Minutiae

I watched End of Suburbia (2004) last night. It was a better documentary than I thought. Basically we have peaked in oil supply and are now on the decline and the words du jour are sustainability and density. However the density described in the doc refers to modern urbanist's plan to return to the old fashion grid system not bringing big box stores into old neighborhoods and creating $400K duplexes.

A 55 story high rise with $500K condos is not keeping with the modern urbanist plan for density. What they have been planning for Mueller, for what seems like eons, seems to be. Density seems like it may be easier to accomplish if people could cut back on their wants and needs  (mentioned in the doc). A good grocery store is always needed in a hood, not so much an art gallery/jewelry store or a Chicos. That's just me. I grew up with a grocery store, bank,library, pharmacy, hardware store, furniture store, stationary store, five and dime, dept store, movie theatre, park, city hall, church and school all within walking distance from my home. It was that great, old fashioned grid system in place and it worked great.  Growing up in this setting for so long really influenced me, can't you tell? I still find "city" life uncomfortable and so much retail redundant and useless. If it was not in town, it was not needed and I did without it okay.

I thought the Internet was going to do away with store fronts but it didn't. I thought it would be a good thing if it did offering space for more necessary things like residential areas, parks and such things. Parks are necessary. Can you imagine a place of just concrete and buildings with a tree and 4x4 patch of pathetic ground cover and what it does to a person to only have that? Parks are necessary. I would have gone nuts when I lived in apartments if there had not been a park or weekly excursions to a nearby park, Pease being my all time fave.


Watch The End of Suburbia, be forewarned, it could make you want to scale down.