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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

#261

Post by TaylorAlexander »

Gosh I would love places like this in the Bay Area.

I recently watched a video [1] about the planned cities built by the Soviets and it all seems really nice. One advantage in their case is that they planned industrial activity as well so they built residences within bicycling distance from factories (with green space in between) so people could get to home, shops, and work with a walk or bike ride.

Actually I remember that Japan has done a lot of industrial planning too, but I don’t know if they paired that with residential and commercial spaces. Something to look in to. (Please comment if you know.)

[1] https://youtu.be/CWKuCoSg85w

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

#262

Post by WalterBright »

stemlord wrote: post #69
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…

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…

Medieval European towns managed to do it.

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

#263

Post by stainforth »

stemlord wrote: post #69
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…

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…

Which one/s in South Florida??

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

#264

Post by WalterBright »

harikb wrote: post #135
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well Manhattan, for example—obviously at first it developed organically, but the upper part of the island was largely planned, with a strict grid system of streets and avenues and a large park in the center! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaIOfgz8FVY

Planning works great for public utilities- roads, libraries, parks etc. The moment we cross that are have a planned bank, grocer, retail I think it falls apart. The grocery shop needs guarantee on revenue to be setup, and then they will slack off because they won’t need to compete or innovate. People will realize once the HOA bill runs in to several hundred dollars and have to deal with shitty services. In the real w…

Instead of mandating a grocer, mandate that the first floor of buildings be for retail. Let the owner lease it to whatever business he wants to.

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

#265

Post by sagarm »

xyzzyz wrote: post #234
oscardssmith wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an entirely self inflicted problem. Just run the busses every 5 or 10 minutes, and have twice as many busses.

In Seattle, a typical local bus trip costs the transit company around $10, while the ticket costs around $3. Running twice as many buses would result in cost of something like $18-20 per ride, which would make it require even more subsidies than it already receives.

The "farebox recovery ratio" for cars is also low: taxes and user fees only pay for only ~50% of the cost of roads, at most. The rest comes out the general fund.

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

#266

Post by m-ee »

dshpala wrote: post #231

Surprised no one mentioned Irvine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irvine,_California New neighborhoods are quite nice, e.g. https://www.irvinepacific.com/homes/eastwood-village

I love the idea of a car free neighborhood, and Irvine is the exact opposite of what I want. My in laws are there and my partner unfortunately loves it but the urban planning makes me viscerally uncomfortable. Sure you can walk from the million+ dollar homes to the gated communities admittedly nice pool, but I felt like most of what I was doing was driving long distances on wide roads through depressing big box stores and strip malls.

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

#267

Post by m-ee »

npunt wrote: post #236
ryanj20021 wrote: post #147

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…

Hi, love the idea! Two quick points: 1. At least to me the name Culdesac is strongly/exclusively associated with suburbs, which is really the opposite experience of what your target market wants. I almost didn't click to learn more. 2. It'd be wonderful if the local businesses in the community were owned/operated by people who lived in it. Community is more than just living in proximity, its also the investment peopl…

Having just replied to another comment about Irvine I'm glad I'm not crazy in feeling the same way.

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

#268

Post by JoshTriplett »

WalterBright wrote: post #264
harikb wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Planning works great for public utilities- roads, libraries, parks etc. The moment we cross that are have a planned bank, grocer, retail I think it falls apart. The grocery shop needs guarantee on revenue to be setup, and then they will slack off because they won’t need to compete or innovate. People will realize once the HOA bill runs in to several hundred dollars and have to deal with shitty services. In the real w…

Instead of mandating a grocer, mandate that the first floor of buildings be for retail. Let the owner lease it to whatever business he wants to.

In a small neighborhood, that would shatter the illusion that you never need to leave, at which point the distant walk to your car for actual shopping becomes a problem. (Or, alternatively, the lack of delivery services because they can't actually reach both your home and the place they shopped using the same mode of transportation.)

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

#269

Post by awslattery »

eikenberry wrote: post #29

I don't really see anything addressing the heat issue of the location (AZ). In most hot environments people tend to minimize outdoor time, moving quickly from one AC'd zone to another. How do you get places while staying out of the heat in a neighborhood like this? Tunnels?

One of the oldest tricks in the book, acclimation. Running your A/C to 78°F during the day rather than 68 will do wonders for your acclimation of the 110°F+ ambient temps, but few things can help with the reflective 150°F+ from asphalt and the like.

And yeah, a lot of A/C, misters, big outdoor fans, and the biggest of all, shade. Which, interestingly, is not highlighted in some of these sketches/mockups.

As a third-generation Tucsonan (one of the oldest continually inhabited places in North America), the heat is both something to be mindful of as it is something that you simply get used to.

The most glorious Monsoons are both a blessing and a curse. One of the wettest in my recent memory, but the humidity is as bad as my time in the summer at Ft. Gordon, GA; really did feel like your skin was melting off your bones...

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