unlivability. But wait.., there is more to it! LA WEEKLY
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LA needs to build more subways stat!
So the years of digging will be painful, but the west side has already hit critical mass for gridlock. there is one other solution - congestion tolls like london for crossing over Robertson (or should I make that La Brae?)
The problem with the Weekly article is it assumes our housing and transportation choices exist between two extreme alternatives.
For transportation, its car or conventional bus moving in mixed traffic (since the someday-subway-system is obviously years away). Obviously any reasonable person will choose the car. But what about a high-tech bus system running in dedicated lanes?
For housing, most everyone will prefer the single family house with a backyard if our only other option is Manhattan-style stacked flats. But what about alternatives that combine the privacy and openspace qualities of the house with density?
The problem of density in LA will not be resolved through numerical planning strategies - it is fundamentally a design problem. We are in desperate need of new typologies, models and precedents for density that exist between extreme alternatives. That the Weekly can not see beyond extremes suggests that we are not designing, creating, or promoting viable alternatives to the degree we should.
hey alan, im preparing to do my thesis on exactly this topic...mind if i contact you about it at some point in the future?
justavisual - no problem. You can email me through Archinect.
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