Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
How QC and webcomics generally relate to the real USA
bhtooefr:
Plenty of grid cities are just fine for walking, and many east coast cities were designed for it.
explicit:
My point is just that they're car-centric first and foremost, not that you can't walk at all in them. NYC is fine for walking and transit.
bhtooefr:
They've been converted to be car-centric (or had their core surrounded by car-centric suburbs), but a lot of them predate the car by quite a lot.
Neko_Ali:
The problem with walking cities isn't really the grid system, but the zoning system. Walking friendly cities have mixed purpose areas, where anywhere you find residences you will also find a variety of shops and places to work. Usually with some sort of public transport system to get from area to area, making the need for personal cars minimal. The US is very fond of zoning by usage though. So unless you happen to live within close distance of a commercial zone, or within an apartment complex in a downtown mixed use zone (both of which command much higher rents and costs of living than most residential zones) then you could be up to several miles away from any kind of business.
Zebediah:
--- Quote from: explicit on 30 Jan 2015, 12:38 ---Really, our cities just aren't built for public trans or walking. The only city I can think of that's not built on a grid is Boston, but that's mostly just because it was built up with no plan 100's of years ago.
--- End quote ---
Boston's streets actually make perfect sense if you take into account the fact that they were built to avoid geographic obstacles that are largely no longer there. A lot of area that was formerly water has been filled in to make new land (which is why we have a neighborhood called the "Back Bay" - it actually was a bay a couple of hundred years ago.) And some formerly pretty steep hills have been completely leveled to provide the fill dirt for that new land.
I'll have to see if I can find a map of where Boston's shoreline was 300 years ago compared to where it is today. It's a dramatic difference.
Edit - here we go. It's a pretty crappy gif but it shows you what I'm talking about:
More info, for anyone who's interested in the subject (recognizing that not everyone is as big a history geek as I am): http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/bos_fill.html
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