As the LAWeekly writes in its feature article this week, local politicians and developers have grand, vertical plans for the city, tarted up as smart growth -- meaning high-density, mixed-use inner-city projects along public transport routes, designed as walkable live-work villages, and antidotes to suburban sprawl.Sounds great -- except for three bugging details: (1) the density of it all, as shown by this freaking map of areas marked for high-density development; (2) the often uninspiring design, borderline soviet; (3) the fact that public transport consists mostly of buses -- stuck in traffic like all of us -- and that an effective metro or light railway system still has a looong way to go.
Sure the city needs to grow dense and reduce its geographical waistline, but could we save it from turning into a manic beehive?
[update 11/06/07: Meet the anti-planner in Pittsburgh Tribune Review]
photos Google Images: L.A. traffic and developments
