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I read a fascinating post today on Strangeharvest about surfaces and how modern design has all but obliterated texture from our architectural vocabulary. I think that a similarity can be drawn to the monotony of the suburb. We have tried to scrub from view the differences between us. It’s as though we view ourselves as clones us and our neighbors all with the same needs, same desires and even same sensibilities. We bought hook line and sinker someones definition of a dream and ended up a texture-less society.
Thanks Dustin for sending this great article about the safety in numbers for bicyclists.
Also… that reminds me. Every year West Sacramento does this really neat event on the waterfront called the Neighbors fair. It starts with a good old hometown parade and then moves over to the Riverwalk park across from old Sac and there are all sorts of fun things going on. This year we are doing something fun at the event. We are trying to get as many people to walk or ride their bikes instead of driving. So LJ Urban is setting up a free bike check and bike shop. Anyone who rides their bike will get a free tune up and won’t have to worry about locking their bike up. How cool is that?
If you want to come its on the 4th of October from 11am-6pm. Here is the link to more info.
A while back we did a post about urban temporary gardens. Now head over and check out the post today on the Oak Park Now site. I love when ideas like this take off and run on their own!
I was not sure if I wanted to get on the blog here and start talking about this project until I was further along but I am beginning to think that the benefits of including everyone in the process outweigh the risk of humiliation if this thing were never to get published.
Its a tough thing writing a book and even tougher for someone like me with bad grammar and writing skills (come on, don’t even try and pretend you didn’t notice). But I feel that I have something that needs to be said, and there isn’t any way something like bad spelling is getting in my way. There are plenty of good editors out there who I am sure would agree with my beliefs and want to edit my book for me. (I hope)
I want to write about community, about the kind I think we could have if we tried and what its going to take to get us there. I have seen so many faceless sprawling ticky tacky rows of boxes we are trying to pass off as places to live and have witnessed degrading quality of life and community that I feel something needs to be done and I choose to stand up as someone who is willing to try to make a difference. I know I am far from perfect and can only hope affect change in a few lives but if by writing what I believe I am able to help just a few more people build lives for themselves that are richer and more fulfilling and they in turn can contribute to better places for more people to live. Then I will stand up and take that challenge. Bad spelling and all, I am going to take on the goal of describing a better way to live. [Read more →]
Recently we posted the first in a series called Open Mic. The way we see it blogs and the Internet are increasingly replacing newspapers as the place people go for their daily drip of information, and we see our blog as just one of your stops along the way as you seek to learn more about the world outside your door. But we know that we are not the only ones who have something to say about cities and urban life. So you are invited to participate. Send us your rants, your interesting tidbits or things you hate about the way things are and we will do our best to post them here.
What is a community without a water cooler, right? And who knows we might just get a few more of you to start talking…
See that new little thing that showed up to the left? Pretty cool huh..?
We added a widget from Flickr that allows us to take photos from our phones then and they pop up on there. Kind of a dorky thing I know. But it makes us feel special, and after all don’t we all just want to feel special?
You want to know how I sum up the difference between neighborhood activists in Citrus Heights and neighborhood activists in downtown Sacramento? The Citrus Heights variety want the city to require a citywide public vote to approve any development denser than 4 units an acre. Meanwhile, we’re pushing for mixed use and housing diversity, and get a bit weirded out at lot sizes bigger than a seventh of an acre.
People’s ideas of what constitutes good planning and good architecture varies in space as well as time. Remember that the folks on the Citrus Heights councils and boards are also residents of that city, and thus think more like the residents do in terms of what constitutes good architecture and good planning.
In a suburb, less is more: the primary appeal of suburban life is (comparatively) wide-open spaces and familiar surroundings. When density increases in a suburb, the primary selling point of the suburb gets lost. This, along with white flight, is why suburbs tend to be disposable products: once a certain density is reached, those who like suburbs the most move on to the next one.
In a city, more is more: city people want to be in a busy, engaging place, so when you add density, a city becomes more city-like, not less. This makes the city more appealing, and brings in more people who want an urban environment.
The fact is, suburban living has a strong appeal to many people. Siince the suburb has been promoted as the ideal living situation for more than a century, and it is not yet economically infeasible to build them, that appeal will take a long time to wane. And those who do find more comfort in a “less is more” housing environment will fight to protect that environment, including from city hall.
(Incidentally, have you seen the Citrus Heights city hall? It’s a mansard-roofed one-story office building stuck in between a multiplex theater and a strip mall.)
I received an email a few days ago from our insurance guy and wanted to share it here. This is one of the things that we have always been excited about with LJ Urban. You could call it the ripple effect or if you wanted to get fancy the domino effect. (OK lame attempt at humor there). Whatever you call it it’s part of what we are looking for and why we decided early on to Blog as part of our business. We want not only to change the world ourselves but inspire others to do the same. We believe that in the end our greatest contribution will not be that which we have accomplished ourselves but what we have caused others to do by opening them up to dream big.
Here it is..
Good morning Levi,
My name is Matt Byers and I work for Stonecrest Insurance (we currently handle your insurance for LJ Urban). I subscribed to the RSS Feed on your blog about a month ago and I have found it to be very intriguing. Since I have been reading it, I have become much more interested in sustainable building and your eco-urban approach. I am in the insurance business by trade, but I think that actually puts me in a unique position to contribute to what you and the other sustainable building developers are working on by learning more about your business and developing a program to specifically address your unique needs. I have been doing research on green building and sustainability, with an emphasis on the LEED program, and I am considering becoming LEED certified and developing a program to cater specifically to the green building community. I know you are very busy, but I was wondering if you would take the time to meet with me, at your convenience, to talk about the unique challenges facing your company and if there would be any value in having an insurance agent that was LEED certified.
Reading your blog has inspired me to try and be more aware and involved in the movement toward more sustainable building practices and I would truly appreciate any time you can spare to discuss what you and the other leaders in the industry are doing and how I can help.
The following is the first of LJ Urban’s Open Mic series. Where we invite you to write about the ins and outs of urban life. Email your entries to Levi(at)LJUrban(dot)com
The first post is from Ian Merker, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP. Ian currently works with MFDB Architects and is passionate about urban life here in Sacramento.
A little Urban Controversy
On Thursday 8/21, The Sacramento Bee featured an article about a small residential development that was turned down in Citrus Heights. What makes this project newsworthy to The Bee was that the project was essentially turned down because the neighborhood activists who attended council meetings angrily and loudly denounced the idea and council proclaimed the design as ‘ugly’. Council unanimously rejected the project.
Missing from the article is the personal story of applicant Valentin Krasnodemsky and the greener undertones of the project.
Mr. Krasnodemsky did everything right. He hired an Architect, had meetings with the neighborhood and even meetings with SMUD to go solar. Ukranian-born Valentin was trying to produce an admirable version of the American Dream - create a set of close-knit homes for his own family in a modest neighborhood of modest means on a site long neglected. The house/lot designs are dense, but not to the point of pushing the envelope. The lot subdivision would have created a series of lots of similar size to the neighbors. The floor plans are the average size of new homes, larger than the neighbors, but not monstrous. Valentin’s family would determine the space and amenities they desired to raise their families together in a tradition that is cross cultural and often abandoned in modern US suburbia. You wouldn’t have to load up the car to visit your relatives.
The fatal mistake made by Valentin, and to an extent by the Architects, is that they failed to assess the social and political nature of the project. Who would have thought that a relatively new city (10 years old) in a growing urban area would be so willing to throw progressive values to the wayside to allow an angry mob to prevail? Smart growth issues in the General Plan and regional Blueprint have not been popular among public comment in Citrus Heights, and design is always a subjective issue. Maybe there was even a little mistrust of a foreign-born man with a heavy accent.
Taking the high road has its disadvantages.
Since the beginning of the project, Mr. Krasnodemsky has lost the interest of his family- they have all gone and purchased homes elsewhere. But just as any dedicated, passionate person does, he tried to find a way to continue his vision and intends to sell the units market rate. Now that the project is rejected, he has the option to redesign the units and divide the lot into larger parcels. Where will this project end up in an era of conservatism and plummeting real estate values? We should all hope for a miracle.
I just heard today that the Sacramento Magazine released its list of the top 100 Powerful people and that you can go onto their site and vote for your top 10. I was happy to see some very good people made it on the list. My top 10 looked like this.
(Update: I am adding Sena Christian, from the SN&R I didn’t put together that it was her on the list. Way to go Sena for making it! You deserve it.)
I know its a lot of people who are in my line of work but I only wanted to vote for people that I either knew personally or knew of their work on a higher level than just reading about them in the paper.
