In light of the end of our discussions, I found this TedTalk to be relevant in how we should shape our cities, through a similar and universal method that includes seven principles. Peter Calthorpe, a San Fransisco architect and urban planner and designer, highlights these principles that will allow cities to improve over time. Through the use of Californian and Chinese cities for his case studies, he states that all cities should promote the principles:
1. Preserve natural environments and critical agriculture
2. Mix
3. Walk
4. Bike
5. Connect
6. Ride
7. Focus
Calthorpe is a representative of the New Urbanism movement in which he attempts to combat some of the prominent issues within cities today including the “scarcity of resources, growing economic divisions, and rampant sprawl.” He also shares the importance of maintaining the environment and solving the climate change problem through reverting back to small-town urban ways of living. At the beginning of the talk, Calthorpe brings up the detrimental effects produced through the current growth of cities which he names, the sprawl. The sprawl causes people to become isolated, promotes the creation of economic and land use enclaves, and does not allow for a connection between people which is needed for a great city to thrive. Through the case studies, Calthorpe was able to examine the effects on a “smart growth” plan in comparison to the sprawl in which there was a decrease in the land consumed, greenhouse gas emissions, vehicle miles traveled, respiratory health costs, and annual household costs.
He then explains that each of the principles works towards a common goal of making the city more connected. Some of these methods include ensuring the preservation of nature within cities, allowing for mix used land use where mixed age groups and mixed incomes can come into contact with each other. The walking, biking, and riding principles provide efficient means of transportation and make cities more enjoyable and correlate to the ‘connect principle’. The streets play an important role in building community relationships as we have seen described by Jane Jacobs. The focus principle works to match density and mix to transit capacity and reconnect them to the freeways that are already built within cities.
Calthorpe highlights these principles which all relate to the ability for the community to come together and actively work to make these changes, explained in Tom Angotti’s New York For Sale. Calthorpe is hopeful that these principles will be used because people are becoming increasingly understanding of their situations and form political coalitions to witness change. Although Agnotti shares examples of communities coming together to inhibit zoning and hinder the works of the real estate market, public participation can be used as an effort to reshape cities completely using these principles. However, by reshaping all cities under this mold, cities begin to lose their authenticity described in Sharon Zukin’s The Naked City. Cities with rich culture and history share a certain level of authenticity that attracts people to live there and Zukin explains leads to hyper-gentrification in neighborhoods. Therefore, we are left with the question of if we want our cities to all look like duplicates from the same mold or run the risk of appreciating rich cultures which lead to authenticity but also make cities vulnerable to gentrification.
