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Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

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Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#231

Post by RangerScience »

tuna-piano wrote: post #55

It's interesting that protests generally happen in dense parts of cities. Now imagine a city without a dense part - protesting becomes more difficult. Myanmar's non-democratic military government actually moved their capital from a dense city to a new city so spread out and with no downtown area - potentially to prevent the ability to protest the government. https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/inside-burma-s-ghost-t…

IMO this is part of why why protests started marching down freeways. In LA, if you protest by marching down basically any freeway, you snarl up that freeway (and likely more) for tens of miles, at least (AFAIK).

(the 101 between hollywood and DTLA is essentially a single thing, the 10 between DTLA and West Side, the 405 from culver city up to over the pass in sherman oaks...)

AKA, the "center" isn't geographic, but... transit-based? Arterial?

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#232

Post by mikece »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #153
drewbug01 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not directly related, but the US Interstate Highway system was at least partially designed with military concerns in mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System#Hist... . I'm reminded of it every time I see military vehicles on the highway. Obviously not the same thing that you're talking about here - but just interesting to me, and vaguely related!

There's a reason why the Eisenhower Interstate System signs have the 5 stars of a general.

If I'm not mistaken, the 5-star logo only applies to sections of interstate highway that have at least one mile of level and straight road in any given 5-mile stretch. The idea was that an "Eisenhower Freeway" could be used as an impromptu landing spot for Air Force planes. While I'm sure this ability was tested at the beginning I don't know if there are regular drills and exercises making use of this feature.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#233

Post by crispyporkbites »

wozniacki wrote: post #202
abraxas wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nonsense. There are very walkable and affordable cities with pleasant neighborhoods that don't break the bank in all parts of the world (sans North America). Off the top of my head and from first hand experience: - Warsaw - Glasgow - Porto - Lisbon - Athens (Greece) - Berlin - Budapest - Barcelona (OK, this one gets pricey but is superbly laid out)

The cities you list are not exactly diverse economic powerhouses in the same way even Houston is. A comparison of the "GDPs" of those cities would show that much. Also no one wants to walk through blighted or a high crime neighborhood. American cities have a lot more diversity than any of the cities you mention with income disparities separating various races and stocks of people. Homogeneity of the populaces involve…

> Walking through even the ghetto-est part of Belfast may not be the same as walking through the same in Opa-locka, Miami-Dade County, Florida. There are no racial boundaries to overcome in Belfast or Budapest. Not even remotely close to the extent we encounter in America.

I don’t know what Opa Locka is like but Belfast is not a good example to compare to.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#234

Post by register »

totalZero wrote: post #2

I disagree with the notion that space is better used if it exhibits greater density of population. I don't believe it is very easy to drive in Siena, Italy. I also don't believe it is very easy to live under a highway interchange. To each space its own.

In Siena it's just a pleasure to walk. And if you have the luck to live in the city center you just walk to the main square and spend your time there sipping a glass of Montepulciano at a local bar.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#236

Post by MrMorden »

ctoth wrote: post #184
xg15 wrote: post #111

> But it wasn’t strictly an “everything is bigger in Texas” ethos that caused Houston to sprawl the way that it does. Rather, Cold War–era urban design philosophy in the U.S. prioritized sprawl because older cities that had urbanized pre–World War II—New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Detroit—were seen as being susceptible to nuclear strikes. Less-dense cities such as Los Angeles and Houston were less likely to be…

I remember Heinlein talking a lot about the decentralization of cities concept. A bit of googling leads me to Sumner Spaulding, who was apparently a large proponent of decentralization to avoid nuclear disaster. http://otworld.weebly.com/robert-a-heinlein-the-last-days-of...

Also City by Clifford Simak.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#237

Post by pessimizer »

xvedejas wrote: post #207
rsynnott wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you have to detach the idea of _personal_ blame from it. They're both phenomena which cause problems.

I've always seen gentrification as more a symptom of a problem, rather than a problem itself. After all, it's not the appearance of a higher economic class that's bad; it's the forceful displacement of the lower economic class, which may or may not follow. I've seen both scenarios play out in both urban and suburban areas, depending a ton on willingness to allow new construction and pre-existing home ownership rates.

The appearance of a higher economic class leads to lopsided political power. It's the lopsided political power that then leads to the displacement of the lower economic class from any desirable area.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#238

Post by romanoderoma »

stergios wrote: post #128

Did anyone notice how little green space Siena has? The Houston interchange appears to have 100x the amount of green space as the entire city of Siena! Quite ironic! How was a city allowed to develop with almost no green space?

> How was a city allowed to develop with almost no green space?

Siena, like other Tuscan hill towns, was first settled in the time of the Etruscans (c. 900–400 BC)

Siena was built on a hill surrounded by some of the greenest valleys in Tuscany, the most notable one being the Chianti valley, home of the popular wine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chianti

Trivia: the movie "The Gladiator" was shot in Pienza, in Val D'orcia, in Siena province.

This is a shot of the famous Cypress trees road.

http://www.clickalps.com/stock/blocks/image.php?id=81499

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#239

Post by ryanmarsh »

The assertion that Houston’s layout is the result of Cold War nuke risk mitigation is a new one on me. The beltway opened in 1988.

I grew up here and I’ve read many articles trying to explain why Houston is the way that it is. The truth is incredibly human and boring and wouldn’t sell display ads. Thus, the logical arguments that follow articles like this are complete nonsense.

If you want to know why Houston is the way that it is, fly down here and I’ll drive you around and show you. You’ll be completely underwhelmed, but the tacos will more than make up for the trip.

Re: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy

#240

Post by narrator »

reddog wrote: post #173
dylan604 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Urban sprawl happened because people were tired of living on top of each other, and cities that had the room to expand used it. There was also another name used for that sprawl, white flight. I think we're seeing some of the results of that today.

I've always thought it was funny how whites moving from the city to the suburbs is bad (white flight) and whites moving from the suburbs to the city is also bad (gentrification).

There's nothing stopping you from moving to Detroit or Baltimore or East St. Louis. Why wouldn't all the progressive people move there if the housing is such a bargain?
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