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

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

#81

Post by GavinMcG »

rollinggoron wrote: post #78
GavinMcG wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 mil…

Not sure how long it's been since you've lived in Tempe, but the entire downtown area has been completely revamped and revitalized. The emphasis on bikes, walkable restaurants, and light rail access on Apache itself make this not an overall bad location. Your other points about the rest of PHX metro area outside of Tempe are true though. Neighborhoods for blocks for miles, but Tempe, especially downtown Tempe is tryi…

I was biking along Apache within the last 18 months. Apache itself still isn't [/wasn't] especially bike-friendly. McClintock is worse, and Price is even worse.

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

#82

Post by cultofmetatron »

dkhenry wrote: post #25

Why only one bedroom apartments? You can't build a community that you think will stand for any amount of time and be this hostile to families.

I'm personally tired of only having a choice of multi-bedroom apartments wherever I go. I would love to get a small one bedroom loft thats cheap and low maintenance but all the housing is setup for families.

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

#86

Post by conductr »

dragontamer wrote: post #58
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…

The shared makerspace seems like a neighborhood level thing. There's all sorts of services / hobbies that make more sense to be neighborhood based instead of nationally based. Tools and workshops are like that. The biggest issue with tools/workshops is liability. Someone's going to lose a finger, or a rotary tool will pull out their hair / a piece of their scalp... (even with all the safety precautions, its going to…

> liability

IDK. Tool rental companies existed for decades. I'm sure the fine print is so good that you're assuming all liability by merely thinking about using their tools

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

#87

Post by Animats »

It's just a superblock in a developed area. Major roads on both sides. Here it is in Google StreetView.[1] Looks like they bought up a few trailer parks and leveled them to build this. It looks like an ordinary apartment complex, without parking.

[1] https://earth.google.com/web/search/2025+E+Apache+Blvd,+Temp...

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

#88

Post by skeeter2020 »

milkytron wrote: post #41
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 t…

The same thing happens in all new communities re: schools, sports facilities, fire departments, etc. You can argue that the developer should have to account for these needed public goods, but everyone buying knows they don't exist, then immediately complains that they don't exist once they move in.

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

#89

Post by lutorm »

lstamour wrote: post #79

By the time I scrolled to the swimming pool render, I started to think that the photos weren’t very realistic. Then I realized why: everybody was white in the renders. There was a token person of colour here or there. But it was poorly added. The black guy at the swimming pool is in the back. And unlike everybody else, he forgot his swimwear… This is one of the first times I’ve seen “Corporate Memphis” illustrations…

I didn't color survey the renders, but the first picture at the top of the page has a non-white person front and center.

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

#90

Post by lutorm »

starkd wrote: post #26

I get the sense you will either think this is the most wonderful place on earth or the most miserable place. Not much in between. The photos look clean, new and very cosmopolitan, but it's a very anodyne sterile look to it. Like a corporate brochure from human resources. It's not real, not real life.

Since it's not actually photos, I agree that it's not real life....
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