Millennium Line - Broadway Extension: Planning & Pre-Construction

[Geof]

Originally Posted by misher

There are of course businesses that have to go. But in the end, thrift shops, used clothing stores, hipster places, etc. are much like rug stores...they choose the cheapest lease areas to be in and are generally not meant to be there permanently.

There is no such thing as "permanent." We never live in a finished city. The city is always being torn down and rebuilt, as we ourselves pass through different stages of life. We only live in transient moments of a city that is always coming into being. Permanence is the dream of the homeowner who wants to preserve the character of a neighourhood in amber, or the condo association that wants every balcony to look perfect. The only way the city can be permanent is if it is dead (and not even then, as entropy takes over).

We don't live in the long run, we live in a succession of moments of now. As Keynes said, in the long run, we're all dead. Recognizing this, we should care very much about transience, including transient businesses (like virtually every restaurant): they are the fabric of the city. For that, Jane Jacobs argues, old buildings are essential:

Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.... for really new ideas of any kind--no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be--there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.

But as the city changes, we can't build new old buildings. I asked a Burnaby city planner about this. She said they are aware of the problem; it is why they try to get developers to build commercial units of different sizes. But it's an imperfect solution. Master planning entire neighbourhoods is inimical to a vibrant city. As the city changes, we are always be building anew (and tearing down or - as is more common in Europe - developing the old), but doing it imperfectly, organically, in a patchwork of old and new. Then we live in the reality of the transcience of the always-changing city, instead of dismissing reality for perfect final city that will never be.