Thanks to a reader who suggested a rather lame series of urban planning posts regarding Kansas City streets and some tourist with an advanced degree and series of bad ideas.
The D-Bag raised a bit of a ruckus among the vast community of amateur urban planners by noticing Kansas City's empty downtown streets: Streets with no cars
Of course he assigns fault with urban planning and not fear, crime, schools, white-flight and a complex array cultural logics at work that have basically made our Downtown into sort of a DMZ where only angry hobos rule and break expensive windows at will.
Still . . . In defense of his thesis he makes a good point about Downtown Kansas City perceptions.
"There are obviously people who believe strongly that downtown Kansas City has a congestion problem. This is mind blowing to me and all I can suggest is that, if you are one of those people, you need to travel to a place that actually has congestion."
Finally, the d-bag urban planner concludes his Kansas City polemic with a horrible idea about turning off all the stop signs in Downtown and making the intersections "shared space" so that some unlucky urban core pedestrian can inevitably have their head taken off as they get hit by a car at around 40mph.
Of course this stuff interests other amateur urban planners who pretend that they aren't failed or low rent architects.
However . . .
I'M ALWAYS AMAZED THAT KANSAS CITY GIVES THE TIME OF DAY TO "URBAN PLANNING" PSEUDOSCIENCE THAT'S BASED MOSTLY ON FAILED THEORIES AND FAULTY SEMINAR LOGIC!!!
In Kansas City, urban planners are like gurus for people who still haven't filled the void in their life with khaki pants, trendy eye-wear and the latest products from Apple.
Of course, in the final analysis The Downtown Toy Train Streetcar is the solution to all this City's problems and might also cure cancer.
Is Denise Milani an urban planner?
ReplyDeleteIsn't Mecca a racist word?
ReplyDeleteTrue dat.
ReplyDeleteNo. But be careful what you say about Mecca or you'll start another round of mideastern riots.
ReplyDeleteI would say every downtown stoplight should be flashing on the weekend. Nothing says frustrating like sitting for 3 minutes on a red without one car coming through the intersection
ReplyDeleteTKC you finally make sense. So called urban planners have some good ideas but they think the entire city either should or does want to live the way they do.
ReplyDeleteSince they had little success in pursuading us they now use various environmental reasons to force us all to live in downtown lofts and ride trains.
The only urban planning we need is the sterilization of negro youth.
ReplyDeleteHey Buttello can't you just leave your idiotic and uninformed opinions out of it and just start posting links?
ReplyDeleteBest idea yet. Tony just do it like Drudge. Shut up and post links. Change the name to Buttello Report.
ReplyDelete8:26: Let's not limit sterilization to one race.
ReplyDeleteAnd oh, brother. Turn off the stop signs. With our drivers of limited talent, texting and talking on their cell phones while aiming their cars at pedestrians who are also texting and talking on the phones. Well, maybe we won't need sterilization after all.
Wow, you really don't have a grasp on reality. I would say you are the amateur. You sound like you don't want to be educated or informed. You just spout off your ignorant opinion and if you can get someone to agree with you, then you feel you must be right. The gentleman you refer to as the d-bag (a term used by people who don't really have anything of value to say, so they stoop to name calling), had a follow up article on the stop lights. You might consider reading up on what you criticize, because you come across looking like an uneducated idiot.
ReplyDeleteMarohn's understanding of downtown KC is right on the money.
ReplyDelete9:11: Does "ignorant opinion" = opinion with which you don't agree?
ReplyDelete9:30: I think it means uninformed opinion. If you have internet, you can probably look up the definition before having to resort to asking other commentors what a simple word like "ignorant" means.
ReplyDeleteTony's Link-A-Rama. Sounds like a winner. Less Tony, more links.
ReplyDelete9:38: Sometimes "ignorant" is in the eye of the beholder as is "uninformed."
ReplyDeleteSo are you saying Tony IS informed on urban planning?
ReplyDeleteSeems that more than a few commentors wish tony would post MORE LINKS and say less.
ReplyDeleteWell, he could certainly say LESS when he DOES have a point to make.... and tighten up his wordiness...which most people probably skip over and miss his real points too often.
LESS IS ALWAYS BETTER, Tony! Get to the point, remove your ego from your posts. Or is this blog mostly just about YOU and not your ideas?
Does Mecca have friendlier streets and if so for what? Donkey carts? Oh crap! I started another riot!
ReplyDeleteWe actually put the words Urban and Planning together around here? Damn we sure don't seen to learn anything from history. Why don't we meet at 18th and Vine to discuss this.
ReplyDelete10:19: I don't know if Tony is informed on city planning, but I think he has a right to his opinion. I'm not sure the best urban planning is to let things evolve. Look, for example, at the Crossroads. A bunch of artists found an area of town with cheap property, fixed it up (at their expense without any tax assistance), and there you go. Unfortunately for them, the city penalized them and taxed the hell out of their success, which is different from "planned" developments that get all sorts of tax subsidies, abatements, etc.
ReplyDeleteIn this town there's a penalty for using your own initiative and money to get things done. The powers that be don't seem to like not having their hands in the cookie jar.
"shared space" ???? damn I have heared some funny shit but this takes the cake...shared space - laughing my ass off !!
ReplyDeleteThe idiot tony who writes this blog needs to travel more (if he ever has) and experience some real urban communities and not only communities in this country. Marohn's assessment on KC streets is exactly correct. So many bad policy decisions made by city planners and council and such an insipid vision of the future by the same so-called "leaders" that it is difficult to have any hope for the city's future.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we have to have street cars? Wouldn't a dedicated system of trollies accomplish the same thing? Seriously, can't the city just call in the loan they gave the KC Strip people and take those over?
ReplyDeleteOh, come on 1:03. Even in Manhattan (the one in New York, not the one in Kansas) they don't turn off the stop signs (and lights). In fact, I spent many long minutes at 86th and Riverside waiting for that one to change in the middle of the night.
ReplyDeleteThe middle of the night ain't the same as the middle of the day at "rush" hour. And, where would you be going in the middle of the night at 86th and Riverside?
ReplyDeleteEverybody in KC is an amateur architect.
ReplyDelete3:56: Home :).
ReplyDeleteHe is right about the stoplights & one way streets downtown - they need to go. We have four way stop signs at major downtown intersections and they work fine. We have plenty of six lanes streets with little traffic. Look at 20th Street. Should be parking along the curb and two lanes each direction. Let's jerk out all the parking meters, the majority of them are not used anyway.
ReplyDeleteFunny that you deride the shared space suggestion with a comment about urban planning being "BASED MOSTLY ON FAILED THEORIES AND FAULTY SEMINAR LOGIC!!!" Urban planning has long been riddled with failed theories and faulty seminar logic, and it turns out that traffic signals are probably the most ubiquitous of those failures.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBcz-Y8lqOg&feature=share&list=PL5F6239474400B42C
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi0meiActlU&feature=relmfu
http://www.salon.com/2004/05/20/traffic_design/