Love the suburbs, hate the sprawl?
If anyone is interested in all things relative to suburban sprawl or urban planning or good city layouts, you might want to check out this article by Joel Kotkin in Metropolis Magazine about the New Suburbs (which lack many of the negatives of urban sprawl). Here is the link: http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=2335 and if that doesn't work, just go to www.planetizen.com and it will be on the front page today.
And somewhat exciting, Fresno/Clovis is mentioned in the article, a reference to Harlan Ranch, about creating communities within communities. So check it out!! Joel Kotkin has a lot of interesting planning articles in major publications so its very exciting that we are in the mix.
Hopefully, someday, we might be able to restore those community cores to all of the different neighborhoods of Fresno...and of course, our urban core.
High Density vs Low Density
"The idea of enforcing density, a notion espoused by “smart growth” advocates and some New Urbanists, suffers from a fatal flaw. It runs counter to the desires of most Americans, who in recent surveys overwhelmingly favor single-family houses in suburban or rural areas. In fact upward of 80 percent in one survey expressed a preference for single-family homes over apartments or condos." - Joel Kotkin, Metropolis Mag
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The problem with the above statement, especially for impoverished cities like Fresno and the surrounding towns of the Central Valley are that MOST PEOPLE CAN'T AFFORD TO LIVE IN THE LOW DENSITY SPRAWL THAT SUCH CITIES OFFER.
Think about it. 20% of Fresnans live below the poverty line. The unemployment rate is even higher than the national average of nearly 7%. For those in the know, even that figure is underestimated, as the feds don't count those whose unemployment benefits have run out, ergo, the national unemployment rate is probably closer to 10%, or more, and Fresno's is even higher.
OK, so then add to the above figures those who actually work, but who are the working poor, struggling to cover the costs of housing, food, clothing, energy, communication and education. Add to that the high tax rate which goes to fund freeways and oil wars, instead of quality of life needs like quality schools, health care and rapid, 24 hour mass transit, and you have a recipe for the kind of abject poverty and suffering that a sprawling city like Fresno forces on its own citzens!
It's no wonder Fresno is riddled with infrastructure decay, crime, gangs, grafitti, joblessness and people on welfare and no work ethic.
Sure, a majority of Fresnans may SAY they don't want to live in a high rise apartment or condominium building in the downtown core or in some other dense, high rise "satellite" city just outside downtown. They may SAY they want a single family detached house with a large front and back yard and two large cars---SUV's---to get to and from home and work or school.
Given the recent subprime mortgage crisis that is now threatening to destabilize the entire global economy, however, CAN FRESNANS AFFORD THE LOW DENSITY, CAR DEPENDENT LIFESTYLE?
The answer is NO!
A RESOUNDING NO!!!!!
Fresno, give your people high rise living and connect it all with either 24 hour light rail or rapid bus transit.
Re: LA of the Valley
Well, I certainly hope thats not the future, and I know there are many planners in the area who also do not wish to see that fate for Fresno and the other cities currently surrounded by farmland in the valley. Right now, from my perspective, some issues that we have to face here in order to defeat the absolute suburbanization and sprawl of the Fresno metropolitan area (if we haven't gotten there already...) are these:
1) There is not a strong cultivation of community pride here in Fresno, and other surrounding areas. It wasn't until I moved away from the Valley that I realized how much people despise calling Fresno their hometown. I really had it when I saw the shirt "Fresno, it really does suck here." We have to challenge these negative comments and inspire a love for our unique farm city with diverse culture.
2) We need to educate the community on how good cites are formed. Everyone gives up on Fresno so fast, that we have nothing to do, it is a boring place to live, and ugly...the list goes on. And people complain about more taxes on roads, and transit, and for bike lanes, and support the importing of more big box developments, and more tuscan-style subdivisions. And then they vacation in San Luis Obispo, or Carmel, or San Franciso, on the weekends and gush about how amazing they are. Those cities are great because they have good planning. Because the community cares a great deal about designing better communties, and are willing to be educated on how that is done. And because the public process has a very long list of stakeholders. And because, those cities have cultivated high standards for development within their city and don't back down.
3) We are getting our building boom 50 years later than many other cities in the state, and in order to avoid becoming a massive blob of subdivisions and megaplexes, we need to (as a city, as citizens) become more proactive in learning from those cities mistakes and becoming more progressive in our policies.
It is possible to change the direction of the urban form of Fresno, I am very hopeful for its future. And this, is my naive opinionated view. So, thats what I think about Fresno being the LA of the Valley.
Is there time?
One "hears' much about real urban planning in the Valley, but the "look" is still L.A. style planning.
I hope this is not the case. My family moved to Orange County in the mid 1970's when there was still farmland between most cities. We saw it grow into an amorphous blob, with each city butting against another, so that today you can walk from the Santa Ana mountains to the Pacific Coast on city sidewalks, albeit not in a straight line.
Fresno has the flavor of the O.C. in the 1970's, I hope it doesn't grow into the L.A. of the Valley.
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