Good Idea, Bad Idea

EoA back again!

Hey, did you guys ever watch the cartoon Animaniacs when you were little? I watched it all the time.
That show was genius. The older I get, the more I appreciate all the jokes they put into it that really were meant for adults. Despite all those jokes, it's amazing that they were still able to make it such a hit with kids. It's one of those show that was truly inter-generational, like Pee-Wee's Playhouse. But! I digress....

One of my favorite bits from the show was "Good Idea, Bad Idea"
It was generaly a quick sketch where they'd have Tom Bodett from the "Motel Six" commercial do a voice over on something that was a good idea, and something similar that was a really bad idea. Here's a sample of what I'm talking about.

So along those lines, I wanted to go all Urban Planner on 'good idea, bad idea'. A few weeks ago, I went to an outdoor movie screening in Hollywood held by Cinespia at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The movie shown was Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, one of the only films to every get a 100% rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes.

Pee-Wee Herman: truly, a bicycle-oriented urbanist before his time

I could go on and on about how much that movie rocked, but I've got something else I'd rather nerd out about. And so begins: Good Idea, Bad Idea.

Mixed-Use Good Idea:
Reusing a low-intensity single purpose plot of land (like a cemetery) for something like outdoor movie screenings.

And there were tons of people there! Way more than you'd probably find 'paying respects' on any given Sunday. This isn't to denigrate people respecting the dead, but we need to think of ways to integrate mixed uses into our cities and lives. The less space we can take up for activities and the more activities we can fit into the spaces we have, the more compact and vibrant our cities will be. I mean, check this out:

That's a lot of people...

Mixed-Use Bad Idea:
Putting a factory right next to a cemetery. I'm all for mixed-use, but let's think about why people invented zoning in the first place. It was primarly a tool to protect us from the harmful effects of pollution and industry. I'm not sure how much peace and serenity you can get at a cemetery when there's a manufacturing plant right next to you.

That's not very peaceful...

Good Idea, Bad Idea. Sometimes, you just need to listen to the Animaincs. I've heard that they're zany. To the max.

Crooks, Crews, and horribly mixed metaphors

*Before I get started, I just wanted to apologize to anyone who reads Industrianism (anyone? Bueler? Bueler?) for taking so long between posts. I've had a lot of personal crap come up all at once along with transitioning into grad school. Let's just say it was ... an unpleasant ... two weeks. But! I'm back, hopefully to post more stuff for the 3 people who read this here blog. Hi, mom!*

Ready to stretch our metaphor muscles? After reading this post, you'll feel like you just did a session of Bikram Yoga.

In the sport of rowing, the fastest boat around is the eight-oared shell. It's got the most guys in it and they can beat any other configuration in the sport.
But the problem with an 8-oared shell is that you need 8 guys (and a coxswain) to row it at top speed. If you only have 6 guys in the boat, you'll probably get beat by a smaller boat that's full, like a 4-oared shell.
Now! "EoA, what the hell does this have to do with industry, urbanism, or LA?" is probably what you're saying to yourself right about now. I hope you all took the time to stretch like I suggested earlier in the post. We're about make some crazy connections.

Everybody and their mom likes to talk about how awesome "transit oriented development" is. If you don't know, now you know. But TOD isn't just something you plop down on the street. Magical transit fairies won't stream out the doors and turn cars into playground for kids or something. You need a lot of factors working together in order to make TOD successful. If they aren't all present, you'll end up spinning your wheels while smaller, more car oriented businesses and housing units pass you by. You could almost say it's like ... needing 8 guys in your 8-oared shell!!

I ride down Central quite a lot on my bike, and it's got a lot going on. I recently passed two big 'ole TOD-style projects there while biking home one day. Now, I'm all for TOD and all the concepts behind it. Density, transit, mixed use, all of that.
But when I got closer, I started seeing some troubling signs. None of it was open. The stores were empty, the rooms were unoccupied. It was clear that this building had been completed for some time now.
There was another TOD style development even older than this one, but all they had managed to secure was a "coming soon" Subway. When all you can get is a Subway, you know you're doing something wrong.
And just down the street from both of these ghostly behemoths, a lively and full street scene was unfolding.
These little shops are like the 4-oared shell that is shooting past our big, lumbering 8-oared boat, manned by only 5 rowers. This isn't to say that one neighborhood or store layout is better than another. It's just that if we're going to commit ourselves to TOD living, we need to do a lot more than just plop down 5 story modernist-blah style buildings with storefronts on the street. We need to focus them in areas where there's a large amount of transit. We need to focus them in areas that already have high rates of density to support the businesses they'll add to the neighborhood. We need to work with cities to redesign streets that TOD is being built on so they will be more oriented towards pedestrians. If we can't line all of these things up, TOD will be left at a huge disadvantage to more traditional, car oriented businesses. But when we DO get all those things lined up, nobody can beat us.

Now, I understand there are plenty of people out there who have never seen crew or rowing. Metaphors aren't for everybody. But to put it in different terms (and show off my super whiteness), I'm going to take a quote from the late, great Biggie Smalls: "There ain't no such thing as half-way crooks". We can't change our cities by doing things halfway.

More Bears

EoA here

I'm going to have a really kick-ass post up later on this week about the history of 6th Street Viaduct (Viaduct = bridge. I don't know why they called it that). But in the meantime, I found some more sweet, sweet bears hanging around my neighborhood. And really, what would you prefer: hear about a bridge or look at some cool bears? Amirite?

Oh, hey bear. I didn't see you standing there on that stump.
....yeah. I already said 'hi'. You're starting to creep me out, bear.
AAAAHHHH!!! Scary negative-imprint bear! Also, you're getting a little close. Why don't you back off a little, huh?.
Woah, costume change? I can tell you're a little confused too.
I don't know where the bear went, but I sure don't like the way that Elephant is eyeing me.

Weekend Whimsy

So I don't really feel like doing some in-depth urban analysis today. It's time for more weekend whimsy! Here's some cool stuff.



Have a great weekend, everyone!

Diversity, both in form and use

When reading Jane Jacobs, one of the things that struck me the most was her focus on diversity of building use and type in order to create a successful neighborhood. Her example was what she called the "monoculture of use" on Wall Street in the New York City of the 1960's. All the bankers would come rush in during the morning, go out for lunch, and rush back home after the markets closed. The tragedy of this situation, in her eyes, was that the area Wall Street occupied was left empty and without beneficial use in any other time of day than the ones listed above. Wall Street was so successful that any use other than "financial activities" had been priced out, and this pricing out was hurting the viability of Wall Street as a vibrant neighborhood. The same type of pattern has followed in many American downtowns during the 20th century, as they were designed to accommodate car commuters coming in from the suburbs and tended to shun the downtown residents that could make such an area be a thriving, 24-hour neighborhood. In short, these neighborhoods lacked diversity of use.

What's missing here? People! (well, other than officer Pepe, at least)

Another example Mrs. Jacobs sites is the dangerous playground in the solely residential neighborhood in urban Baltimore. This is a park that is surrounded by almost carbon-copy homes that are occupied by people who all fit into a very thin slice of the economic spectrum. Since most of these people lead similar lives, their schedules often mirror each other. These similar schedules then tended to leave the neighborhood park mostly empty for much of the day. This lack of attention and usage of the park led to it becoming the haunt of drug dealers and other dangerous elements. If there were a range of people with different living and working situations within this neighborhood, there would have been more usage of the park at different hours and a better chance that it would have been policed effectively. Again, these neighborhoods lacked diversity.

The diversity I'm describing is contained in the form of the buildings, in the types of people whom are found in the neighborhood, and the types of activities that go on there.

When I bike around the Industrial & Arts Districts, I find a wealth of people, buildings, and uses. It may not look the way you think a good neighborhood should, but it works pretty well as one.

This is a courtyard down an alleyway behind a converted industrial space. It really reminds me of Florence, but I think that's just from the yellow awnings and the vespas parked outside. Just so you know, the outside of the building looks like this:
So we've got non-traditional housing. We're talking about people who may or may not be "artists", but we can certainly say that, compared to the population at large, you have a large percentage of people that work on non-traditional schedules and often work where they live. Just a few blocks away, we find this:
Cool! But more importantly, it's a religious institution that might have a different schedule than working people. Then there's industrial workspace.
This brings a lot of people into the neighborhood in the middle of the day. You get sustained activity throughout the daytime hours. Another source of daytime activity is governmental work:
Do not mess with LA Water and Power: they will break you.
And of course, a vibrant neighborhood needs some good old fashioned upwardly mobile middle class folks.
But those are the tricky gentrifying folks that bear watching. Don't get over-eager, yuppie pioneers. We wouldn't want to create another monoculture. But for right now, you're just another slice of diversity.