Enlightened Suburbanites, Idiot Yuppies
A suburban Louisville developer wanted to ”to step out of the normal mode . . . and do something very exciting and very different.” Encouraged by the city’s exciting (well, exciting to land-use wonks who care about this sort of thing) Cornerstone 2020 development guidelines, he decided to do a mixed-use, infill project, called Clifton Lofts, in the historic Frankfort Ave. area. I was especially impressed to see a developer, who usually builds single-family homes out in the hinterlands get fired up about urbanism. But wait… the city residents, concerned about a few trees and the “gigantic size” of the building (It appears to be about four stories tall), will possibly prevent the project from moving forward. They’re even circulating a petition against it. Stupid NIMBYs. They were even opposed to an underground parking garage, insisting that residents should
park at a SURFACE parking lot. At first I thought I read it wrong. Underground garage (much more expensive to build than surface lot) bad, surface lot good? As if fighting a half century of suburban-style zoning ordinances, strip mall junk, and a culture taught to fear cities isn’t hard enough, now the environmentalists and others that should be pushing for more infill, are the most resistant to change. These people are apparently against sprawl, against mixed-use density, against tree removal, against… where are people supposed to live anyway?
November 26th, 2002
Omelet
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
Well, the Clifton Area is very different from the rest of Louisville’s *real* urban area. Downtown is one thing when it comes to plans for development, but when the Clifton neighborhood is the target, a moneyed, somewhat artsy, more middle-aged, mostly white middle class is involved. The Clifton Area is sort of like Bernal Heights in San Francisco.
Omelet
Monday, December 02, 2002
Billy:
Woo-hoo to light-rail. I wonder if it woudl be another instance of East End middle and upper middle class communters benefiting more than the poor, working class, and middle middle class people whose communities the light rail might go through.
For those unfamiliar, we’ve got a bus system that is ok but could be much more extensive. We’re really fighting a car culture here, though it’s no where as bad as L.A. We’ve got loads of Olmstead-designed parks, including our own Central Park, but people will drive to them rather than walk or take the somewhat infrequent busses. We’ve got some bike trails but no bus lane like San Francisco has implemented. Once we merge with the county, we’ll be a larger small city.
PS
I work in an office basically two blocks from the skatepark. When Tony Hawk came we had thousands of people of allages come, and every day there is a stream of people. Full disclosure: I’m no boarder, but I like to watch. Tres controversy about the world-class skatepark, but it is worth it. We got featured in big skate mags, and it is bringing young blood into the area. I wonder if they will spend as much as the Mayor wants them to though…