Elements of Urbanism: Akron

[thelakelander]

Perhaps age and technology have something to do with it.  The places you offer as comparisons have been established urban centers for centuries.  On the other hand, most of this country's major urban centers are not even or barely 200 years old and a chunk of their development has occurred after the explosion of the automobile.  These two elements make it hard to compare apples to apples.

[Ocklawaha]

Could be Lake, the Colombian towns go back to colonial Spain, and most are laid out in a European style, and it's easy to see when Autos came into the picture. Hit suburbia, and you wouldn't know if you were in Bogota or Birmingham. On the other hand there is scarcely a village or city in Europe that isn't brand new - ancient. That is it was rebuilt in the last 60 years from DUST, on the same bones as the ancient city before it. There are a number of cities in Europe that simply vanished in WWII.

EXAMPLE:
SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich was a supremely arrogant young man who liked to travel between his country home and headquarters in Prague in an open top green Mercedes without an armed escort as a show of confidence in his intimidation of the resistance and successful pacification of the population.

In 1942 Heydrich was assassinated in Prague, and so the Czechs saved their nation, but thousands of innocent Czech lives had been lost in executions.

Nazi Germany destroyed an innocent Czech village - Lidice - to avenge the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.  The village itself was completely destroyed. The village was burned, the remains dynamited, and then bulldozed so that no structure was left standing. Lidice became a symbol of Nazi barbarism.

Strange that Europe was able to turn the Nazi/Fascist policy's into an opportunity to rebuild a new and different society and urban life.

OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

Any examples of cities that have been largely built after the worldwide acceptance of the automobile (something that Akron helped facilitate....to keep thread on topic ) that are just as walkable and vibrant as the established pre-automobile cities?

[Ocklawaha]

HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI



BOTH PHOTOS HIROSHIMA





BOTH PHOTOS NAGASAKI

OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

Any photos at street level?  Are these places just as vibrant as a Tokyo, London or Paris at street level or are they like Miami (dense but in an auto oriented way)?

[Ocklawaha]

HIROSHIMA including Peace Park and City Council building bomb ruins.











NAGASAKI including Nagasaki Peace Park and downtown shopping district.

I think this speaks to HOW they did it, and WHAT they did that is completely different then the American model. Ya know Lake, asking me for photos is dangerous!

OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

Great pics, however Hiroshima wasn't completely erased.  It had nearly 420,000 residents before the bomb and never dropped below 137,197 in the period after.  By 1955, the population had returned to pre-war levels.  This suggests that they did not have to completely start over and that a significant amount of reconstruction had already taken place before America (I know we've jumped to Japan) really started to embrace low density sprawl.  American zoning practices aside, its also helmed in by mountains and water, which helps with density.  The same goes for Nagasaki, which dates back to the 16th century.

Btw, I think we all know the American model is different.  Going back to what I stated earlier, a part of the reason the American model is different deals with the age of this country, its urban areas and technology.  Sprinkle in land availability and culture and right or wrong, you end up with a different product.

[Dog Walker]

The historic center of Nagasaki was not destroyed by the bomb.  It fell on the other side of that hill you see which shielded the old city from most of the damage.  The old city is pedestrian, charming and has many European influenced buildings since it was the only port where Westerners were allowed until 1849.  It would remind you of San Francisco since it overlooks a bay with islands in it.

The bomb was aimed at the Mitsubishi ship building yard that you can see in Ocks picture of the bay.  It missed.

Peace park is where the center of the blast was and is a beautiful and moving place.

[Ocklawaha]

Lake, the fact that many survived the bomb as Dog Walker has pointed out did not lessen the TOTAL and COMPLETE destruction of these cities. Even the ancient temples, and shrines had to be rebuilt, hell EVERYTHING had to be rebuilt. As Dogwalker said one side of the hill caught the bomb, the other side caught the FIRE BOMBS (which were far more deadly and destructive). They really had nothing to work with.

The difference in our culture and styles is really where it stands out. We elect a president and Japan elects a cabinet which stands under the Emperor who descends from the Ujigami (Gods) sometime before 660 BC! By the way the Ujigami spirits usually live in the woods, and meadows, thus the gardens Japan is famous for.

OCKLAWAHA

[Dog Walker]

Part of the difference in our cities is caused by the fact that only a tiny portion of Japan's land can be built on.  I think it is something like 5% so population density in the towns and cities is much higher than ours.  Japan is mostly mountains; rugged, volcanic mountains.

[thelakelander]

Yes. This is what I meant in this previous post.  To compare these places with the American experience is pretty useless to do based on many of the environmental factors expressed in past post.

American zoning practices aside, its also helmed in by mountains and water, which helps with density.  The same goes for Nagasaki, which dates back to the 16th century.

Btw, I think we all know the American model is different.  Going back to what I stated earlier, a part of the reason the American model is different deals with the age of this country, its urban areas and technology.  Sprinkle in land availability and culture and right or wrong, you end up with a different product.