Pray that the cities you love may never become the topic of a photo essay like this. (Click the little gray boxes in the lower left to navigate.)

– Hat tip: Urban Planning Blog

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I’m thankful for businesses like Aptera Inc. who have decided to move to downtown Fort Wayne and support our urban core.

But downtown Fort Wayne isn’t the only urban business district around here. If you want to do business — or open a business — in a close-knit, walkable, multi-use community, you could also consider:

New Haven, pictured at top. The photo was taken at Broadway and Main streets during the downtown businesses’ Halloween celebration last year. It was packed!

Roanoke, above. The location of Joseph Decuis and Reusser Design, among others.

East State Village. A couple blocks long loaded with restaurants, a bakery, a library branch, a chocolatier and the Firehouse Theatre.

Waynedale. There’s a Big Boy and lots of small businesses lining Lower Huntington Road.

Wells Street. Several blocks of eclectic shops: Hyde Brothers bookstore, Mr. Wimps jewelry, a funeral home, a coffee shop, a bakery, a discount grocery and plenty of people milling around.

West Main Street. OK, this is my neighborhood, best known for Paula’s Seafood, O’Sullivan’s and Recovery Room Upholstery. But look more closely and you’ll find outdoors equipment, architects and even the SOMA art gallery.

I’m sure there are lots of other small business districts scattered around town. Any you’d care to mention? What do you like about them?Similar Posts:

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Scott Greider, over on his personal blog, quotes a portion of the San Jose historic design guidelines that addresses the role of modern architecture in older neighborhoods. (If you’re adventurous, you can download the entire 95-page PDF.)

What does San Jose say? It says, “Bring it on”:

Rather than imitating older buildings, a new design should relate to the traditional design characteristics of a neighborhood while also conveying the stylistic trends of today. New construction may do so by drawing upon some basic building features — such as the way in which a building is located on its site, the manner in which it relates to the street and its basic mass, form and materials — rather than applying detailing which may or may not have been historically appropriate. When these design variables are arranged in a new building to be similar to those seen traditionally in the area, visual compatibility results. Therefore, it is possible to be compatible with the historic context while also producing a design that is distinguishable as being newer.

A modern-style home can be a wonderfully contrasting complement to a historic neighborhood. It certainly beats decay and vacant lots, and it also beats a hundred suburban neo-Colonials with three-car garages in front.

I can’t say the modern home above is my style, but frankly, plenty of older, classical homes aren’t my style, either.

The style of the structure is not the main point. Urbanism is site plan more than architecture. If you bring the house close to the sidewalk, put the parking or garage in the back and make the front wall permeable (that is, not a blank wall), you are strengthening a neighborhood, no matter the style of architecture.

– photo of modern townhouse in Lincoln Park, Ill., by Scott Greider on Flickr

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The Work Research Foundation‘s Comment magazine published a little point of view piece called “Public Arts in the City: with reference to Chicago.”

Not only does the author — Clinton Stockwell, the executive director of the Chicago Semester — give ten positive reasons for considering cities as works of art, he peppers his short essay with great quotes, including these:

“Place is space with historical meanings, where some things have happened which are now remembered and provide continuity and identity across generations.” — Walter Brueggemann

“Art points out to the Calvinist both the still visible lines of the original plan, and what is even more, the splendid restoration by which the Supreme Artist and Master-Builder will one day renew and enhance even the beauty of His original creation.” — Abraham Kuyper in Lectures on Calvinism

Read the essay here.

photo of Chicago’s Michigan Avenue by kitchaboy on Flickr

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What creates community? Shared stories.

Shared stories require three things, two of which are obvious:

• A story, or any kind of happening, even a small happening, like a game of cards.
• Some sharing, that is, a group of people who experience the same happening.

But a shared story also requires:

• A first-hand, intimate knowledge that the story is being shared.

A group of individuals sitting at home watching the same show different shows on separate televisions does not create community. But the smallest thing shared with a neighbor does.

An example of a shared story is the above photo, which was taken in downtown Wheeling, W.Va., in 1950. A parade had gone up Market Street — you can see it in the background. Today, downtown Wheeling is almost vacant and you must drive ten miles to a shopping mall to do any substantial shopping.

– photo from the author’s personal collection

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That’s the title of a promising event May 7 at the downtown Cinema Center.

Dan Burden, executive director of Walkable Communities, will be leading an event that hopes to answer these questions:

What are the elements that make up a pedestrian and bicycle friendly downtown? Learn what Fort Wayne can do to make our downtown more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. What are other successful communities doing? What are your questions?

Fore more information, check out The Good City’s new events page. When I find out more about what will actually happen at the event — Is it a presentation? A charrette? Very few details are on the city’s press release — I’ll post the information.Similar Posts:

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Yesterday, I pointed to this article at City Journal about how New Urbanism may have changed the conversation about urban planning, but it hasn’t changed the culture.

The article points out how many New Urbanists have grabbed on to the “climate change” movement, hoping its momentum will bring its “community-building ethos into the mainstream.” And along those lines, New Urbanists have hitched their wagon to increased regulation to make their dreams happen:

(New Urbanists’) first hope was “smart growth” — basically, the imposition of regulatory guidelines concerning things like density and access to public transportation. The New Urbanists tend to regard the triumph of the automobile with skepticism and would like to think it reversible. Al Gore would agree, and as vice president he took a stab at promoting a smart-growth “livability agenda” — with underwhelming results. Smart growth, for the record, now entails advocacy of a new stratum of government: federally mandated regional authorities would control key planning decisions for core cities and their suburbs as well as the sharing of major urban assets, not to mention federal dollars.

Instead, the article’s author says New Urbanists should move beyond a top-down approach:

They need to get beyond marketing strategy, eco-hype, and trendy buzzwords, and focus on the formidable task of cultivating political leaders across the ideological spectrum who have the gumption to redeem the nation’s urban landscape — one community at a time.

The article is correct — partially. Finding political allies at the local level is much better than finding them at the federal one.

But the article’s unspoken assumption is that politics got us into this mess, and politics will get us out. It’s a fatal error.

The problem isn’t political, it’s cultural. One reason the suburbs exist as they do is because we as Americans wanted to become more isolated from each other. Until the American people realize once again the purpose of cities — and decide that they are willing to sacrifice their own comfort temporarily to make cities more livable — then our culture will continue to spin off into increasing isolation, whether the walls are single-use zoning or technology or simply never leaving your car while outside a building.

Not even $3.65 a gallon gasoline will make us love our neighbor. Forcing us to live close to one another won’t rebuilt society if we simply don’t want to.

– photo by puroticorico on Flickr

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(Jon) If public art has the power like no other to “brand” a city — think of the Eiffel Tower and the Gateway Arch — then why is the public so often against the expenditure?

Dan on Cyburbia thinks it may be the style of art that’s been typically commissioned in the last half of the 20th century:

“Since about the late-mid 20th century a popular form of public art has emerged that I will call ‘amorphism’ that can be found in cities all over the world. It’s difficult to describe, but much like pr0n, you know it when you see it.

“Given that most people prefer their art to have form why have so many formless works been selected/commissioned? Do various governments have a desire to appear cutting edge/avant garde/futuristic and feel the art helps convey that impression? How are most selection committees formed?”

To bring the issue to Fort Wayne: Could much of the disagreement with Harrison Square have to do with distrust of the city’s ability to build something iconic?

I am thinking of the “amorphic” red steel artwork beside the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, the name of which escapes me. (Could someone could post a name and even better a link to a photo?) I heard stories that when it was reported the structure was sinking into the ground, a radio station encouraged listeners to drape their bodies all over it, to hasten its sinking?

On the other hand, I’m also reminded of our beautiful Allen County Courthouse, one of the best example of beautiful and functional public art anywhere. What was the spirit of those hardy Fort Waynians, and can it be recaptured?

Please comment here, but also take a minute to read the Cyburbia post and view the great examples.

Author’s photo on Flickr

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“Urbanism starts with the location of the parking lot.” — David Sucher

(Jon) When the downtown Fort Wayne Subway shop was torn down to make way for Harrison Square, it was a safe bet that it would rebuilt nearby.

And with the recent emphasis on downtown renewal, this property at the southeast corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Clinton Street was a prime location for a great, urban-looking business.

Alas, we have this suburban Subway, smack in the middle of downtown.

Oh, I’m sure it’ll be a great-looking building, and far better looking than its previous one. But an opportunity was wasted, and I don’t know why the city didn’t make the case for Subway to locate its restaurant on the property in a way that reflected its urban setting.

In other words, to make this Subway’s site plan more urban, move the building to the corner and the parking around the back.

Here’s an admittedly simple graphic by David Sucher that shows what I’m talking about:

If the Subway had been located right on the corner, downtown Fort Wayne would have taken a step toward being a more walkable neighborhood. It’s too bad that this simple idea wasn’t considered before the building went up.Similar Posts:

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(Jon) How about some urban policies that are focused not only on economics, but on happiness?

An article in enRoute magazine opens with a Paris street that’s been buried in sand and turned into a city beach. And that’s not all:

All through the city, pavement has been wrested away from private cars and converted into sandboxes, plazas, dance floors and bike paths. Paris has joined a global movement that seeks to change not just streets but the very soul of urban spaces. Its adherents believe that cities can become engines not just of economic growth. But of happiness.

Paris is only one example:

The charge is being led by some of the world’s toughest towns, places like Bogotá, where happiness theory led one mayor to transform roads into parks and pedestrian “freeways,” and Mexico City, whose mayor is investing in urban beaches and bikeways in order to change the citizens’ gloomy outlook. Now the movement is spilling over to wealthier cities too. Seoul has ripped out a downtown freeway to make room for parks and streams. London has put the squeeze on cars with its now famous congestion charge.

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