Lesson from Asia #2 (Density yields diversity)

In class last week, we read about urban renewal and the housing movement. (And the other day I read a photo + text book about Chavez Ravine, a Mexican-American low income neighborhood targeted for a housing project that never happened--LA had a anti-government housing backlash, likening it to socialism--instead the land ended up becoming Dodger Stadium...convenient.)

The readings included a chapter of Death and Life of Great American Cities, about what she called the "decentrists," or the planning trends starting with the Garden City movement (which in this region influenced the development of both Greenbelt and Columbia in Maryland, and Reston in Virginia) that supported suburban outmigration and low density housing, as well as the radiant city movement which ended up as "Tower in the Park" modernism-urban renewal, which in DC is best illustrated by the pattern of development in the SW quadrant.

One of the students criticized Jane Jacobs (as Kurtz said in the movie Apocalypse Now, "The Horror!") because Jacobs "didn't offer any solutions."

Well first, that kind of attitude has bugged me for 20+ years. There is nothing wrong (and most things right) with great criticism. Having the answers isn't always the same skill. But doing things in a wrong-headed fashion because there isn't a set of answers in the face of a critique makes no sense--answer the critique and you have your answers.

Of course, why is it that criticism is ignored when you do have the answers? (Don't you just hate this phrase in response to your trenchant analysis -- "well, let's just do it this way." We're doomed. It's not much different from "it's better than cinder block or a parking lot" kind of thinking.)

In Death and Life of the Great American City Jacobs wrote that successful cities have four elements:

• people and building density;
• mixed primary uses;
• small blocks (this has to do with pedestrian movement, traffic mobility, and street life and activity); and
• a large stock of old buildings (capable of supporting innovation in retail and business development and independently-owned businesses).

I think that most everyone understands that "urban renewal" didn't work. So why do most urban economic development proposals look like urban renewal, in programs and projects not even gussied up for the 21st century?

Within Jacobs' principles are "the solutions." Besides, if you don't know what you're trying to accomplish, how are you able to conceptualize or offer solutions to begin with?

Anyway, there is a travel (I think that travel writing about cities is a particularly rich vein to mine for insight in urban revitalization and cultural heritage, depending on the story of course) story about Tokyo in last weekend's Financial Times, "A metropolis of mysteries revealed."

Part of the story uses almost the same description as Jacobs of NYC in talking about the richness (diversity) of the retail offerings that result from Tokyo's density:

Fortunately, despite each new catastrophe, Tokyo squandered the chance to plan anew. Streets and buildings simply sprang up in their old patches, like seedlings thrusting from the same bed.

To take in the essence of Tokyo, one simply needs to study one of its seedlings. Turn left instead of your usual right, or head down an unknown alleyway at night, Tokyo’s most magical time, when shadows fight with the glow from red paper lanterns and with blazing neon illumination. Open the sliding paper-slatted door of the shop with steam billowing from its entrance. Or walk up the dingy stairwell and tap on the door marked with Chinese characters you can’t quite make out. ...

I took to writing down the types of shops. Within an improbably short distance – I still can’t understand how they could all squeeze in – were: a soba and udon noodle stall, steam floating from a curtained-off kitchen; a French bakery, plying baguettes and authentic curry buns; a pachinko parlour, rattling with the sound of people exchanging money for demonic silver balls; a ramen shop; a fish stall; a dowdy fashion emporium; a “snack” hostess bar; two coffee shops; a hair salon in a pillar-shaped building; a karaoke bar; a wooden Japanese restaurant with large paper lanterns hung outside; a watch repair shop; a Daily Yamazaki convenience store; two estate agents; a photo shop; another soba restaurant; a Y100 shop, where all items cost 100 yen (expect for those that don’t); a yakitori chicken restaurant; a flower shop filled with orchids; a shoe shop; a Chinese dumpling shop; a tempura takeaway; a book shop, mostly comics; and a sushi restaurant, with little lacquer boxes displaying the lunchtime specials available behind its slatted, secretive wooden doors.

The most extraordinary thing about this little street was its utter ordinariness. Every street in Tokyo is like this. And no street is the same.

This photo of the Komagome train station shows some of this kind of retail to the left. And looking at it reminds me of streets in Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Queens in NYC.

I wonder if Death and Life of the Great American City had been written by an author based in London, Tokyo, or Paris would the same conclusions have been made? I tend to think yes.

Speaking of advantages of density and critical mass, yesterday's Post business section about street vending in New York City, "For Bargains, Can't Beat the Street," is another illustration of some of Jacobs theses.

Except in rare cases, where the pedestrian density gets high (K Street NW, especially around Connecticut Avenue), or in front of stores or locations that are highly traffiked (which store owners tend to resent--but on Pennsylvania Avenue SE this is by the CVS, on the 200 block, and outside of the medical office building on the 600 block, or in Brookland outside of one of the banks), for the most part DC doesn't have the density to support street-based retail in addition to that which is store-based.

Of course, Eastern Market on the weekends has--for this region--the closest we have to NYC quality street vitality. See this blog entry from August 2005, "Flea Markets, Layering, and Placemaking."

Since that piece was written, Port City Java opened up at the northern end of the Market "District" providing a solid corner anchor, and within the past couple weeks, Marvelous Market opened a store at 7th and D Streets SE, across from Eastern Market, further strengthening the area. (Now if the WaMu mortgage office could become a Trader Joe's, and Bread and Chocolate could open later, something be done with the Eastern Market Metro Plaza, etc.). Today the area was bustling as the weather--it's almost December--was perfect.

This year's holiday market downtown will be in a much better location compared to last year and it will be interesting to see what happens.

Index Keywords: urban-revitalization; food-agriculture-markets