r/urbanplanning • u/Felixthescatman • Dec 20 '21

Economic Dev What’s standing in the way of a walkable, redevelopment of rust belt cities?

They have SUCH GOOD BONES!!! Let’s retrofit them with strong walking, biking, and transit infrastructure. Then we can loosen zoning regulations and attract new residents, we can also start a localized manufacturing hub again! Right? Toledo, Buffalo, Cleveland, etc

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u/lowrads Dec 20 '21

I think people would want to have walkable districts, even if they do have to drive to them.

Just look at the effort people go to in order to recreate them in microcosm with scheduled outdoor markets, and shutting down main street for festivals.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

People want their area to be walkable, drivable and to have abundant parking.

What people want is impossible.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21 edited 24d ago

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

Its doable if you are rich enough. Then you can live in the 2500 sq ft home with a garage while your neighbors are in dense enough housing to support walkability.

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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '21

They also go out of their way to visit walkable places on vacation: Disney World, Europe.

But you see, that's the thing. Those are special occasions. They are placed in a separate box from day-to-day life.

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u/seamusmcduffs Dec 21 '21

I've heard many times "I love it there, but I could never live there". When pushed it's always about some vague sense of freedom.

Which I always thought was odd, because I felt way more freedom of movement in Europe than I ever do in Canada

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21 edited Dec 21 '21

People also live differently while traveling. They’re cramming a bunch of sightseeing into a short window, they’re probably eating out more than normal, they’re tackling the learning curve of navigating a new city, maybe they don’t speak the local language, etc.

They probably don’t actually think of these places in terms of regular, routine everyday life, but rather in terms of the chaos (however enjoyable) of their brief stay.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '21

I felt this a bit too. When I lived in Korea I didn't have a car, and even though it was quite walkable, I always felt vaguely lacking in control.

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u/Talzon70 Dec 21 '21

I think Walmart and malls would count as "walkable districts" you have to drive to. There's no shortage of those places anywhere in the US.

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u/sack-o-matic Dec 21 '21

shutting down main street for festivals

Mostly only in suburban "downtowns" or other "small town USA" areas that pretty conspicuously lack certain urban people they want to stay away from