Week 4 Discussion Response: The Idea of Integrating

Respond to these follow responses you must write a response to these statements with some solutions or questions you feel need to be answered. Remember your answers to these statements must be number. 
1a. In existing conditions you have many challenges in the short term, but ofcourse with design there are always opportunities. Some residents are not keen on new development as it will devalue there property or because they like things the way they are. Presenting what you would call incremental change could be seen as radical change to someone who has lived there for decades. In some places radical change is necessary to combat sea level rise, food shortages, and ecological destruction. That may make implementing sustainable transit options difficult in places where development is poorly organized. It may be difficult also to add density because people own land that they do not want to sell. This proves a difficult problem when you have to make significant changes to city layouts. In Greenfield developments there are a lot more opportunities for organized efficient layouts that deal with stormwater and waste effectively. My favorite type of greenfield design comes from futurist architect Jacque fresco. his design transcends all of our concepts of tradition and purely seeks efficiency and sustainability. One major concern for developing on undeveloped land is to protect the ecological systems present. even in land with what looks like little biological diversity, there are many organisms that are vital to the greater ecological systems.
2a. Executing sustainable urbanism in existing neighborhoods and communities is a great place to start because much of the needed infrastructure to support a community already exists. Rather than disrupting undeveloped land, developers and planners can make changes to existing neighborhoods to make them more sustainable. On the other side of the coin, however, changing what already exists also presents challenges:Cost and logistics -A sprawling suburb with many existing tract houses will be hard to revise for optimal function, for example, without costly and disruptive changes. For example, if density is to be increased, sewer systems need to be reinforced to deal with increasing volumes, which is an expensive, time consuming and difficult project to tackle.
Public Perception- We have been conditioned as a culture to value ample space and privacy in our communities and for many density is viewed negatively, leading to pushback and dissent from existing residents. Navigating the needs and opinions for the many stakeholders involved in redevelopment can be a long battle for making major infrastructure changes to a community.
Many of the components of sustainable neighborhoods, like mixed use buildings and neighborhood-based retail will only be supported once the population reaches a needed density level. It becomes a chicken-egg scenario: people who are attracted to high density communities want to live there for features like neighborhood stores, restaurants, and services, but these businesses won't move into the neighborhood until people move there...
Greenfield developments present the opportunity of creating a community from scratch. These can be designed from the ground-up to meet the specifications and requirements for optimal neighborhood sustainability with out the headache of renovating and redesigning existing infrastructure. However, existing neighborhoods already have a sense of place, a culture, and a community attached. A brand new development has no core culture yet, which is something that can really only be achieved over time. Additionally, greenfield provide extremely important ecological resources for the environment. It is important to preserve undeveloped land as much as we can to preserve habitats for flora and fauna, production of food, and uninterrupted biological processes.
1b. I live in a brighton neighborhood close to the green line and right next to the 57,65, and 86 bus. in terms of public transportation this area is fantastic. The public transportation in the United States is badly in need of an update however, and hopefully we can implement high speed rails in every city. So, while brighton is connected to public transportation, it is not necessarily good public transportation. the walkability of the area is also good, but again, could be updated. I have seen examples of elevated rail lines, or just burying the rail lines so that they can run faster and not interfere with traffic. This void could be used for pedestrian walkways and separated bike lanes. I myself would bike everywhere in boston if there were safe and detached bike lanes! where I live in Brighton there is a hospital, police station, lots of food options, and some bars/recreation. The area is urban, but much of the residential is similar to the density of a suburban neighborhood, which hurts walkability. People have gotten so lazy relying on cars though, so judging an areas walkability is relative, but nowadays it seems that walkability requires dense residential which Brighton only does in some areas. I think the next step to make Brighton more of a destination and less of a detached suburb, is to add mixed use development within the neighborhoods. You slowly creep in from the main roads and along the primary circulation to add denser neighborhoods with more retail , recreation, and food options. Challenges to this are filling the retail space in an area that is not dense and urban. shops won't want to move where there is no business, so having a good amount of development happen simultaneously with a heavy amount of residential, and then you keep space alotted for retail/food/recreation programs along the primary circulation routes
2b. I live in a Boston neighborhood called Jamaica Plain, which is a few miles south of downtown. It already exemplifies many of the principles of sustainable urbanism: high density of population (over 11,000/sq mile), high walkability access to a wide variety of important assets like schools, stores, entertainment, and greenspace, excellent public transportation access and bicycle-friendly transit, and a well defined core and social center. I can attest to how wonderful this kind of living is - we live in a 800 square foot condo, but the access and amenities of our neighborhood make our quality of life feel very rich. One of the issues that needs to be addressed is making the neighborhood a multi-generational community. JP is a very young population- the average age of residents is 33. I see many young families with small children and babies, but people often leave the neighborhood once their children reach grade school. Some of this has to do with the perceived quality of the Boston school systems, but the other issue has been the rising cost of home prices in the neighborhood. As families' grow, the cost of a larger home in the neighborhood is too much for some families to take on, and they need to leave the city for lower home prices in the suburbs.