> I don't believe that things should be broken up to the extent that
> you find yourself consistently needing to travel alone (at an
> unbikeable distance). But where throwing most of the money at getting
> people to a central business district flops is that it then becomes
> difficult to get where you need to go *other* times, shopping,
> school, doctors, wherever.
While I agree with most of what you said, your Palo Alto friend's
comment about never completing the freeways through San Francisco misses
cause and effect. San Francisco is one of the only healthy cities her
size in the country precisely BECAUSE it was never completely bypassed
by freeways; BECAUSE all West Bay roads still lead to San Francisco.
Many businesses stay here precisely because it is the easiest location
to get to from anywhere in the Bay Area with mass transit, which is why
BART has been such a benefit to the City.
The advantages of a healthy downtown is that you CAN do all of your
errands near work, and you can easily get to that central core from
anywhere else in the City. I used to work for VISA in San Mateo, and it
was hell. You could not do anything during your lunch break, so
everything defaulted to the weekends, and you ended up with no time
off. Now, I work downtown, and everything (including most groceries,
despite downtown's lack of a supermarket) is an easy walk from work. I
do most of my errands during breaks and on the way to or from work. I
will never understand how anybody would want the suburban lifestyle,
where everything is miles and hours of transit time from everything
else. I most definitely do not want to try to duplicate it in San
Francisco. I'd like the City to stay as dense as possible, consistant
with the existing open space and height limits. If people want a
suburban lifestyle, there is no shortage of options; those of us who
like urban lifestyles are not so lucky.
-- Donald
_________________________
Donald F. Robertson
San Francisco
donaldrf@hooked.net
76217.2066@CompuServe.com
Donald's Space Exploration page:
http://www.hooked.net/~donaldrf/index.html
The known is finite, the unknown is infinite; intellectually
we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of
inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to
reclaim a little more land. -- Thomas Huxley.