Quote:
Originally Posted by TakeFive
For the urbanist crowd increased density is by definition good. The vision is for more walkable-friendly neighborhoods where convenient transit is available to all. I can share their desires.
Over the decades freeways were added to conveniently shuss people through or around downtowns. The belief is that this has often destroyed or stunted a good urban fabric. It's a fair point to make.
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But isn't there also the other side of that argument? Lets face it, even though we have light rails and buses going out throughout a great portion of the suburbs, majority of suburbanites refuse to take public transportation. In Denver we are lucky that that freeway that was planned to cut through downtown never got built. I lived in Dallas for a few years and I learned a great deal about how freeways can positively affect and negatively affect a great urban core. In Dallas they have a trillion freeways cutting unnecessary all throughout the downtown core, dividing every opportunity to have a great walking community. Leaving core, vital neighborhoods divided and unpleasant to the pedestrian or biker. And killing every and any chance to having a thriving urban experience. You walk downtown Dallas at any time of any day and its almost always completely dead (from a pedestrian standpoint, there are lots of cars driving around). But Denver is much different. Denver's freeways cut through the downtown core at a very minimum and are vitally used to transport people to downtown and less to avoid it. I believe where i25, i70 and US6 all end and meet up are exactly where they need to be to conveniently get all the suburbanites into the downtown area, and because we don't have all the freeways cutting throughout downtown in every which direction, we have a much greater urban experience because of it.
Now after saying all that, going back to the argument above, most suburbanites will refuse to use public transportation. But for our downtown to thrive at its best, we also need them. We need them to come enjoy the big city experience, we need them to come and have dinner and keep these wonderful restaurants and stores to thrive at there best. But they are only going to do that as long as its convenient for
them to get downtown.
My parents live in the suburbs out near where Aurora and Centennial meet, 9 out of 10 times they will refuse to ever go down town. There reasoning? They always argue there is no good way to get downtown. i25 is usually a mess, and i70 is beyond need of repair and expansion. Its always the same argument. I've met many others in the suburb with this same mindset.
So if we can at the very least make the trek that much more convenient for the suburbanite, doesn't it also make sense that it will help encourage our downtown to thrive and develop?