A vast majority of our infrastructure is predicated on treating non-automobiles as second-class citizens. This is the status quo. One doesn't need to look far to find examples.
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The 10th Avenue Bridge is a local street with a local bridge that serves local traffic. Yet, in many cases, the general public narrative finds it necessary to criticize state legislators for not allocating money to support a project that has no state or regional significance. Herein lies the disconnect between how we think transportation financing works and how it actually works.
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The reason our bridges are crumbling is because we've made the conscious decision not to repair them. Instead, we've chosen to build new things (more specifically, mostly roads). And now, we're tasking the same people who created the problem to help get us out of it?
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These nuances are lost when the top-down approach invades our planning. It's expensive and gives us a low return on investment. It's the type of system that would spend $50 million without realizing that they were trying to solve the wrong problem.
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Aging suburbia is going through an identity crisis. Existing residents would like the place to stay much the same. New residents, including those who don’t live there yet, are demanding something else. The problem is that these places can’t continue to stay the same. Yet, the change is too difficult for many to swallow. This is why the default for most suburbs is decline. Growth isn’t built into their DNA.
Read MoreImagine if the City of Minneapolis was given $8.7 million that could only be used on downtown pedestrian and/or transit projects. What would they do? The answer is: not a pedestrian bridge to be used during 10 sports games a year.
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I suggest starting small. Pick up an orange flag and cross a street. That's how revolutions get started.
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When what we've been doing clearly isn't working, counter-intuitive might be our best option. And that option is making our spaces unsafe so we can make them safe.
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Let’s stop and reevaluate. Let’s assess what’s really important in our community. Building an over-sized school on over-sized road on an over-sized parcel strikes me as irresponsible. We need to return to a neighborhood model. We need to find the locations that don’t need a Safe Routes to School grants and build there. The places we are collectively building are places that our children hate. They’re inhuman, disregard our existing neighborhoods, cost us more money and unnecessarily burden parents.
Let’s make a change.
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The Congress for the New Urbanism’s annual meeting can be intimidating for a first timer. I remember walking around clueless during my first Congress, not knowing exactly what to do or where to go. Then all of a sudden I'd bump into someone like James Howard Kunstler, whose books I had loved, and I would be speechless and he'd be like, "Hey, do you know what time it is?"
This is CNU in a nutshell.
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“It’s like building a Vikings’ stadium in a single season,” said State Transportation Commissioner Charlie Zelle. Ouch.To anyone who followed the Minnesota Vikings’ new publicly-financed stadium, this quote should make you cringe.
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The response isn’t to ignore or fight against, but to embrace. Update the city codes and add flexibility. Make all services viable, because if you try to stop them, you might not be able to. They won’t change your world overnight, but they should give your city a tool in a wider toolkit, and a Strong Town is one that embraces a greater toolkit of possibilities.
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We need to create an environment with flexibility. It’s crucial in making our cities better places. Also, don't be stupid. That part is very important.
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We have embraced a degree of urbanism in our towns and cities. The planning, architecture and development communities have slowly adopted concepts of good urban design. It’s part of an ideological battle that the New Urbanists have won. But, we aren’t all the way there yet. We’ve only finished half the equation.
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We have a cultural misunderstanding about the economic benefits of mobility.
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The heart of the matter is that this isn't the way we should treat shared infrastructure. We need to constantly be on the lookout at the most local level and constantly care for its health. If we don't maintain what we have, it will fall apart. And it'll cost us a lot more money to fix it back up.
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Adventure. Surprise. Engagement. Interaction. Engagement. Urbanism.
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