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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

#301

Post by p_l »

kolinko wrote: post #274
ethanbond wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well… most towns/subdivisions with zealous planning suck. The best cities in the world appear to be very organically grown. Maybe this is an illusion?

Half of Polish cities were rebuilt using central urban planning and came up awesome (build quality aside). There were a few rules: - 5-10 min walk to kindergarden/school and local stores - 3-5 min walk to a bus stop - tons of green space - taller buildings but varied in size and angles so that there is both ample space and variety This is my place I lived in when studying: https://goo.gl/maps/VQqNEY8rcjScsGFg6 (not e…

And a lot of old issues about how drab they were are due to how long it took for the green areas to flourish properly after the building spree. These days it's much easier to "kickstart" the green areas.

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

#302

Post by p_l »

closeparen wrote: post #199
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't zoning largely let you choose where private businesses go? Maybe you can't select exactly where to put the bank versus the grocery store, but you can select categories of businesses, to create the feel you want. (I'm not sure whether zoning is a "good" thing or not in general, but there are certainly lots of successful towns and cities with zoning rules.)

You can try, but there are failure modes. * People don't want the things that are specified in the master plan, so there's no tenant that would be both legal and viable. * Businesses are protected from competition (for their space, and for their niche in the area) so they charge too much and deliver too little. * People want things that aren't in the master plan, and they aren't allowed to exist. (The politically eng…

The solution in most of the world is to not create too detailed plans, and often to minimize the amount of zones with pretty much all of them having multiple uses.

This means for example that people obsessed with house prices can't stop a grocer from existing within walking distance.

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

#303

Post by Someone »

notJim wrote: post #109
stemlord wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I’m skeptical that all planning is necessarily doomed to fail. Towns already do a considerable amount of planning via their zoning rules, and subdivisions are planned as well. The example here just seems like a subdivision, but planned for walkability rather requiring you to drive. Where did the place you lived in go wrong?

One of the main reasons to make a plan should be that it allows you to realize when you are starting to deviate from it. That’s a time you have to do some thinking and either realize you’re about to make a mistake or adjust the plan/come up with a new one.

If you do plans badly, you don’t do the thinking, but just declare any deviation from the plan a mistake.

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

#304

Post by brailsafe »

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…

I think you're right for two reasons. The first being that cities and communities should evolve organically to meet the changing needs of the people living there over time. The second reason is that all successful communities (arguably all successful anything) are so because they're lucky.

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

#305

Post by kozak »

ryanj20021 wrote: post #160
kozak wrote: post #33

So, there are some concept images, but no real plan of the territory yet, right? Or did I miss it?

check us out on instagram for construction updates and more details

I don't even have an account there :)

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

#306

Post by imtringued »

Natsu wrote: post #100
browningstreet wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to ASU (in the 90s) and my family is still in the area, and I typically (and perhaps stupidly) visit in June... and when I go back to the old "neighborhood" I always see a ton of people riding their bikes around in the June heat. With an e-bike, 2 miles is nothing.

You can definitely bike if that's your thing, I mean it's 35C right now, but there are a lot of times when it's 40-45C. Or occasionally 50C. This could theoretically be good for someone who works from home primarily, but you really do need access to a car to get around Phoenix in general. Some day you're going to want to visit, say, the Renaissance Faire and biking from Tempe to Apache Junction is unlikely to be an a…

I have not biked in 50C weather but I have to say this: Going fast on a bike has a cooling effect.

Cars need ACs because they are a mobile greenhouse.

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

#307

Post by WalterBright »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #288
kolinko wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walkable neighborhoods don’t need to be small, and they can have car traffic - it’s more about how you design that car traffic. This is a main corner and main street in neighborhood near my home place. It has car traffic, but it is perfectly walkable. The main street has ground floor dedicated to commerce. https://goo.gl/maps/W46KUsJtAtto2yUE7 You have a bus stop with buses getting to city center every 3-5 min, and t…

The post I was responding to suggested that it wasn't necessary to arrange for at least one grocery store in the walkable neighborhood, and that leasing to retail establishments could be entirely up to the building owners. I was observing that if that results in no grocery stores located in the neighborhood, that would make the neighborhood much less walkable. (Even if there's one in walking distance, hopefully it ha…

For a grocery store, it's location location location. A grocery store is going to want to be located there. It'll happen organically. I've lived in Europe, there always seems to be a grocery store of some sort nearby. Nobody centrally planned it.

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

#308

Post by gautamcgoel »

guynamedloren wrote: post #139
mattcantstop wrote: post #74

For those who are interested in what makes a great town, I recommend two books: Happy City by Charles Montgomery, and Strong Towns by Charles Marohn. Both were red pill/blue pill books for me on what makes a great city. When my wife and I moved we completely changed what we were looking for in a house/community. We wanted a Main Street style town. We used to love master planned communities with huge houses. In our sm…

> When my wife and I moved we completely changed what we were looking for in a house/community. We wanted a Main Street style town. We used to love master planned communities with huge houses. In our small, Main Street style town all of our kids can walk/ride to school, we have two grocery stores within 2 miles away, and all our doctors are biking/riding distance. It's changed how we live. We sold our second car. We…

I've always been curious about Portland. The pictures are gorgeous but the headlines are scary.

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

#309

Post by KaiserPro »

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…

hello and welcome!

I live in britian, so its odd and fun to see an american company making a carbon copy of a british 90/00's highstreet.

One thing I would like to point out is that you need better drainage and more trees in your shopping precinct. you have way more sun than us, so a vast expanse of brick will heat up and stay hot. putting in more planters for trees will cool the place down and make everything feel much more cozy/safe.

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

#310

Post by aembleton »

erosenbe0 wrote: post #209
_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…

Bike infrastructure is great but like any pavement it has lots of long-term cost. You ever seen rust-belt potholes? Drainage issues. Erosion. Tree roots. And you have to tear it up sometimes to do water, sewage, and utility projects. Edit: I forgot snow removal and salting

Trimming back of trees too. Theres a cycle way that is an old railway line near me that gets well maintained by the council. They can do this, because they've laid tarmac wide enough to drive a works vehicle down to maintain it.

Maintenance is essential, otherwise you end up with overgrown hedges; fallen trees and uncomfortable riding surface from tree roots.

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