Main Streets Suck.*
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 มี.ค. 2024
- Main streets are common urban features found in cities throughout the US. They are ubiquitous public spaces, but what can we do to improve them even further? In this video, we take a look at some of the often overlooked problems with main streets and some extraordinary examples of cities that have solved them.
SPECIAL THANKS
Caylor Peterson, provided editing assistance
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CONTACT: eryngo.urbanism@gmail.com
MUSIC (CHRONOLOGICAL)
I Feel Like Partying Right Now - Nat Keefe & BeatMower
Bok Choy - Slynk
Colour Of Your Face - NoMBe
Richard's Stuff - Otis McDonald
Blue Dream - Cheel
Enchantée feat. Mr Stabalina - Slynk
Fish Room - Verified Picasso
Instant Crush - Corbyn Kites
Bonus points if you can spot any connections to previous videos on our channel!
Instructions unclear: surrounded a Main Street with a jungle of adventure, a land of frontier, a castle leading to fantasy, and a portal to tomorrow.
This is actually pretty much what we’re suggesting
Instructions unclear, access is now provided by ferry, monorail, and bus.
I wish main streets had more housing on top!
The main difference between a successful main street and a failed main street, is that the former doesn't only have shops and restaurants on street level, but also have thousands of people living above those shops. People who work there or shop there. People who fill up the streets, who don't even need acres of parking.
Great explanation of how Savannah and NYC are organized, people take for granted good urban planning and don’t usually think how to apply those ideas to other places that need it
I wish suburbs surrounding the larger cities took more prided in being a place to call home and not just act as a door mat for the nearby city. Having a well designed Main Street would be such a good start for that.
Scottsdale and Mesa, suburbs of Phoenix, both have a nice Main Street.
Dude, you're channel deserves more subscribers! Your content is different than other urbanist youtubers. I really like your focus on smaller towns, which is where most of America needs to build up, and you actually give good solutions with visuals. Please, keep up the good work!
I really like the focus on the abandoned train stations.
Even without working train lines at that station, that location and building can still be very useful, take the parking lot that is in front of them and turn it in the a bus hub. Take the train station building and have tourist information center, train museum, police office, post office, a cafe and a minimart (more if the building is bigger), if there is enough space in front of the train station you could make a plaza where events are held, movie nights, festivals, farmer's market/booth sales. Then you upgrade/build the main street that you talk about.
This way the area is already being built up by simply moving some things around. Then because all these things have been done and there is a centralized location for people to gather, maybe whoever runs the train lines might decided to run some trains to that station. And once a train line is connected to that station, you will obviously need the station for train operations itself, so you slowly move the uses you put in there out of the building, maybe expand the build, maybe add another floor, build a couple of buildings perpendicular to it which then creates a "enclosed" space.
I'd love to know the location of the train station shown at 15:43, just so I can visualize what could be done with the space to improve things.
That one’s in Ponca City! If you want to hear more about these, you should definitely watch our “Return of Passenger Rail” video!
Peachtree street in Atlanta has doordashers illegally parking to run into restaurants and it ends up slowing traffic a ton. I love it, lol
Traffic calming?
I consider myself lucky to live in New England. So many great main streets.
Main streets are kinda overrated, I am a bigger fan of Japan style scattered commercial activity over a monolithic main street. It makes more places walkable as the commercial activity exists within neighborhoods, so people don't have to go downtown for literally everything. Even if that downtown is a 20min walk away.
As he said, big US cities tend to have multiple "main streets". The Avenues in Manhattan in the video, but you can also find examples in Chicago, SF, or LA, though the 'main-ness' often doesn't run continuously down the whole street. People aren't going downtown for everything, and the local 'main' can be a few minutes away.
I do like Japan's allowing small shops inside residential areas, too. But you probably need high density to make that work well. Osaka has 12,000 people/km2 overall, so probably more in residential areas. Tokyo's 23 wards are 15,000, similar to Brooklyn's 14,500. Paris is 21,000, Manhattan 28,000 not counting daytime workers...
When you're starting with maybe only 2000 people/km2... the blog kchoze argued once that you should prioritize commercial density first. People can walk/bike/drive from around, then do lots of trips at once in a walkable area. Which could be an argument for commercial zoning along your desired main street: "put all your businesses HERE for mutual benefit." (Or rather, mixed use zoning -- no reason not to allow apartments above the businesses.)
It depends on the type of shops. Specialized shops, which you usually only visit every few month should be in a main street, so they can benefit from a shared transportation infrastructure (like parking garages or a bus hub) serving a much larger catchment area. That way you can also combine multiple trips with just one drive or bus ride and then walk the last part.
Stores for daily needs (primarily groceries and pharmacies) however need to be spread across the whole city, so you can walk there from your home.
@@kailahmann1823 As general guidelines sounds good, though specialized shops might also want lower rents off of main streets.
And to me, Japan vs. "Main Street" isn't about having one downtown, it's having a neighborhood main street vs. being able to find a shop literally _anywhere_.
Like in NYC, IIRC businesses pretty much line the Avenues, while the Streets are mostly residential. Certainly where I grew up in Chicago was like that. It's only a few minute walk to a main street (two of them, in fact, on either side), but nothing was in between. Whereas in Japan you might find a ramen shop in between houses.
Mostly I'd rather just let businesses figure it out on their own; they've got an incentive to be where the customers are, after all. But at marginal densities I could see a case for concentrating businesses via zoning, as long as there's still something within walking distance of every home.
I think you misunderstand the organization of japanese cities. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think they aren't "scattered" at all. They're clustered around train stations. For people who make most long trips by train it's a natural hub of foot traffic and activity, and attracts density and activity like a magnet.
@@tristanridley1601 they are, but there is no main street, and many places farther from the station have commercial activity very close to houses. For example in my American town, I must go to the main street every time I needed anything while in Japan even in neighborhoods 1km away from the station you could have a conbini or other shops and vending machines nearby.
The pink high visibility vest I was just about to get on Amazon. Coincidence you’re wearing it! Buying it!
Thanks for bringing up subjects I rarely even think about and showing me why I should! I'd like you to show an overview of downtown Tulsa sometime and tell us why it was laid out at an angle! Daddy and Grandpa had an ongoing debate about that, and just for the record, Daddy was right! :)
Genuinely I love the bookshelf-library analogy!
Damn okay, guess Savannah's getting added to the list of places to check out. Who knew.
Savannah's absolutely beautiful! When I was there I had a wonderful experience. Although some people find it kind of frightening because it has that haunted feeling, personally, I just felt like the spirits were just having fun with all of us 😂 It has that world old feel, southern charm. I absolutely want to return one day to see it again, Although not all of Savannah is like it's historical area unfortunately.
Babe wake up new eryngo video
I live in Norman, and I love the idea. Something like that would be infinitely preferable to yet more sprawling, parking-heavy projects on the north side of town
Wake up babe, new Eryngo vid just dropped.
Savanah is a really cool example of traffic calming and the difference between streets and roads on a small scale
The NYC blocks and avenue "main streets" feel reminiscent of the UK's "High Streets". While they're much more disorganized than cities here in the US, they are the nodes of public transit, with primarily commerical and mixed use frontage, to which the whole town or village (in a larger urban fabric analagous to a neighborhood in the US) is focused, with schools and other communal buildings either being on or very near the high street.
The problem with New York City is that they have no alleys and the trash sits out on the sidewalk. Yes, obviously I’m from Chicago
Thank you!!
I've had this same idea for years. I hate how the "main" street lol is prioritized, meanwhile the next block over is lifeless. You can add to the vibrancy of the neighborhood by making the connected streets have businesses or higher density housing instead of surface parking. I rather have a garage built than a surface lot, as long as the garage has that added density around it. Or, like where I live currently, public parking on the lower level with residents of a building parking above that.
With a better connected main street, you can actually have more a interesting experience than just what's on that...what I like to call...island of urbanism.
Such a great video. Nice job, man. Hope to see you in my feed more often!
I would argue that the main streets usually align with the train station stops. 14th, 23rd, 42, 59, 72 and so on. Especially in Manhattan. Also, there is usually a shopping district there as well.
Okc resident here. Been think my this awhile. You can have a great downtown but don’t matter if there is no sense living around it
Great video! It’s my first time seeing your channel, really enjoyed it!
If you ever visit my hometown of Madison, WI, check out State St. It ends at our State Capitol which itself is a kind of public square. Your video reminds me I’m lucky to have this in my city.
Does Oklahoma have a fixation for random high-rises awkwardly far from downtown? At 12:14 is the second time I've seen a building like this after stumbling across Tulsa's Cityplex Towers on Google Maps.
Cityplex tower is much taller and much further from downtown. But yes
I love Savannah I absolutely think it is by far one of the best plans cities
Denver has rectangular blocks like NYC
What is the editing program you used at 14:49 ?
Photoshop!
Honestly, this video felt a bit scattered, but you did a good job of highlighting the key fixes towards the end. However, it skipped over explaining the "why" behind these fixes, which is crucial for a deeper understanding. Coming from a planning background but now working in private development, I believe it's important for urbanists to have a basic grasp of real estate development. In this scenario, the reason for certain choices seems quite apparent. In many areas, the best use of space often ends up being for parking, especially in towns with a single main street and a heavy reliance on cars - those cars need a place to park. This is why the obsession with New York City's density and grid layout puzzles me. It's an exception, not the rule, for most of the U.S. While improving streets is beneficial, the issue of parking remains. Smaller cities don't have the land value to support the cost of underground parking or parking garages, so surface lots become the default. I wish it were different, but I'm a realist. Given the necessity of cars, perhaps a solution is to incorporate shallower commercial spaces with parking behind them, making it less visible from the side streets.
In Norman specifically, lots of people walk and bike already. The lots discussed at the end are usually only around half full, surrounded by empty on-street parking, surrounded by yet more parking lots on adjacent blocks. Most of the people parking in this area are city employees who, in all honesty, should probably be required to park elsewhere and ride the bus into town. Despite what some might think, these parking lots seem far from necessary.
"In many areas, the best use of space often ends up being for parking, especially in towns with a single main street and a heavy reliance on cars - those cars need a place to park." Later in your comment, you are calling parking "the issue" so you are inherently explaining the why. With a single "Main Street," everyone needs a car to get there, because it is the only place to go, and naturally everyone can't also live there, unless it's like some wild west town with population 60. Like he said, the problem is a single "Main Street" instead of a dispersed, and balanced, street system, with, in one example, spaced out North/South avenues for through traffic/store front businesses, and quieter East/West street for residential. On the contrary, with a single "Main Street," everyone is trying to go to exactly one place and they can't all live near that one place so they all drive. Correct that most of the U.S. is built in a "single Main Street" way (based on new, unproven ideas and federal funding surrounding the hype of the invention of the automobile, ideas that were detached from historical and future reality) but the rest of world civilization was not built this way. Grids like Manhattan and Savannah are built to reflect the history of world civilization pre-1900. People have always lived among mixed residential buildings and businesses on all streets throughout a city. They live like this throughout the world. This reflects world civilization patterns. Residential buildings and businesses coexist on a street system that has some well-thought-out community planning put into it, with all stakeholders involved. Unless you want to talk about farms and plantations, this is reality. Suburban redesign has some major growing pains ahead. Excellent video, first one I've seen by Eryngo.
Hey well done on the video, it's really well written and edited! If you don't mind me offering a tiny bit of constructive criticism, you're looking down at your script the whole time and I think eye contact makes a big difference.
Anyway, I agree with the video...this issue seems similar to the problems with TOD in the US where they only allow higher density on the street right by the transit but the next block over is still single family homes. There's no big picture thinking, they only think one development or one block at a time.
2:32 causes me physical pain
The big benefit of "high streets" as we Canadians call them, is to a city or town that's less dense. They are hubs you can walk, transit, or drive to. The surrounding parking lots represent a car dependent city that has sacrificed to keep its heart alive.
You need lively and busy places densely packed to make an area appealing to pedestrians. By putting all your energy into high street, you create the kernel around which a pedestrian oriented development can occur. They also gain the density to support good transit, so if you can build more of these you have the basis of a transit system.
It's not a final solution, but for many North American they are the essential first step on the path from car dependency to a real urban place.
Bonito Savannah .
He ido. Estuve en le ejército en Fort Stewart.
¡Gracias por tu servicio!
Would becoming North America’s emperor and renovate all our towns to be as walkable as Copenhagen and Helsinki count? Definitely won’t be easy, but i’m willing to bite the bullet.
Last time that happened he got both the Bay Bridge and the Transbay Tube in San Francisco built, so go for it
@@eryngo.urbanism I’m thinking more through a legitimate united coalition. Urbanists, environmentalists as well as ecologists.
I think maybe you have too few examples? Most European and Asian cities have tons of walkable streets. Many of them aren't a grid and are doing just fine. In fact arguably they're way more interesting to walk because they aren't on a grid.
Real
Make cars turning right on red illegal.
I know the video is partially click bait and that we essentially agree, but there's nothing wrong with the idea of a town with a single commercial street . The problem is car-centric planning. When those towns were first built-out, people would have lived within walking distance of the main street. If the city became too large, another main street would form to fill the need. But when cars came into the picture, the blocks around the main street became depopulated and in many cases bulldozed. Now, when main streets are revitalized, they are essentially planned as places for suburbanites to drive to, not as part of the fabric of larger urban ecosystem. But the point is, if you bring a dense number of residents back into close proximity of the main street, and add infrastructure for walking, it will serve its function again, regardless of whether the city uses a traditional grid or not.
Exactly!
Realistically, your specific plan is horrible. In any car dependant town or city, which in the United States is almost all if them, removing parking spaces just means people will shop and dine elsewhere. Note that the parking lot you wish to remove is filled with cars. If it was usually empty things might be different. And, no, adding a few buses isn't going to change things.
Sure the parking lots are a result of car dependency, but they’re also helping to maintain it. If a neighborhood is designed well enough, people will figure out how to access it even if parking is scarce. In Norman specifically, parking is far from scarce, so it would take many increments of this type of development pattern before that would become a major issue. And by then, Norman will have commuter rail connecting it to OKC.
Instead of nasty comments about statues - please stick to city planning which we came here for. Didn't come here for political commentary.
Monuments are part of our urban fabric, so discussions about them are totally within the scope of this channel! Urbanism is inherently political, because it’s about shaping the spaces we all collectively share into spaces that everyone feels comfortable, safe, and welcome in. If different user groups of a space have different needs and desires for what kinds of things should exist in that space, that’s a discussion worth having!
The statue shown at 7:58 is of Pulaski, who fought in the American Revolution; he's not some Confederate general. Dude used part of his fortune to buy land for freed slaves, was a hero to Polish immigrants who came to America, and may have even been intersex. Not exactly the person to criticize as "immoral" from the Left. It's fine to be ignorant, and you can even be sanctimonious if you want, but you shouldn't be both.
We agree that Pulaski himself seemed generally like a cool guy. But whether or not even the finest of people should be idolized and immortalized in our public spaces can definitely be up for discussion and debate. Our offhand commentary in the video was that it’s “probably not great,” which is totally open to discussion and is pretty far from what we’d consider to be a “nasty comment.” Given that certain monuments in public spaces have been a bit of a hot topic in recent years, actually doing a bit of research on this topic could be a really interesting idea for a future video. But, as a channel focused on urbanism, we’re not planning to shy away from “political commentary” as the initial commenter suggested we should.