fflint
04-24-2007, 09:36 PM
My, how the city has grown, and not all of it for the good
John King
The San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Surveying the urban landscape in his 1965 book "The City Is the Frontier," Charles Abrams described how "the flight to suburbia in America has taken on the semblance of a flight from scourge."
I wonder what Abrams would make of today's Bay Area -- where prosperity seems more of a scourge than blight. City centers are a lifestyle choice as well as a place to do business, and neighborhood activists worry more about chain stores than clean streets.
A world utterly different from Abrams', yet one where many of the problems are the same.
"The City Is the Frontier" more than repaid my $3.95 investment when I came across it at the Book Shop in downtown Hayward, even considering the book's age.
Forget the big bold moves, Abrams wrote: Focus instead on everyday life. As for his "blueprints for American cities" -- delivered with the self-assurance you'd expect from the chair of Columbia University's planning department -- they're a checklist that shows us the extent to which big cities have changed in the past 42 years.
"Utilize the Natural Features of Cities and Reclaim Them Wherever Possible." Waterfronts, for instance. Been to the Embarcadero lately? Check!
"Multiply the Number of Trees, Parks and Green Spaces." And if you do it right, as San Francisco did at bucolic Yerba Buena Gardens, the young bronzed masses will thank you.
"Make the City More Attractive for Tourism, Diversion, and Leisure." Abrams isn't touting T-shirt schlock. He means good restaurants, recreation, an arts scene, and ambience: "Interesting streets should be among the city's best assets -- for walking, recreation, and diversion." Sounds like Abrams just returned from strolling Oakland's College Avenue, or Hayes Street in San Francisco.
"Build upon Existing Values of Neighborhoods Rather Than Destroy Them." That's a long-winded way of saying demolition should be the last resort instead of the first option.
"Give People a Sense of Belonging in Their Neighborhoods." In other words, create reasons to stay beyond the old ties of the parish church or the nearby factory.
Although all this sounds obvious now, Abrams wrote his book at a time when the freeways built to channel people downtown were emptying those downtowns instead. Federal efforts at "urban renewal" unleashed devastation on the communities they were supposed to help. Racial tensions were brewing that would explode into riots across the nation.
The question wasn't how to improve center cities. It was how to succeed at "retaining the city as one of the choices in our national life."
That's what fascinates me about Abrams' checklist: It lets us take stock of what cities have accomplished in the past 40 years, and what remains to be done.
Not all cities have rebounded, of course, but more and more are on a roll. Look at San Francisco. The challenge isn't keeping middle-class families who want to flee; it's keeping middle-class families who can't afford to stay. Instead of boarded-up storefronts in once-vibrant districts, the competition for space can be so fierce that the Board of Supervisors has placed regulatory hurdles in front of retail chains.
Today's danger is that the allure of urbanity -- those qualities touted by Abrams and his Greenwich Village neighbor, Jane Jacobs -- will undermine the survival of a city's role as a crossroads, a place that allows for economic opportunity and cultural freedom. The nooks and crannies where immigrants can start out or bohemians can plot? They're getting harder and harder to find.
And where eclecticism flourishes, it comes at a price. Hayes Street's three-block retail strip is where chain stores first were banned. So now the spaces are attracting edgy/expensive boutiques and cool/costly dining options. You won't find them anywhere else -- but you may not be able to afford them.
Meanwhile, some urban ills are as intractable as ever.
The final two items on Abrams' checklist are "Improve the Central City's Public Schools" and "Concentrate More Effort on Improving the Environment for Children." No big American city has made real headway on the first item. As for No. 2 ... let's just say it's easier for local government to ban plastic bags than to make gang-related violence a thing of the past.
"The function of the city threatened by the suburb, automobile and television set is essentially to challenge sameness and ennui," Abrams wrote in 1965. "It must find new ways of making itself interesting as well as preserving what is worth keeping."
American cities have met the first part of Abrams' challenge. They're more interesting than ever. The real challenge lies ahead: to preserve them as places where people can live rewarding lives. No matter what your race or economic class might be.
John King
The San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Surveying the urban landscape in his 1965 book "The City Is the Frontier," Charles Abrams described how "the flight to suburbia in America has taken on the semblance of a flight from scourge."
I wonder what Abrams would make of today's Bay Area -- where prosperity seems more of a scourge than blight. City centers are a lifestyle choice as well as a place to do business, and neighborhood activists worry more about chain stores than clean streets.
A world utterly different from Abrams', yet one where many of the problems are the same.
"The City Is the Frontier" more than repaid my $3.95 investment when I came across it at the Book Shop in downtown Hayward, even considering the book's age.
Forget the big bold moves, Abrams wrote: Focus instead on everyday life. As for his "blueprints for American cities" -- delivered with the self-assurance you'd expect from the chair of Columbia University's planning department -- they're a checklist that shows us the extent to which big cities have changed in the past 42 years.
"Utilize the Natural Features of Cities and Reclaim Them Wherever Possible." Waterfronts, for instance. Been to the Embarcadero lately? Check!
"Multiply the Number of Trees, Parks and Green Spaces." And if you do it right, as San Francisco did at bucolic Yerba Buena Gardens, the young bronzed masses will thank you.
"Make the City More Attractive for Tourism, Diversion, and Leisure." Abrams isn't touting T-shirt schlock. He means good restaurants, recreation, an arts scene, and ambience: "Interesting streets should be among the city's best assets -- for walking, recreation, and diversion." Sounds like Abrams just returned from strolling Oakland's College Avenue, or Hayes Street in San Francisco.
"Build upon Existing Values of Neighborhoods Rather Than Destroy Them." That's a long-winded way of saying demolition should be the last resort instead of the first option.
"Give People a Sense of Belonging in Their Neighborhoods." In other words, create reasons to stay beyond the old ties of the parish church or the nearby factory.
Although all this sounds obvious now, Abrams wrote his book at a time when the freeways built to channel people downtown were emptying those downtowns instead. Federal efforts at "urban renewal" unleashed devastation on the communities they were supposed to help. Racial tensions were brewing that would explode into riots across the nation.
The question wasn't how to improve center cities. It was how to succeed at "retaining the city as one of the choices in our national life."
That's what fascinates me about Abrams' checklist: It lets us take stock of what cities have accomplished in the past 40 years, and what remains to be done.
Not all cities have rebounded, of course, but more and more are on a roll. Look at San Francisco. The challenge isn't keeping middle-class families who want to flee; it's keeping middle-class families who can't afford to stay. Instead of boarded-up storefronts in once-vibrant districts, the competition for space can be so fierce that the Board of Supervisors has placed regulatory hurdles in front of retail chains.
Today's danger is that the allure of urbanity -- those qualities touted by Abrams and his Greenwich Village neighbor, Jane Jacobs -- will undermine the survival of a city's role as a crossroads, a place that allows for economic opportunity and cultural freedom. The nooks and crannies where immigrants can start out or bohemians can plot? They're getting harder and harder to find.
And where eclecticism flourishes, it comes at a price. Hayes Street's three-block retail strip is where chain stores first were banned. So now the spaces are attracting edgy/expensive boutiques and cool/costly dining options. You won't find them anywhere else -- but you may not be able to afford them.
Meanwhile, some urban ills are as intractable as ever.
The final two items on Abrams' checklist are "Improve the Central City's Public Schools" and "Concentrate More Effort on Improving the Environment for Children." No big American city has made real headway on the first item. As for No. 2 ... let's just say it's easier for local government to ban plastic bags than to make gang-related violence a thing of the past.
"The function of the city threatened by the suburb, automobile and television set is essentially to challenge sameness and ennui," Abrams wrote in 1965. "It must find new ways of making itself interesting as well as preserving what is worth keeping."
American cities have met the first part of Abrams' challenge. They're more interesting than ever. The real challenge lies ahead: to preserve them as places where people can live rewarding lives. No matter what your race or economic class might be.
