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

culdesac.com

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

#161
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that’s not how the real world works. People go to the Walmart and deal with that misery because groceries for the week cost $100 instead of $200. People on a budget absolutely pay attention to the cost of gas.

That absolutely is how the real world works. I'm not well-off myself, I keep track of prices, and this recently happened in my own town.

Yes, the shoppers went to Walmart. No, they didn’t pay a net of $9 extra as a result of that choice.

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

#162

Sort of neat I guess. Seems like a community type thing, similar to Facebook campus. But also somewhat harrowing that this could catch on and you have entire neighborhoods that are self contained and corporate owned. Maybe living on a lord's land was something that just stopped for a little while.

Some huge percentage of Americans already live under an HoA or condo association. They've all but replaced municipal governments in many places.

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

#164

Unfortunately this project lacks two things which are essential to a long-lasting, sustainable, and human-friendly town. 1) Architecture that inspires, elevates the soul, and will last the test of time. All I see is soulless pre-fabs. It looks like you're living in a shopping mall. 2) The freedom to create buildings and institutions that are meaningful to the residents who reside there. Churches, schools, sporting cl…

> But will people want to move and raise children here? It's pretty telling that not one of their CGI promotional images includes a family, or even a child.

Yeah, it's pretty surreal; there are very few depictions of people interacting. This looks like a Twilight Zone episode.

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

#165
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…

I do a lot of 3D printing. Almost none of it is for replacement parts. Replacement parts sourcing has gotten extremely good online in the last 10-15 years. Need a recoil start handle for a Honda HRX 217? Dozens of vendors of the original part and more selling knock offs. Even as a Mech E and experienced 3D printer with multiple printers, it’s almost never worth my time to make a part that I can buy.

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

#166
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…

Biking around the streets in my small town isn't very stressful. Crossing the highways is usually fine (but takes a minute to do safely).

There aren't enough people to support '5 minute' walkability though. Lots of things are a mile or 2 away.

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

#167

Founder here. Great to see the excitement people have for Culdesac and for Culdesac Tempe. Our vision is to build the first car-free city in the US, starting with the first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US. Join our waitlist at culdesac.com. We open next year! If you want to visit in the meantime, drop me a note. Hiring-wise, we're hiring in Tempe or remote. Our top hiring prio is to lead product de…

+1 for the NYT feature -- that piece really does a good job at introducing your vision, worth the read

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

#168
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…

Ive seen several attempts at master planned neighborhoods with little town center type things with the idea that youd rarely have to leave, around South Florida growing up, and even lived in one for a few years. They all failed miserably. I feel like ones that succeed are just lucky. These communities can have basic predetermined guidelines to how growth can happen but the actual growth needs to happen organically. Y…

A master plan doesn't hurt, they could get it wrong but it's not that much worse than haphazard randomness.

The good cities you see aren't good because of early planning. They're good because of constant vigilance to improve and maintain. Subway systems for example aren't usually part of the master plan of the city at inception but are the result of constant vigilance to improve.

Meanwhile western US suburbia is the result of unplanned urbanization reacting to the whims of corporate car culture. Totally unplanned and terrible.

There's a software engineering analogy here.

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

#169
post #113

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…

> [the climate/city layout] makes a car a priority for most people, and cities (including Tempe and neighboring Mesa) design around that This gets the cause and effect totally backwards. Phoenix and the surrounding cities are all designed for cars at the expense of bikability, transit and walkability, and people need cars because of that. There are lots of walkable cities in places with more uncomfortable climates th…

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

#170
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.

The site only lists rents for studios/one-beds, but the application plan approved by the Tempe City Council includes a number of 2br apartments and a handful of 3br. The mix is as follows:

41 du/ac / 636 units

- 456 one bedroom

- 134 two bedroom

- 8 three bedroom

- 38 live-work one bedroom

Disappointingly, it shows some 152 vehicle parking spots on-site — it seems the exemption they got only applies to the residential parking requirements, and the commercial spaces are still fully parked.

The reduction to three stories (from five) also seems like a shame — the added shade and density from taller buildings would likely have made it a more livable site.

https://www.tempe.gov/Home/ShowDocument?id=78664

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