Article

2020-03-20 -Short Attention Span Theater-

From food to tech, coronavirus to spur urban planning rethink

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Posted by trailing wife 2020-03-20 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top

#1 And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-03-20 03:15|| 2020-03-20 03:15|| Front Page Top

#2 Urbanism is done. Distributed systems and dispersed communities are the future.

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-03-20 04:49|| 2020-03-20 04:49|| Front Page Top

#3 ^Not gonna happen - too many advantages to urban living.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-03-20 05:01|| 2020-03-20 05:01|| Front Page Top

#4 /\ Urbanism is done.

Sounds like a no-brainer, because it is a no-brainer. I did it anyway. Googled COVID-19 in Ga. Fulton County, Atlanta and surrounding counties lead the pack of confirmed cases. The further you get from Atlanta, the fewer cases appear. There are a few Ga. counties with no incidents of the virus.

Duhhh, ok yes, it's a population density, numbers, possibly reporting thing. I get it. For grocery shopping and travel issues, I'm going with the lower reporting number Zipp codes.

Posted by Besoeker 2020-03-20 05:14|| 2020-03-20 05:14|| Front Page Top

#5 Many of the "advantages" are subjective. Yeah, I could walk to Severance Hall for the symphony when I lived in Cleveland, but most of the people there still had to take mass transit or drive to get there. Traditionally cities grew up along rivers or rail lines for obvious reasons. As we arrive at the age of drones delivering to the door the impetus for clustering at density levels that gives you Baltimore / Detroit / Chicago type human friction declines.

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-03-20 06:13|| 2020-03-20 06:13|| Front Page Top

#6 FWIW, I went into Boston yesterday around 11:30 AM. I've never gotten a better parking space in that High Street garage. I left around 6:30 last night and the place was a freakin' ghost town. Ima expecting the same thing when I go in today.

Also - a personal best was achieved on the drive back to Quincy - I covered about six miles on I-93 south (Southeast Expressway) in roughly 3+ minutes, topping off at 101 MPH, in the rain.

Posted by Raj 2020-03-20 06:34|| 2020-03-20 06:34|| Front Page Top

#7 Well, I lived 3 months in a pup tent, and I hate nature!

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-03-20 06:34|| 2020-03-20 06:34|| Front Page Top

#8 And - I dusted some snob asswipe driving his nice, pristine white Range Rover. You wanna drive fast, bunky? Any punk can speed on a straight, flat stretch - try doing it at 85 on a sweeping curve in the rain. Fuckin' amateur...

Posted by Raj 2020-03-20 06:40|| 2020-03-20 06:40|| Front Page Top

#9 There will probably be consideration of desirable population density levels

As long as they can use it to maintain their power in stuffing the ballot boxes, the pols will never allow dissolution of their means to that power.

Posted by Procopius2k 2020-03-20 07:03|| 2020-03-20 07:03|| Front Page Top

#10 All those Chinese ghost cities they built say just because the central planners build it doesn't guarantee the reliable urban sheep will come.

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-03-20 07:18|| 2020-03-20 07:18|| Front Page Top

#11 Loved your comments, Raj. I am familiar with that drive and Boston in general having lived in Woburn for 2 years. I worked in Cambridge just across the river near MIT.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2020-03-20 08:07|| 2020-03-20 08:07|| Front Page Top

#12 Private property would help with the issue. As long as all rural areas are "for the people, for the farmers" no one even has the option of taking their $$$ and retiring to the countryside. I'd love to, but I can't. I can spend 10 million for a condo in the city, but buying just 2 acres in the countryside is not an option, at any price (other than renting out a whole village for 20 years from the local farmers). So, money is locked up in the cities.

Posted by Beau 2020-03-20 09:16|| 2020-03-20 09:16|| Front Page Top

#13 I'm told that, through most of history, cities have been population sinks.

Posted by James 2020-03-20 11:53|| https://idontknowbut.blogspot.com 2020-03-20 11:53|| Front Page Top

#14 Negative Population Growth was what cities have had for most of mankind's history. Only recent advances in medicine, food production and, importantly, sanitation engineering have given us the "weird" idea that living in major cities is healthy.

Posted by magpie 2020-03-20 13:41|| 2020-03-20 13:41|| Front Page Top

#15 Hey Raj, I REALLY want to know what your tires are. Boston-area roads are 'greasy' when it rains. We lived in Cambridge for 8 years before moving to less urban areas. I haven't missed it (too much, maybe a little, the traffic not at all).

Posted by Whiskey Mike 2020-03-20 13:59|| 2020-03-20 13:59|| Front Page Top

#16 Tax density not income. AKA land title taxes and you'll probably have lower ill health (and capitalism not marxism).

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2020-03-20 17:42|| 2020-03-20 17:42|| Front Page Top

#17 Nothing will change, everyone will forget in a few months. Technology will be used to open doors for us and perhaps in the winter we'll see gas station attendants pumping our gas for us again.

Posted by ruprecht 2020-03-20 21:42|| 2020-03-20 21:42|| Front Page Top

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