Urban Hayride

Density Matters

I was working on some research last semester and ran across something that I found to be incredibly interesting.  At the time, I was preparing for a trip to Barcelona, so whenever I could use examples or data from that city, I did so.

Last time I checked, Barcelona is the most densely-built city in Western Europe - I think on the entire continent.  Obviously, it blows every American city out of the water, even Manhattan.  The graphic below illustrates Barcelona's land use pattern with that of Atlanta in 1990.  Same population, 26x less land mass.

Both of these cities hosted the Olympics in the 1990's.  Barcelona in '92 and Atlanta in '96.  It is widely acknowledged that the the '92 Olympics helped propel Barcelona into the ranks of "global cities".  I'm not sure if that argument can be made for Atlanta. 

This is such an explicit example of how density affects cities.  Barcelona is admired by many planners, urbanists, and yeah, ordinary people all over the world simply for its human energy and culture (among many other more concrete examples I'm not mentioning).  Atlanta is often an example of how sprawl can choke a city; how to implement a failing public transit system, and the prime example of racial and income segregation. 

So yes, I am proposing that if Atlanta would have even been able to control its growth as Barcelona has since it implemented its first land use plan, maybe Atlanta would be even more of a powerhouse than it is today and maybe would have avoided some of the social and environmental ills with which it is currently dealing.

On top of that.  It's not just with public transit systems that the Europeans are more creative than many American cities. . . highways too!  Ever thought of building a traffic circle into a bridge, over three levels of traffic?  Catalan engineers did.

 

Agglomeration

What is the benefit of mega-cities, mega-regions and why do we, as humans, continue to agglomerate even when modern technology allows us to settle anywhere across this vast landscape.  There is a large assembly of people that have tried to answer that question, so I won't do that necessarily.

New York City is as close to a primate city as we have had and will ever have in the U.S. and can be credited with achieving amazing economic feats and remaining one of three if not the most important center of commerce and trade in the world.  Tuesday's NYT included a piece titled "Brooklyn's New Culinary Movement", which highlights one reason why we, even in rich (currency, resources, land, etc) nations, continue to agglomerate and migrate to urban areas - of various forms. 

About two years ago the Masts were trading truffles for beers at a local bar. Now Mast Brothers Chocolate has a national following as one of the few producers in the country, and the only one in the city, to make chocolate by hand from cacao beans they’ve roasted, in that oven. These days, with a kitchen and a bit of ambition, you can start to make a name for yourself in Brooklyn. The borough has become an incubator for a culinary-minded generation whose idea of fun is learning how to make something delicious and finding a way to sell it..

...At Marlow & Daughters, all of the butchering is done in plain sight. “We do this out on the floor because we want you to see the difference,” Mr. Mylan said. “We can tell you it’s all local, and it’s all pastured, and buzzword, buzzword, buzzword, but until you take out a whole animal and put it on the table people have no idea what it means to bring really good meat into the city and break it down.”

Mr. Mylan also teaches butchering at the Brooklyn Kitchen, a kitchen supply store in Williamsburg. He demonstrates with a whole pig. Every student goes home with six pounds of fresh pork.

Would this specialization be sustainable without the intense urban environment that surrounds Brooklyn?  Possibly, but it's the creativity and trade of ideas that ultimately leads to the success and growth of such specialization.