Posts Tagged ‘Atlanta’
Air condition and sprawl
That the cities of the American South are vast, sprawling places thanks to their car dependency is wildly known . Metros like Atlanta, Charlotte and Greenville were small, peripheral cities prior to WWII and exploded in the decades after it. And when they did they were built to accomodate driving rather than walking or public transport. Though how much can you blame the car in itself and how much can you blame what makes it cool? I.e would they have been as sprawling if they had expanded in the decades when a growing number of people had cars but no good air condition?
Atlantic Cities lifts the importance of AC in the design of Southern cities and it would be interesting to see how much artificial cooling in cars benefited urban sprawl, since it’s not pleasant with long, slow, car-born commutes in 90 degree heat. If buildings can be designed to be naturally cool with “thick walls, porches, high ceilings and large windows” and it’s hard to prevent a car stuck in traffic on a clogged highway to cook its passangers alive, the shorter commute between a cool home and a cool office the better.
The great sprawler
Atlantic Cities forgot one great subway map
The Atlantic Cities has a slide show of “The World’s Best Subway Maps” that is worth checking out. Though I question that some of their picks’ belong on this list. Sometimes iconic transit map designs can make a real dent in popular culture (enough for the New Yorker to lament its disappearance 30 years later). But two things are sure, and that is that neither the Buffalo nor the Atlanta transport map will find its way onto a t-shirt worth buying anytime soon:
Buffalo
Atlanta
This classic Seoul subway map though, I have as a poster:
Gawker’s ode to America’s cities
Gawker has embarked on a great American tour where it’s ranking all the states in order to settle which ones that are the best and which ones that are the worst. Starting with the good ones and counting down, it’s easy to see what wins over the Gawker crew – great cities.
All the top ranking states (except for those with a tiny population such as Vermont and Maine) appeal by being either very liberal, or by having impressive cities – and preferably both.
New York is number one because of NYC and gay marriage, Minnesota prevails by relying on the Twin Cities’ cultural capital, Washington is popular thanks to Seattle, Louisiana is what it is due to New Orleans, Illinois would be nothing without Chicago, Virginia is considered a champion by having D.C. suburbs and Charlottesville, Pennsylvania makes it to the top through Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and Atlanta and Savannah makes Georgia a Southern leader.
The ranking will continue over the next few days, and if it follows the same pattern it feels safe to say that the worst states will not only be conservative, but conservative with unremarkable cities.
Gawkerland
