Non-Places, Wind, and a Survey about this Newsletter
Cheers RVA!
Today will be mostly sunny with a high of 55, but windy. Expect winds of 15-25 mph with potential stronger gusts. The evening will cool down to a low of 33.
the juice:
I’d like to ask you all for feedback on this newsletter.
It’s a passion project I started half a year ago, and a work in progress, and I’d like to hear your thoughts.
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the pulp:
State Legislatures are pushing for the ability to install speed cameras in more areas, from the Richmonder. The current law only allows for the cameras to be installed in school zones, highway work zones, and intersections near a school where a fatality has occurred. Of the citations mailed between March 18 and October 31 of this year, $298k has been collected, representing about one-third of the total citations issued during that period.
A 17-yr old boy was shot and killed early Wednesday morning in South Richmond near Snead Rd., via WTVR. The exact location of the shooting is still under investigation.
The RVA Growers Market will launch its inaugural season next May in Manchester. The farmer’s market will take place Saturday Mornings at Legend Brewery.
the dive:
Andrew Price from Strong Towns has written a recent article about thinking of the land in cities as Places and Non-Places, an approach to understanding space as destinations and the “padding between them.”
Buildings are the obvious common form of a destination, a place where people go and spend time, but outdoor places include parks and gardens, plazas, and even sidewalks.
The Non-places between destinations is the padding, and includes roads, freeways, parking lots, and even greenspace.
The distinction is made between parks where people gather, and decorative, beautification type greenspace like the trees on a median.
Price notes that a well designed city would incorporate greenery in Places, like trees along a sidewalk, and to save the landscaping for larger parks.
The article dives further into the ratio between Places and Non-places in various cities, comparing a neighborhood in San Francisco that has about 80% Place to 20% Non-place to downtown Phoenix which is about 50-50.
The land use of a commercial corridor along an interchange in Arkansas is only about 10% Place to 90% Non-place.
He concludes:
As a pedestrian, Non-Places use up valuable land area — spacing out the destinations around them, potentially being obstacles that must be walked around, on land that could be used for potential destinations. As an urbanist, Non-Places use up valuable land that could instead be used for productive, tax-generating Places. If you care about walkability or getting your money's worth out of your infrastructure, then you should care about minimizing the Non-Places in your city. Treat land as the most valuable commodity your city has.
Read the full article here.
the vibe:
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Have a reflective day RVA!
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