Our Alleys (Chicago: friendly, deal, cities)

[via chicago]

Originally Posted by MIAMIwolf

Alleys are good for hollywood movie scenes... garbage, boxes, dumpsters...MMmm, makes me want to live in Chicago!!! The city designed around the horse carriage! The city with no municipal parking garages in the nice areas.... just curbs lined with little, dented hondas and toyotas.... And that's in yuppieville! In Miami AKA ...M-I-Yayo we have "parking garages" in the nice areas.... So you don't have to walk 1,000 blocks like in Lincon square or Wrigleyville to get to someone's house...

Imagine that...walking somewhere instead of driving. Novel concept. Maybe this is what you don't understand in Miami, but its good urban planning NOT to have huge parking garages in dense metro areas. All it does is encourage people to drive, which the already congested roads cannot support. Of course, you have to offer people alternatives, which is where walkable, liveable neighborhoods and efficient mass transit come into play. If you live in a dense city like Chicago, you shouldn't have to own a car. And thats the beauty of it all.

And you talk about garbage in the rear..well would you rather it be out front like New York and other cities? It does have to go somewhere. It also removes utility poles/wires from the steet and the front of the house. And while it may technically be illegal, they do offer you alternate routes of transportation as well. Main thoroughfare backed up? Cut into an alley and hook up with the next side street over. I think history will shine very favorably on the grid based street/alley system of Chicago, and many new developments are already starting to shift back to it.

For those interested, theres also a great photo book out there which explores Chicago alleys.
Amazon.com: City Spaces: Photographs of Chicago Alleys (Center for American Places - Center Books on American Places): Bob Thall: Books

[JohnDoe2008]

whoa, I think Im gonna get that book.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Keep trash talking about gas prices every chance you get, that's a sure way to help: Bloomberg.com: U.K. & Ireland

Who's trash talking? I take no pleasure in high gas prices, since they threaten the economic livelihood of all of us. I'm pretty alarmed if anything. I don't think I ever mentioned oil prices in any of these forums until the past few weeks--and that's because I'm finally more aware of the situation and it's scary. Demand in the United States used to help determine oil prices. If we used less, the price went down. That's not the case anymore with Chinese and Indian demand driving up prices, along with market speculation. Hopefully it's just a bubble that will eventually pop!

Either way, the state of gas prices is the most pressing current event that affects our cities at this time, and this forum is largely a discussion of cities. The post-war development patterns of the United States were almost entirely determined by the automobile in an age of cheap gas. If the individual automobile is sudenly not feasible as a primary mode of transportation, the development patterns of American cities will change drastically and quickly.

[MIAMIwolf]

If you are driving from the 'burbs to the city, namely Wrigleyville/Andersonville area, but also Lincoln Square and others, it would be nice to deposit your car in a garage and THEN take to walking the streets. When I go visit my cousin in Wrigleyville, I have to park a mile from her apartment. Well, probably not a mile, but several blocks, and that's a long way when there's a foot of snow on the ground and its 12 degrees.

Also, I think its funny how some author romanticized the alleys of Chicago. They are old, ugly, and often times trash is strewn about and dead hookers are sometimes found laying next to dumpsters. Via Chicago I hope you don't subscribe to that silly brand of nostalgic art.

[eevee]

I like the alleys here in Chicago. I still have no clue what day is garbage day b/c I rarely see garbage trucks blocking the main streets and see mounds of trash on the sidewalks. in Boston, all the trash went out on the sidewalk, and many people didn't put it out in trash cans so you often had wild animals tearing open trash bags. w/ all the narrow one way streets in that city, being stuck behind a garbage truck that stopped every 10ft is aggravating beyond belief (I was walking my dog once and saw this guy that was crawling along behind a garbage truck back up full speed up a one way street and smash into another car turning the corner!)

the best thing about the alley system is that you don't have to hang onto your trash until trash day. a couple of years ago, I was living in Allston and got a ticket for putting out my trash too early (I had forgotten the past Monday was a holiday so trash day was delayed a day). the only way they could have gotten my name was to dig through my trash and find something w/ my name on it (to this day I still shred every piece of mail I get, even junk mail). unless you live in a large apartment building w/ a dumpster, you basically had to keep the trash in your house until trash day, which stinks (literally) if you have a family that produces a large amount of trash. in some neighborhoods, people would steal your trash barrels, so you couldn't really leave them outside and keep trash there either.

the major thing I hate about the alleys are when cars come zooming out of them and don't even honk the horn to alert pedestrians walking by. I almost got hit by a truck that did this downtown

[MIAMIwolf]

Most of the new buildings in Miami have "dumpster rooms" that are on the street (No alleys). When the truck comes, the door opens, and the truck backs in and takes its plunder. Then the door shuts, concealing the smell. Wow! No need for that waste of space called an alley where only bad things happen (drug deals, police chases, dead hookers, etc)

[Avengerfire]

Will this ever end? Nothing smells worse than a skanky troll.

[thePR]

Originally Posted by MIAMIwolf

If you are driving from the 'burbs to the city, namely Wrigleyville/Andersonville area, but also Lincoln Square and others, it would be nice to deposit your car in a garage and THEN take to walking the streets. When I go visit my cousin in Wrigleyville, I have to park a mile from her apartment. Well, probably not a mile, but several blocks, and that's a long way when there's a foot of snow on the ground and its 12 degrees.

Also, I think its funny how some author romanticized the alleys of Chicago. They are old, ugly, and often times trash is strewn about and dead hookers are sometimes found laying next to dumpsters. Via Chicago I hope you don't subscribe to that silly brand of nostalgic art.

Well I know that you are way over exaggerating because it does not snow that much when it gets that cold. If you had to park several blocks away in Wrigleyville then you didn't look for a close spot hard enough.

Alleys are ingenious unlike Boston, New York City or Philledalphia we don't have all of the garbage in the front, it's more convinient for us garbage-wise, garbage men and for any sort of shipments.

Originally Posted by MIAMIwolf

Most of the new buildings in Miami have "dumpster rooms" that are on the street (No alleys). When the truck comes, the door opens, and the truck backs in and takes its plunder. Then the door shuts, concealing the smell. Wow! No need for that waste of space called an alley where only bad things happen (drug deals, police chases, dead hookers, etc)

Hey, guess what, we have that too. Do your houses have that? No I don't think so.

[joee]

Speaking of alleys in Chicago i just saw were they are repaving some with a more porous concrete which lets water seep thru and is more environmentally friendly, not a bad idea wish other cities would follow

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by joee

Speaking of alleys in Chicago i just saw were they are repaving some with a more porous concrete which lets water seep thru and is more environmentally friendly, not a bad idea wish other cities would follow

Hope they do that with sidewalks...