53 replies to this topic

[roverone]

I don't think that the neighborhood (fill in the blank) will be coming back either, I was just trying to talk about what it would take for all of acres of housing to enable more livable walkability in the absence of bulldozing thousands of acres of single family homes.

 

I linked to some study in the last few weeks about how close even bike share stations need to be to be functional -- you could probably base spacing of other needs on that.

 

I guess it is interesting to imagine what we would do if tomorrow we woke up and gasoline was $25 a gallon and we knew it would only go up from there, but as you say, there are many efficiencies to operating larger "supermarkets" including the ease of logistics and transport to stock the stores -- something that just gets harder if there were many of them scattered about.

 

Like many really-big-picture problems, all of the participants are not currently working to optimize the same overall goal (whatever that might be), and so the competition and cooperation between different interests will just have to work itself out and adapt as things change.

[renamerusk]

 

put in scattered small grocery stores and such to make things more reachable -- but this is obviously a ways off.  We see what happened to the neighborhood embedded Westcliff shopping center, which I really enjoyed as a kid, but now seems to struggle to exist.

 

Those days are never coming back.  You can look at the older neighborhoods and see the small grocery building sprinkled throughout.  They've mostly been converted to residential or other non-public use.  South Hills had a shopping center, it's now a charter school.  But setting up small grocery stores neighborhoods is no longer fiscally viable.  They're not coming back.

 

I must agree with Doohickie;s assessment.

 

Albertson, Kroger, Tom Thumb and even now Walmart is catering to the growing "Lazyroo" phenomenon - order groceries online, have them load the groceries into your car or even lazier as my neighbors (30-ish or so) appear to be,  have uber or "gig-gers" bring groceries to their house.  Even have a hamburger delivered to your house.

 

Wow, it really is terrifying how pampered society is becoming.

[mmmdan]

You can see the remnants of how closely people used to live to retail/commercial by strolling through Fairmount.  Some examples:

 

https://www.google.c...!7i16384!8i8192

 

https://www.google.c...!7i16384!8i8192

 

https://www.google.c...!7i16384!8i8192

 

There even used to be a gas station

https://www.google.c...!7i16384!8i8192

 

The way neighborhoods are built today, you can't really have this because there are not enough connections within the neighborhood.  With modern neighborhoods not being built on a grid, and not having reasonable sized blocks for a pedestrian, these types of neighborhood retail can't work.

 

Here is an extreme example of how disconnected modern neighborhoods can be.  To visit their neighbor (front door to front door), with whom they share a backyard (without putting in a gate) these people have to travel 7 miles.

https://usa.streetsb...miles-of-roads/

https://www.google.c...1!1m1!4e1?hl=en

 

The other part of the equation, as previously alluded to is getting people to support their little neighborhood shop even if it may cost them a little more.

[Urbndwlr]

You can see the remnants of how closely people used to live to retail/commercial by strolling through Fairmount.  Some examples:

 

https://www.google.c...!7i16384!8i8192

 

https://www.google.c...!7i16384!8i8192

 

https://www.google.c...!7i16384!8i8192

 

There even used to be a gas station

https://www.google.c...!7i16384!8i8192

Such heresy!

 

I wonder if the people in Fairmount even realize that all this time they haven't been adequately "protected" or "buffered" from those commercial uses....which we know are inherently suspicious.   Just you watch, at AAAAANY moment the slippery slope will begin.... commercial developments will further encroach upon the good residents of Fairmount, bringing untold traffic, making it unsafe for children, and, cars will be parked on the street, violating the residents' rights under US Constitution, which I'm pretty sure guarantees them the right to unobstructed personal parking on the street in front of their houses.  I'm afraid this talk of commercial uses blended in within otherwise residential neighborhoods is un-American.   

 

Now if I can just find my pitchfork and torch....