Comments

1. 

   Anonymous

   October 17, 2005

   Jim,

   You would hate being a pizza delivery driver. I wasted many a fine night in college searching (many times in the dark) for a visible address on a property.

   Not being able to find the address on a property – commercial, residential, or otherwise is a problem in every community.

   Law should require the posting of a “visible” address on some part of a property. I imagine it is in which case we need to adjust the law to accommodate the times we currently live in.

   Simply adding the block # to overhead street signs would help a lot.

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2. 

   SouthoftheJames.com

   October 17, 2005

   Great piece, Jim! I actually think that Broad Street in Henrico is worse than Midlo Tpke in Chesterfield because the folks in Chesterfield drive slower than the northern transplants who populate Henrico.

   – Conaway

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3. 

   Ray Hyde

   October 17, 2005

   Jim, this is a great piece. You have identified tangible common problems in a humorous way that anyone can identify with.

   Surely we have laws already regarding displaying the address. the just need enforcement.

   Garish, oversized, animated, badly lighted sign competition benefits no one, least of all those that pay for the signs. This is a true tragedy of the commons problem, where what is good for on is ultimately good fo no one.

   Lack of cut throughs to adjacent businesses are a real bugaboo, but sometimes it may have to do with drainage requirements. More often each owner is afraid he will lose a few parking spaces, and increase his liability due to unruly cut through traffic. Since each project comes to the planners individually, they can’t very well require that the neighboring business open a cut-through before the applicant business can proceed.

   Probably, you have to take a bunch of little pieces through eminent domain and then use them to build a bunch of little “roads”.

   This kind of strip development is why shopping malls were invented. They are the equivalent of polycentric city centers. You reduce local traffic (local to the center) and increase regional traffic (people driving from one center to another).

   Parking lots are the modern equivalent to center main street: you often see people chatting in the parking lot. It is the one place you are most likely to run into (or over) your neighbors and acquaintances, and this happens even in places remote from your home. We need to put the park back in parking lots, connect them with cut-throughs, and apply traffic calming techniques there, instead of on the main roads. Putting the park back in parking lots would go a long way to making the strips more beautiful, and it would make garish signs seem out of place.

   We can’t get residential areas to accept a soccer field, let alone a Lowes, so I don’t see integration going too far. The most you can hope for is more, smaller centers set closer to homes. That is going to result in “more places” to go, with fewer choices at each one.

   You have articulated some concrete issues that can be addressed, but taking the logical leap to the idea that “better zoning” and “better design” is futile. The zoning and design we have was established because it was “better” than what we had before, at least in someone’s mind.

   I doubt anyone planned Broad Street to be the way it is. Instead a bunch of little plans were strung together over time. Incrementally, it turned into a horror show. No one could have predicted the way it ultimately turned out, and only the fact that it now exists creates the impetus for change.

   What we have is an acute case of 20-20 hindsight. People are going to continue to object to anything untoward in their neighborhood, whether it is more density, more intersections, or more shops. I really don’t see a lot of impetus for creating real mixed-use developments. Even less do I see any likeliehood they will actually reduce traffic, they just make for more destinations.

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4. 

   Jim Bacon

   October 18, 2005

   Ray, you’re right, no one planned for Broad Street and similar thoroughfares lined with strip shopping centers to wind up like they have. What we see is the result of market forces at work within parameters set by local government zoning codes and comprehensive plans. As for your contention that liability issues hamper neighboring properties from connecting to one another, you’re quite right. I’ve heard the same thing from planners.

   It’s easy to criticize, as you say, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. But it would be foolish to look at the mess we’ve created and just shrug it off. Surely, there must be a better way. I’m not schooled enough in urban planning to know what that is. I’m hoping that others more knowledgeable than me will give it some thought.

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