In a quiet contemplative moment, I asked my Muse to help me on this issue of Musea.
"It's about the NEW CITY," I said. "I need inspiration on what the NEW CITY will look like and how art can be integrated into every nook and cranny; not only obvious corners like city planning, architecture, parks, museums, town squares, etc. , but the less obvious art of a city that functions so well for ALL its citizens, in an almost sublime way, that it itself becomes a work of art like a bee hive or an ant mound."
My Muse told me, "You're talking to the wrong source. You need the Goddess of cities - Pallas Athene.

I'll start this singing with
that grand goddess,
Pallas Athena
bright eyes,
so shrewd,
her heart inexorable,
as virgin, redoubtable,
protectress of cities,... (Homer, trans C. Boer)

So ... before Pallas Athene I repeated my dilemma: (note: Art S Rev. was born with his sun 22' Virgo, conjunct the asteroid Pallas Athena at 18' Virgo.)
"This DALLAS, is it worthy?" she asked.
I was stymied at first how to respond, then said.
"Worthy of experimentation, worthy of a possible future that could someday include art city of the world. That's what I believe."
She paused, thought, paced and said, "Then let's experiment! Ideas, ideas, ideas," she said to herself. "Write as I talk," she said to me.
"A new city- to prosper must have new ideas.. here's a town square full:
You will face the millennium on the back of a horse, Pegasus. That has been and always will be the symbol of Dallas. The flying horse will take you safely into the future. You will become the largest LAND CITY, city not on the coast of an ocean, sea, or great river. That is what we're left with. That is what we'll work with.

Now let's start on the basics, begin at the beginning. (Books materialize out of heady air and she reads these quotes):

• Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody. - Jane Jacobs.


• Intricate minglings of different uses in cities are not a form of chaos. On the contrary, they represent a complex and highly developed form of order. - Jane Jacobs.


• In the Geography of Nowhere I argued that the post-war enterprise of building suburbia as a replacement for towns and cities in the United States was a self destructive act. I argued that the living arrangement Americans now think of as normal suburban sprawl - is bankrupting us economically, socially, ecologically, and spiritually. I identified the physical setting itself - the cartoon landscape of car-clogged highways, strip malls, tract houses, franchise fry pits, parking lots, junked cities, and ravaged countryside - as not merely the symptom of a troubled culture but in many ways the primary cause of our troubles.- James Howard Kunstler.


• While very efficient in encouraging the demand for private goods and services, including consumer durables, liberal-democratic capitalist societies are prone to under-supply public goods, like education, public health, environmental protection and public transport. - Key Ideas in Human Thought, ed. K. McLeish


• What a dump! - Bette Davis.


• ...that the sight of people attracts still other people, is something that city planners and city architectural designers seem to find incomprehensible. They operate on the premise that city people seek the sight of emptiness, obvious order and quiet. Nothing could be less true The presences of great numbers of people gathered together in cities should not only be frankly accepted as a physical fact.. they should also be enjoyed as an asset and their presence celebrated... - Jane Jacobs.


• Civic life is not about being alone. It's about getting along with other people in a real place. Not just because you have to, but because of the wonderful benefits conferred on us by the condition known as civilization.- Kunstler.


• In Confucian philosophy.. .the individual is not fully developed if he or she did not cultivate proper social relations. Key Ideas.. .K. McLeish.


• In 1841, Tennessee attorney John Neely Bryan, riding a horse with the Indian name of Walking Wolf and accompanied by his dog Tubby, built a dugout home on a small bluff overlooking the Trinity River at a spot above what is now the triple underpass. Population: one. - D Magazine.


• Dallas is under the impression that if it apes every other city in the world that'll some how make it original and special! - Art S. Revolutionary.


• (Dallas).. a facade of a city. - The Met.


• . . there's a reason that Elm Street and Main Street resonate in our cultural memory. It's not because we're sentimental saps. It's because this pattern of human ecology produced places that worked wonderfully well, and which people deeply loved. - Kunstler.


• By living our lives simply, we are allowing others to have more.-Veggiehead Wilson (zine, #17)


• I doubt that the problems of the urban poor can be solved unless the better off, and even the rich, are reintegrated back into the life of the city, so that the well-being of the city becomes the responsibility of all classes.- Kunstler.


• To have a body you have to have all types of body parts. To have a city you have to have all kinds of people. - Art S. Revolutionary


• We're fortunate that there is a movement gathering all over this country to remake our everyday world into places that are worth caring about. A new generation of political and cultural leaders declares that the physical form of our everyday world matters - it matters that we live in a national automobile slum. It matters that our schools look like insecticide factories, and our town halls look like wholesale beverage outlets, and our best hotels look like medium security prisons... The New Urbanism recognizes that we have been living through an extraordinarily abnormal period of cultural amnesia that is now coming to an end. We are ready to reconnect the past and the future in order to live in a hopeful present. - Kunstler.


• I looked upon the scene before me-upon the mere houses and the simple landscape features of the domain-upon the bleak walls-upon the vacant eye-like windows-upon a few rank sedges-and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees-with an utter depression of soul.... Edgar A Poe.

The books on her lap, piled all around her and in her hand vanished. She looked at me and said, "Take what you've learned, and tell me what you've learned. Begin with the overall picture of your New City."

I hesitated.
"Here I will help you SEE. I will project your thoughts on this temple wall as if you were watching a Greek play. (A pass of her hand and the wall came alive with the pictures that were in my head - pictures of the new city)
"Now I see."
"See what?" she laughed.
"I see that the city has limits. The townspeople have chosen borders-perimeters of what they will call their city. Now instead of spreading out they will build and perfect within."
"I see that the New City has the 3 things that every one wants: safety to be who you want to be and to do what you want to do when you want to; beauty - a joy of life on every street; and finally a spirituality that replaces the former emptiness. There's now a sum greater than the individual, yet made up of all kinds: rich & poor, young & old, wise & learning."
"Now for the specifics, details, look closer," she said.
"I see that it's clean in many ways. Noise pollution is low, the buildings are well designed and cared for with a variety of styles of architecture that somehow all commingle well. And there's something missing.. Oh Yes, signs, commercials, billboards, ads on buses,...And no litter! (Reducing packaging reduces litter. Instead of recycling, don't waste in the first place.) And - amazingly - I see people actually picking UP litter."
"Why?"
"I feel it's because they actually LOVE this city. It's not a law or command, they simply WANT their streets clean and are taking the responsibility on their own shoulders. To them it's an extension of their own homes and their own beings."
"More details."
"The city works FOR the people. The government is supportive, not adversarial.
"In what ways?"
"Free rail anywhere it goes. Free neighborhood buses. Free rides to and from the airport to SUPPORT visitors. Free parking downtown to ENCOURAGE visitors, plus they have built a bullet train triangle that connects Dallas/Fort Worth with Houston and the coast, and then San Antonio/Austin, and then back home."
"More details."
"The city seems to be divided into 2 types. Clumps of no-car zones and surrounding areas much like today with multi streets. The triangle of land from Downtown to Fair Park to Rochester Park and back to Downtown along the Trinity is the largest no-car zone."
"Oh Goddess, over there I see the greatest concentration of people all together. It's the town square, (the place to promenade), the public realm. And I instinctively sense that it's NOT owned by big business, not controlled by the government, and public assembly is not only not denied, it's encouraged. Everyone wants to be there - the heart of the city."
"And in its center are the fountains..."
"And speaking of water..."
"Yes water is vital to this city."
"I see you see that clean water will be the key to your civilization. I can tell you that someone or ones will offer a world prize for the first person to discover a simple and inexpensive way to take the salt out of water and end the world drought."
"Cities will fall to rebellion or rise to peace all over water - and if or when the water can be pumped to cities from the seas (like oil is now) life will prosper as never before."
"That's enough for now my young visionary. Sleep."
I fell into a heavy sweet swoon and slept.

The next day the Goddess was gone, but like the smell of incense, (though burned to ash) that still hovers in the air, her inspiration remained.
Tower'd cities please us then,
And the busy hum of men - Milton
And my pen bulged with more ideas. I gazed at - the images on the wall and wrote:
FAIR PARK: largest collection of art deco architecture in the country, home of the State Fair, the states #1 attraction visited by such worthies as Buffalo Bill, Tommy Dorsey, Harry Houdini, Gypsy Rose Lee, Hopalong Cassidy, Enrico Caruso, Audie Murphy, Annie Oakley, John Philip Sousa, and even Elsie the Cow. Fair Park is the jewel of the crown of Dallas, but it's an oasis of beauty (beauty in need of restoration) in a neglected part of town. First goal is to integrate Fair Park back into its community till both are safe and accommodating. Once done lets build and expand: Begin with a Museum of the City of Dallas that tells about our heritage and history.
Indian tribes are using their gambling profits to build museums of their heritage (ex. Mashantucket Pequot Indian Tribes use of casino profits to build a $135 mill museum and research center) we should follow their lead. Also do a Dallas Website (commercial free of course) that introduces any and all visitors to our town. For kids, add a major city playground - a super duper large one. Add a city pool, and build the worlds largest THREE decker carousel in the Noah's Ark theme with level one the large animals: Elephants, giraffes, horses, hippos, ostriches, all circling two by two. Then level two with the midsize pairs of animals, including bears, lions, and wolves. And finally a crow's nest lined with pairs of different kinds of birds, and smaller animals. (Free rides of course).
And for the adults, besides extending the Fair from 6 weeks to 2 months or more, end each year with a massive New Years Eve Party, again open to all, that celebrates the new year (past midnight) with a massive free meal of all the great Texas foods: Black-eyed peas for good luck, barbecue, pecan pie, etc. In other words there should be something happening at Fair Park each and every day, every day and NIGHT of the year. Wear it out with civic use!

DAY 3, and I awake to the sounds of CARS CARS CARS:

Instead of building cities for cars we should be building cities for people. - Art S. Rev.

RULE #1 Highways destroy neighborhoods. Take an axe to a person and cleave him in half he dies. Build a highway through a neighborhood and it dies. Proof? Look at the cemetery that surrounds Downtown Dallas, On virtually every side that's near a highway that neighborhood is a slum or extremely run down at best. -Art S. Rev.

These days few dispute the argument that high-speed limited-access highways carved through the middle of cities have been pointlessly destructive. (Public Official Of The Year, John O. Norquist, Mayor of Milwaukee) would actually like to see some of them torn down, and he insists the feds need to make it easier for like-minded cities to do so... In Milwaukee, plans to replace a local freeway with a boulevard are on the drawing board, and the city is exploring the idea of demolishing a nearby interstate highway." - Charles Mahtesian.

NOT MORE ROADS! LESS CARS!

I propose that we now identify the human ecology of America precisely for what it really has become: the national automobile slum. - Kunstler.

I have to schedule my entire day around the traffic. It takes me five minutes to go a couple of blocks. Kristin Jones on Atlanta Traffic. (AP)

Americans are battling a new, even more maddening rush hour-in the middle of the day. Headline from USA Today 11/23/98.

And how do we deal with the car problem. Short term solutions may include: tax breaks for any company that can get one half of its workforce to work by foot, or mass transit; and outlaw construction on busy hours of the day and on any days of the year that have extra traffic (holidays, peak shopping days etc.) Also restrict when and where big hauling rigs can go (they seem to be causing more and more of the worst traffic accidents and jams). And what about rail? That does NOT seem to be the answer. John Stossel of 20/20 did an investigation of the LA rail system in progress and found that it's costing the city $50,000 per foot and hardly anyone will ride it when its finished because all the rails lead downtown. People don't want to go downtown (excluding lawyers and gov officials). They want to do errands in their neighborhood, take their kids to school, visit restaurants and shop. So what's the solution? We say take the 1,000's of dollars per foot in rail and invest in clean neighborhood buses that circle neighborhoods, and neighborhood taxis (maybe even free) that take you anywhere in your local neighborhood. And what about a free, city wide emergency road service provided by the government?

And maybe somewhere in the future, community cars and vans that ANYONE living in that community can use on a reserve-it basis, and the city maintains the vehicles. That would take all the endless red tape out of using a car. Also there needs to be no-car zones, where people can relax again. Walk in safety. Maybe there will be rickshaws, maybe horse carriages (animals seem to have an incredible ability to sooth nervous people and brighten everyone's day)
Also since the cars are gone, the children can play in peace, musicians can stroll, vendors can set up stands, etc., which all leads to a sense of COMMUNITY. (Also thieves have to escape on foot or bike and are more likely to be caught)

NEXT DAY:
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING:

• Summertime in the city is 5 degrees hotter. One main reason is black roofs that absorb heat. Simply by painting roofs white (they reflect the heat) cities and buildings can cool down, thus lowering electric bills and improving city life. (Newsweek T Hayden)
• 
  The International Dark Sky Association is leading a worldwide effort to make highways, parking lots, office buildings, and homes, more efficient in their use of light and as a by-product bring hack the beauty of the night sky to cities. Americans spend 2 billion each year into energy that does nothing but light up the underside of birds and planes. Often the low tech approach of covering lampposts and better directing light is the answer. (Parade/D. Levy)
• 
  
  Dallas leader John Wiley Price contends that developers need to work with the communities they are moving into, "We want agreements that say you are coming into a community and that we should have a partnership in that.. .You just can't come in and siphon. . .That is the reason I appreciate Magic Johnson. He and Sony Corp. have a relationship when he goes to build a movie theater in an established neighborhood. It is very clear when Magic comes into a community what is going to happen- from the training of the young people to the certain tenets of respect that they expect. It is a building relationship. (DMN Interview.)
• 
  OUTLAW LEAF BLOWERS! - Art S. Rev.
• 
  There's a new book on Deep Ellum called Deep Ellum and Central Track by Alan Govenar and Jay Brakefield about the exciting and checkered past of the area of town between Downtown and Fair Park. (The Dallas Observer)
• 
  If your neighborhood is struggling to resolve some problems there is now a guidebook to help called Neighborhood Handbook: A Resource Guide for Neighborhood Associations. The 300 page book helps communities get organized. Fo/mo/info call 214-521-3290 (DMN)
• 
  Chicago neighborhoods are winning back their streets by utilizing a 1933 law that allows you to vote your neighborhood dry, thus driving out the liquor stores. It helps clean up neighborhoods overrun with bars and liquor stores. (Newsweek/P. Annin)
• 
  Restaurants sell you more by serving excess portions at high prices. It maybe good for their bottom line but it just overfeeds ours (especially children). We call for restaurants to provide half portions for those of us who want it. Also because only one half of the households in the U.S. cook their own food, the hottest trend today is take home meals. That seems to be the future. Also how about SOMEONE starting a bakery with HOT FRESH BREAD - something SO simple yet so hard to find.
• 
  Also we suggest FOOD TREES planted on community lots and community gardens with food available to all the citizens of the city. -Art S. Rev.
• 
  His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV founded the Aga Khan Awards for Architecture that successfully addresses the needs of Muslim societies. Each city should do the same to help promote and support good architecture. (Architecture 10/98)
• 
  We have the right to refuse JUNK MAIL. And the right to refuse PHONE SOLICITATION. (it's in the constitution SOMEWHERE) - Art S. Rev.
• 
  ABC NEWS tells us that WINDUP RADIOS are becoming an option in parts of Africa. Though billed as a low tech alternative, I think they're a major innovation. Here's how it works. You wind a crank and the force of that plus solar cells keep the radio humming for an hour. Then repeat. The technology can also be used for generators. You readers with a little bit of imagination can now begin to envision all sorts of applications. I think it's extremely exciting technology. One of the goals of any city should be to provide the basic technology (Internet etc.) to its citizens for free. -Art S. Rev.
• 
  Though the subject of education reforms would take up a book of Museas we can comment on the idea of expanding the use of public schools in 2 specific ways: 1. as day care centers for the community's working moms, and 2. as a day care for the elderly (the idea is catching on, and these centers are providing an alternative to nursing homes). Our schools, like other parts of our city, should be busy all the time. (AP)
• 
  There's a growing problem of a very legal city black-mailing going on. Case in point was the New York Stock Exchange. For the city of New York to keep the NYSE from its threat to move to New Jersey, they had to pony up $160 million in tax breaks. This smells real bad. (USA Today). We suggest things be turned around and tax breaks should be give to companies who have STAYED in the community for decades. They seem more worthy than companies threatening to leave.
• 
  There remains no solution in sight for the city's homeless. Yet until the city finds a fair solution the problem remains and the city suffers. With waiting lists for housing growing into the thousands in major cities and the gulf between the poor and the rich widening, the crisis of the homeless will only worsen. Someone out there HAS a great solution. Let's find him/her and listen. -Art S. Rev.

AND FINALLY, In Russia under communism, relgion was banned. In America, it's different, right? Yet our government bans all religion on the principle of separation of church and state and big business bans religion in the workplace and all of its advertising so as not to offend anyone and the mainstream media bans religion in its news coverage to be "fair." What we're left with is a shrinking realm of places where religion is not banned. But a country that believes in nothing and is empty and dying. The religion of "Buy and Sell" may fill your home but it won't fill your heart and soul.

I suggest that the government, business and media, instead of banning all religion, should promote all religion. Let's integrate our religious beliefs (and religious tolerance) back into our world.

The New Urbanists

By Alden Scott Crow

Who would’ve thought a porch would be such a big deal?

You might remember porches. They’re the things that used to be attached to the fronts of homes. People would sit and talk for a spell there. That is, before Henry Ford came along with his automobile (and its new home, the garage).

There is a group of architects and planners who remember porches. They want to bring them back. They also want to encourage pedestrians and cyclists in communities. They hate sprawl and instead push houses closer together.

Such radical ideas bring plentiful heapings of praise and vilification to these architects and planners, commonly called New Urbanists. As the debate over their projects rages, New Urbanist architects and designers are making a quiet impact on cities and suburbs today.

There is no New Urbanist School or hard-and-fast New Urbanist Doctrine. But there are a few key principles most all New Urbanists adhere to: communities should be "integrated," with homes, shops, schools, parks, and other facilities within easy walking distance of each other; communities should have a diversity of housing styles and types (as well as a range of income and age groups); pedestrian and bicycle activity should be encouraged; and green open space (parks, etc.) should be used to stop urban sprawl. These beliefs run directly counter to the subdivision mania of modern-day America, where families flee the city to tract-home suburbs. The New Urbanists are a response to the clogged freeways and uncontrolled growth of this short-sighted policy.

Starting in the 1980s, New Urbanist planners started new communities like Seaside in Florida, Kentlands outside Washington, D.C., and Laguna West near Sacramento, CA. The projects were called "traditional towns," with classical architecture, walking-friendly neighborhoods, and tight-knit housing. Several years later, the projects are going well. And new projects are under way, and not just in the suburbs.

Inner cities in the U.S. are starting to embrace New Urbanist ideals. Providence, R.I., Cleveland, and Los Angeles are all considering projects utilizing New Urbanist specs. Towns north of the U.S. border in Canada are also catching the New Urbanist wave. Several New Urbanist-inspired villages have been completed near Toronto and Calgary. Early response to the villages has been positive, spurring plans for more new "traditional towns."

Both America and Canada saw similar patterns of development over the past two decades. People crowded into the suburbs. Those new suburbs consisted of wide streets (better for commuters and all their cars), 2-car garages (again, for the mighty auto), large side and back yards, communities made up of mostly the same kind of housing styles (tract homes) and people (witness some subdivisions with only young families), and considerable distances from shops and work. This all led to more freeways and traffic, a sameness in community architecture, and a sense that neighbors didn’t know or care about each other any more.

New Urbanists counter the sprawl in simple ways. Consider the humble porch, for example. Since the garage took the place of this residential feature, New Urbanists believe returning the porch as part of a home will de-emphasize the automobile’s role and encourage more family and community interaction.

Another uncomplicated New Urbanist idea is the old town square, where residents of a community can pick up their mail, go to a true corner store, and chat with neighbors along the way (they’re walking, after all) and at the square.

Critics counter that New Urbanists are sentimentalists who are merely designing "cuter sprawl." These same critics also make the -- perhaps sadly correct -- point that most people are yet unwilling to sacrifice their suburban dreams for a kindler, gentler community. New Urbanist critics argue people are not ready to give up their big backyards and space from the noisy neighbors.

And New Urbanist designers acknowledge some of the criticisms. They are working to fine-tune their designs to better meet community needs. They are working on plans for inner cities that adapt to the individual situations.

But the bottom line is the New Urbanist planners are not Utopians; they simply feel that a community is better if people walk instead of drive, if people are neighbors instead of strangers, and if communities come together instead of sprawling apart.

Will New Urbanism last, or are people too in love with their two-car garages and big lawns? Only time will tell.

For more reading on this subject, go to your library and check out Maclean’s magazine, July 21, 1997, p. 16-21, Architectural Record magazine, January 1997, p. 132-145, or do a "New Urbanist" subject search and see what you find.

Back to Table of Contents.