Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
as for the second part of your assesment, downtown evasnton is becoming more urban and is seeing more ped activity whether or not you choose to believe it because of some car ownership stats.
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True, and fair enough: I think the same is true of many downtowns throughout the country; there is more activity, more vibrancy; hard to quantify, but its definitely there, and its definitely true in Evanston with some of the new retail and entertainment developments like the downtown theatre. More people seem to be spending more of their money at downtown stores nationwide. This is good, and its a necessary first step.
But I guess my broader point is, in terms of actual sustainaible development, if people are still driving/parking through all of this, the actual benefit is minor (perhaps a few less strip malls on greenfields, but no significant reduction in oil consumption or relative improvement in air quality); that is, the progress is illusory. So we probably don't really disagree; I definitely agree that alot of peope have this mental block wherein they take for granted that they need to own a car even if it would be much more economic for them to simply joing carsharing or rent when they need one. Let's hope that more downtown living and more downtown shopping will glean people to the notion that hey, you can actually survive for weeks/months/years at a time without needing to own a car.