The Crushing Cost of Sprawl

William Fulton, writing for the LA Times, provides some good insight into the struggles of cities to stay solvent

The recent bankruptcies of Stockton and San Bernardino have again highlighted the fragility of many California cities’ finances. In each case, the burden of public pensions has been blamed for the financial problems. However true that may be in the short run, the pension blame game masks another, deeper problem for the state’s taxpayers: the hidden but crushing cost of sprawl.

As William notes, there is a better way:

By contrast, responsible “smart growth” development — in both urban and green-field areas — can offer cities a way out of this financial box. By placing things closer together, smart growth reduces the amount, and cost, of roads and other infrastructure. By reducing the miles all those public vehicles have to travel, compact development lightens the load on taxpayers to provide those neighborhoods with public services. And by using land more efficiently, compact development generates more tax revenue — in some cases more than 100 times more tax revenue per acre than suburban sprawl.

100 times more tax revenue per acre! 100 times more revenue. And that’s just revenue. Compact development also more efficiently utilizes resources. Streets, utilities, and services all cost less per capita.

The Garden and the City

Eric Jacobson, writing for Christianity Today, reflects on the role theology plays in shaping views of our cities:

Evangelicals have been tempted to believe that to be spiritual is to deny or ignore the parts of our lives that have to do with our physical existence. But when we think of eternity in the context of a real physical place, we tend to take the physicality of our lives more seriously in the here and now.

This is a good development, and I applaud it heartily. However, it also leads us to another tendency in evangelical theology. Evangelicals have also been tempted to think of their eternal reward as a return to the simplicity of Eden, more than a journey to the New Jerusalem. We have longed for pristine naturalistic settings of fields and forests and the simplicity of the organic nuclear family as the context of our eternal existence.

We have pictured heaven in these terms, rather than making room in our imagination for good (read: God-honoring) cultural developments and the beautiful complexities (read: shalom) of life in the society of others as the context of our future existence.

I think it is instructive to contemplate Heaven as it represents the ideal and while we may fall short of the ideal it gives us a context to strive for. This notion that using the ideal of heaven as a tool for crafting the places of earth brings me to my architectural roots. I distinctly remember one of my first introductions to urban design theory at Andrews University. Philip Bess, one of our professors, gave a lecture that was an esoteric argument for urban design based on the heavenly ideal as imagined by a painting: Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece panel “The Adoration of the Lamb”. His lecture was basically a verbal version of this article with the main point being:

In addition to this theological order of iconography, however, there is another order of iconography that is at the same time both biblical and cross-cultural, explicit in Christian scripture but common to the rest of humanity as well. This is the iconography that forms the context of the Adoration of the Lamb, specifically the representation of Heaven as both a garden and a city, as the New Eden and the New Jerusalem. Architectural historian Norris Kelly Smith suggests in his 1980 essay “Crisis in Jerusalem” that, more ingeniously than any painting in western art, the Ghent Altarpiece manages to represent together the usually disparate biblical themes of Eden and Jerusalem.

If this painting represents the “Good Life”, the ideal of heaven, it suggests an appropriate context for our earthly lives. Specifically, it suggests that the good life is one in which two contexts are equally represented. First, there is the community or polis - the communal habitation of people existing in harmony and unity. Second, there is pristine nature or garden - a place of respite and renewal. These two are unique in form and function and they are distinctly delineated. There is no muddled middle ground, just city and garden. It is this duality - this equilibrium of communal/individual, urban/rural, built/pristine - that truly speaks to who we are. The ideal context for life is actually two: the city and the garden.

Active Kids are Healthy Kids

Anahad O’Connor, reporting for the New York Times, reports on a study by Dr. Keith Drake about childhood obesity:

Teenagers can significantly lower their likelihood of being overweight or obese by walking or biking to school and playing on at least one high school sports team, but preferably two or more, a new study suggests.

[…]

They calculated that if all adolescents played on at least two sports teams per year — in other words, one team per season — obesity rates would plunge 26 percent and the prevalence of overweight adolescents would fall by 11 percent. And if all adolescents walked or biked to school at least four days a week, they found, the number who were obese would drop by 22 percent.

We all know that childhood obesity is becoming epidemic. We also know that integrating activity with a minimum level of intensity into daily routines is the most effective way to combat the swelling obesity statistics. One great way to encourage daily activity is to design our neighborhoods with integrated schools that kids can actually get to without riding the bus. When combined with the other benefits of compact development such as amenities within an easy walk we not only free our kids from a life of obesity but we also grant them the freedom to live without parents as chauffeurs which in turn leads to more activity. A 22 percent drop in obesity is significant. Why not make places where kids can be healthy? Not through special programs or planned activities but just by living, by taking part in daily life. Why not give our kids the freedom to thrive?

Keyless Entry

Turn any deadbolt into an easy to install keyless entry system? Link it with an easy to use app or, even better, low power bluetooth to automatically unlock? Lock your door from anywhere in the world? Check, check, and check. This is a great idea from Lockitron.

Gambling or Investing

Chuck Marohn:

We don’t need better projections to build a nation of Strong Towns. All we need is a clear understanding of the relationship between infrastructure spending and growth. Good infrastructure spending is not designed to induce growth but is the proper response to successful patterns of development. This is not a chicken and egg argument; it is the difference between gambling and investing.

It’s an interesting question, and Chuck, as always, presents a compelling argument. I look forward to his further development of this concept.

Inevitable

Jim Dalrymple, writing for (pro(vo)cation), has a great piece about the tension between preservation and progress:

It also illustrates one major problem with the debate over historic structures: we’re mostly concerned with preserving existing buildings, when instead we should be equally interested in erecting potential new ones. Or said another way, we should be as outraged when someone throws up a cheap, shoddily designed building as we are when a beautiful old building comes down. Development is ultimately inevitable but horrible buildings are not.

This is almost the exact point I was trying to make when I asked What’s Worth Preserving. The preservation movement gets a lot of its momentum from the terrible stuff we build in place of the beloved structures that get torn down (many for good reason). Make the new development worth building and people don’t feel so bad about losing the old.

221B

Jimmy Stamp, writing for The Smithsonian, on the many Sherlock Holmes reconstructions:

The mystery of 221B Baker Street is not one of secret passages or hidden symbols. Rather, it could be described as a sort of existential spatial riddle: how can a space that is not a space be where it is not? According to Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson lived at 221B Baker Street from 1881 to 1904. But 221B Baker street did not exist in 1881, nor did it exist in 1887 when A Study in Scarlet was published and Baker Street house numbers only extended into the 100s. It was a purely fictional address – emphasis on was. Time marches on, Baker Streets are renumbered, and 221Bs are revealed.

An interesting read for the many Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts among us.

Walkable Cities

Richard Florida, for The Atlantic Cities:

Then we matched the new Walk Score data for these 50 largest cities to statistics for the broader metro areas of which they are a part. As before, we found significant associations. Walkable metros had higher levels of highly educated people (a correlation of .36), higher wages (.61), higher housing values (.50), more high-tech companies (.58), greater levels of innovation (.45), and more artistic creatives (.57).

Which is cause and which is effect? I have my bet.

Passion Diluted

Caela McKeever, for crosscut:

But six years after graduating from college, I’m struggling to plant architectural roots as strong as marriage and faith. My peers from the Class of 2006 are also struggling; we’re tired and overworked, our energy drained and passion diluted.

The evidence sits in my refrigerator: chevroned tall boys of Saison ale and a meticulous shortbread fruit tart, both crafted by former co-workers and classmates who initially pursued architecture only to search for fulfillment elsewhere. Photographers, typographers, bakers, bikers, and brewers are all disguised on LinkedIn and Facebook as design interns. There’s a renaissance happening among young architects — and it’s not in architecture.

Unfortunately Caela’s description rings true. Architecture has a predicament - the profession trains students for 5+ years to be creative, passionate problem solvers but then puts these talented people into menial “internships” of an undefined duration. There has been much discussion of what these interns should be called but much less about how to engage this next generation in the creative design process.[1] If architecture is unable to retain the bright, talented, and passionate young workforce the industry will suffer for their departure.

I come from a medical family, so whenever this topic of professional development comes up I think of the way doctors are trained. After a rigorous post graduate program (more education than most architects) these doctors enter into specialties that have varying, but defined, internships. These internships are designed to very quickly empower the new crop of doctors with the skills and confidence to practice their craft. Importantly, during internship and even the latter part of medical school these professionals are allowed to use the term “doctor” if only with some modification (“student doctor” - for example). From medical school through internship through residency the new doctors are practicing medicine with increasing levels of responsibility and respect. The system is designed to make doctors. There is no room for half doctors - you are either on the defined path or you are not. The system for making people architects is, arguably, very bad at making architects.

On a personal note, as a member of the class of 2006 I am one of the lucky few who have been continuously employed since graduation. I have actually been given great opportunity compared to many. My thoughts are more as an observer of my colleagues and peers than a complaint about my actual experiences. However, it could be said that this blog was born out of a sense of professional lack of fulfillment - to one degree or another. This is my personal creative outlet - a place where I can set the direction. It is my responsibility, my challenge.

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1. “Intern” is appropriately discounted as the correct term as it doesn’t reflect the professional status of one who has graduated from a rigorous field of study with a professional degree. But the discussion around what to call these pre-licensure architectural professionals misses the point that it isn’t just about the title. They need to be treated as professionals and given the freedom and responsibility to grow quickly. Yes they are still in the learning stages but learning is much more effective and rewarding when challenges are offered and met. The grunt work is educational but not in a rewarding way - particularly for those passionate people who are expecting architecture to be their creative outlet.  ↩

   
   

Walk to Thrive

Graham Barker, writing for netdoctor, expounds on the benefits of walking:

Walking is often called the perfect exercise. It’s remarkable something so simple – putting one foot in front of the other – can be so restorative and invigorating.

But the medical evidence is compelling. Taking regular brisk walks helps you stay healthy, live longer and boosts your self-esteem and mood.

While Graham mostly argues for making a point of including walking in daily activity, what if it was automatically included? What if our built environment, our human habitat, was so calibrated towards walking that getting the recommended amount of daily activity would occur naturally? This is where public health and urban planning intersect - how and what we build has a tremendous impact on how well we live. Isn’t it time we build to thrive?