5 PCSR 01-12-1995 - Laserfiche WebLink

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INSIGHTS How To Mess Up a Town • by James Howard Kunstler he town where I live, Saratoga the 1950s and replaced by strip malls with county road across from the old dump. Springs, New York, like practically huge parking lots fronting on Broadway The reason it was moved,by the way, was and its adjoining streets. All sorts of Map- because there wasn't enough parking. Do every other town in America, is under assault by forces that want to turn it propriate suburban building forms were you suppose the children cared about the into another version of Paramus, New Jer imposed on downtown sites—ridiculous parking? sey,with all the highway crud, chain store one-story structures with blank walls,sur- Saratoga's plight has been aggravated servitude,and loss of community that pat- rounded by bark mulch beds and, of by the fact that the northernmost of its tern of development entails. course, acres of parking lots—destroying gateways, Exit 15 of Interstate 87, lies Ironically, the forces who are ready to within the adjoining town of Wilton, permitwhich has aggressively turned the land the most radical damage to the THE PUBLIC REALM IS around Exit 15 into a feeding frenzy for town's historic character consider them- THE PHYSICAL mall builders, national discount stores, selves the most conservative; while the franchise fry pits,and other agents of sub- groups most concerned with preserving MANIFESTATION OF THE urban sprawl in order to pay for its grow the town's best features,and even enhanc- COMMON GOOD. ing roster of"revenue-loser" residential ing them,have been branded radical. Until World War Two, Saratoga had WHEN YOU DEGRADE subdivisions.Wilton has become the Anti- the character of a city in the country. Its THE PUBLIC REALM, AS Saratoga,both in physical layout and eco- business district was a verydenselydevel- nomically, its chain stores sucking the WE HAVE, YOU DEGRADE lifeblood out of our downtown. oped grid of blocks crammed with build- THE COMMON GOOD, Wilton, of course, will have to suffer ings that stood shoulder to shoulder. The the consequences of its heedless and attern was classic Main Street USA— � AND HENCE YOU IMPAIR ough here the main drag is named THE ABILITY OF A brainless "growth" — and I believe that suburbia of its type will begin to tank out Broadway. Spoking off Broadway were a GROUP OF PEOPLE continued on page 19 half dozen major feeder streets, all lined INCORPORATED AS A PLANNING with buildings, all vigorously mixed-use, COMMISSIONERS with retail businesses, offices, and apart- REPUBLIC TO THINK ments disposed in an arrangement that has ABOUT THE PUBLIC I been the basis for good urbanism since INTEREST. ourna classical antiquity. Several mammoth Victorian hotels gave the town cosmopolitan swagger— In Coming Issues ... and fabulous public spaces,along with the all pedestrian interest. The blocks on renowned racecourse.And of course there either side of Broadway were leveled in a • More on community leadership were the springs. The residential ring mendacious urban renewal scheme that •A"takings"law primer around this downtown core was devel- left 90 percent of that land in parking lots. oped to a density of about four to eight Many of the functions of everyday life • Gateways to communities dwellings per acre, on a grid of tree-lined were taken out of downtown and scattered streets, in a readily recognizable pattern out in the countryside where they are only • Understanding performance bonds we might call Small Town USA. Saratoga's accessible by motor vehicles. Last year it urban edge was clearly defined: beyond was the new junior high school, moved • Conducting community surveys East Avenue and West Avenue lay good, three miles out of town along a busy state well-farmed farmland. highway, to which students are explicitly • Making the right motion:procedural basics The past forty-odd years, of course, forbidden to walk or ride their bikes. This • Highlights of our first planning 'ust about everything has been done to year it was the public skating rink, which iii commissioner conference call estroy that pattern and dismantle the was removed from the center of town and town. The mammoth hotels were razed in stuck three miles from Broadway out on a •And more from our regular columnists ' PLANNING COMMISSIONERS JOURNAL / NUMBER 17 / WINTER 1 9 9 5