Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Culdesac Tempe: The first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US

culdesac.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 384 posts

Re: Culdesac Tempe: The first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US

#41

Post by milkytron »

jrsdav wrote: post #18

I live in a master planned community (Daybreak, Utah), and while you can definitely scoff at the building quality (state of things everywhere right now, it's all done fast and with low quality materials), it's been fantastic, especially during the pandemic. The whole neighborhood is designed to be walkable, with parks, pools, trails, train stations, grocery stores and restaurants (added in the later phases, which are…

Very similar situation here. Master planned community with meh build quality, but our neighborhood is designed to be transit oriented. We don't have a lot of amenities within the community, mostly just a bike trail, and a light rail stop. Hopefully some retail and a grocery store open up nearby soon, because about 500+ units are all being built within a quarter mile. And well over 1000+ within a half mile.

The bike trail is my favorite part. It connects to the major bike trails in my city, which allow me access to all the major sporting venues, downtown, major shopping centers, and job centers. I used to ride ~7 miles per day traveling from the office, and about 20 miles each weekend just going to do things I would have otherwise done via car. It allowed me to sell my car.

The light rail also makes things convenient if the weather isn't so great.

The odd thing is that nearly everyone in the community still drives everywhere, and some own multiple cars. Parking is a disaster and everyone complains about it, but these were all new builds and the buyers all should have known that parking would be limited.

Re: Culdesac Tempe: The first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US

#42

Post by GavinMcG »

_huayra_ wrote: post #27

These efforts seem well-intentioned but doomed to fail because it requires government action to make the rest of the area work , i.e. be more walkable / bikeable. It's great you can bike from your pricey apartment to your friend's, but try getting passed by a bunch of distracted drivers going 50mph faster than you on the arterial stroad when getting to the nearest reasonably-sized grocery store that is 10 miles away…

Having lived down the street from this site, I'm also skeptical. Tempe has some bike infrastructure, but the high temperatures four months of the year and the spread-out nature of the larger Phoenix metro makes a car a priority for most people, and cities (including Tempe and neighboring Mesa) design around that. There's a bike path to the west of this site that runs north-south but terminates after only a couple miles, at one of the many highways that define the larger metro area. And to the east is ASU's main campus...but it's two miles east, which is a long way to walk in May and September, at least.

There is a low-end grocery store a mile away (on a divided stroad) and nicer grocery stores within two or three miles. The main virtue is that it's along the Metro light rail line, so if you're really committed to using that, you're not in bad shape.

Re: Culdesac Tempe: The first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US

#43

Post by samstave »

jrsdav wrote: post #18

I live in a master planned community (Daybreak, Utah), and while you can definitely scoff at the building quality (state of things everywhere right now, it's all done fast and with low quality materials), it's been fantastic, especially during the pandemic. The whole neighborhood is designed to be walkable, with parks, pools, trails, train stations, grocery stores and restaurants (added in the later phases, which are…

I have a bit of subjective personal and professional experience with all of this (design, policy, politics, zoning, economics, etc etc etc...

It ALL comes to one thing: ECONOMICS.

And I don't mean a balanced budget - I am referring to greed and corruption.

One may thing that greed and corruption is rampant on a federal level; no just look locally: HOS and Municipal governments (city councils etc)

Did you know that many municipal government agents have been paid off by telco industry to literally write laws against a municipality installing their own data infra?

Alameda California is just one.

Did you know that a single family home must sit on no-less than a 2,000 S.F. lot regardless of size, and all homes (defined by the actual front-door-entrance), must have zero shared infra? (Sewer, water, power, etc)

The zoning laws are working actively against the building of smaller home-facilities -- and all the hedge funds are swooping in with dark money, dark legal and dark politics to fuck everyone over and in ten years we will see the actual impact - but it will be too late.

Re: Culdesac Tempe: The first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US

#44

Post by beerandt »

criddell wrote: post #19
mrfusion wrote: post #4

I hope this is the future of community design. We need to get people back together. I think most of our problems are that we only interact on the internet. My mom thought republicans were the devil until a guy with a trump flag helped her change a tire.

One-bedrooms start at $1250 / month. Can a community be designed so that the people working there can also afford to live there?

I suspect that's based on what amount section 8 will pay, not what working people can afford.

Re: Culdesac Tempe: The first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US

#45

Post by pomian »

jrsdav wrote: post #18

I live in a master planned community (Daybreak, Utah), and while you can definitely scoff at the building quality (state of things everywhere right now, it's all done fast and with low quality materials), it's been fantastic, especially during the pandemic. The whole neighborhood is designed to be walkable, with parks, pools, trails, train stations, grocery stores and restaurants (added in the later phases, which are…

Your description in the beginning, sounds a lot like Europe. Hopefully planners start to reduce the footprint of future construction, so they are walkable.

Re: Culdesac Tempe: The first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US

#46

Post by vinceguidry »

echelon wrote: post #39

This looks worse than many of the suburban neighborhoods in and around Atlanta, GA. There are no trees. (Granted, I live in Atlanta and we're spoiled af with marvelous tree cover.) There's no clear demarkation of where to walk or bike. It's not safe to intermix the two without indications of direction. One elongated dog leash (ugh) or elder person and there will be problems. There's little privacy from neighbors. May…

Lack of demarcation makes things safer by raising the awareness of the people around you. Making things 'safer' actually reduces safety.

I've posted this video on another thread, but it really needs to be spread out more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORzNZUeUHAM

Re: Culdesac Tempe: The first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US

#48

Post by [deleted] »

jrsdav wrote: post #18

I live in a master planned community (Daybreak, Utah), and while you can definitely scoff at the building quality (state of things everywhere right now, it's all done fast and with low quality materials), it's been fantastic, especially during the pandemic. The whole neighborhood is designed to be walkable, with parks, pools, trails, train stations, grocery stores and restaurants (added in the later phases, which are…

[deleted]

Re: Culdesac Tempe: The first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US

#49

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

crazcarl wrote: post #5

I live about 10 min drive from there, and I honestly don't see how it's going to work. Yes it is right on the lightrail line, but otherwise it's not a very walkable area. I guess they are hoping to lock everyone into just doing most of their eating and shopping onsite. Is that actually desirable?

>guess they are hoping to lock everyone into just doing most of their eating and shopping onsite. Is that actually desirable?

I am sure it would be desirable for the owners of the community, since they can charge the stores more money since they are basically giving them a monopoly within the community.

Post reply on HN