Slog - Comments on The Stranger News Department Suggests http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests The Friends of Seattle kickoff party, from 6 to 8 tonight at Twist, 2313 First Ave. in Belltown. Friends of Seattle is a new group that promotes the kind of progressive urbanist vision that the 52-year-old arts and urban planning advocacy group Allied Arts used to champion. (They lost that crown when they supported the mayor's 13-block cut-and-cover tunnel on the waterfront.) From FoS's vision statement: Our principles are inspired in part by the New Urbanism movement and the Ahwahnee Principles for Resource Efficient Communities. • Embrace progress, growth, and development, provided that these forces are properly harnessed to meet... Copyright 2008 Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:13:59 -0800 Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:26:21 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by mur link?

]]> mur http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c616187 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c616187 City Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:51:43 -0800 Comment by Willis www.friendsofseattle.org

]]> Willis http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c616202 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c616202 City Tue, 06 Feb 2007 17:10:08 -0800 Comment by Nathan http://www.lgc.org/ahwahnee/principles.html

Seems pretty straightforward, and something most Stranger readers would be in favor of. I can see this as a solid framework for city planning, and I bet Peter Steinbrueck loves it.

]]> Nathan http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c616797 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c616797 City Tue, 06 Feb 2007 21:19:24 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Is there a less successful movement, that has betrayed its principles more, in the past fifty years than New Urbanism? Have you SEEN what they've actually accomplished on the ground? Have you seen Northwest Landing down in Dupont (north of Tacoma on I-5, classic sprawl territory)? It's everything we should be fighting against, not plotting to flatten downtown for.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c616902 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c616902 City Tue, 06 Feb 2007 22:27:22 -0800 Comment by Juris I really wanted to go but campus drama involving Votes of No Confidence and my parliamentary procedure-nerd side prevented me; I sent the girlfriend in my stead. I can't wait to see what direction they take as time goes on!

]]> Juris http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c616933 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c616933 City Tue, 06 Feb 2007 23:13:20 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle New Urbanism is what yuppies do before they sell out and try to shove unpaid overpriced underwater tunnels down our throats.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c617090 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c617090 City Wed, 07 Feb 2007 00:49:53 -0800 Comment by Grant Cogswell I haven't read that document either, but I'd just like to say as a former Allied Arts board member for two and a half years (2002-2005) that other than a couple of idealistic holdouts on that board (who? Davidya Kasperczyk and Phil Wohlstetter, if they are still there and I hope they aren't) Allied Arts has become the most knowinger-than-thou, out-of-touch, yuppie-domination, death-of-imagination organization that I have ever had the misfortune of working with. Impenetrable, idiotic and lapdog city, baby.

]]> Grant Cogswell http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c617181 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c617181 City Wed, 07 Feb 2007 01:40:48 -0800 Comment by puddin buns Smells like a Transportation Choices Coalition front. The bullet points dovetail with King County/City of Seattle's desired zoning and land use changes, and Sound Transit's "next phase" marketing pitch.

]]> puddin buns http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c617864 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c617864 City Wed, 07 Feb 2007 08:47:04 -0800 Comment by libbertine Stranger reporters: Please do some digging and tell us who's behind this new group. Their goals sound fine (yawn...21st century Planning 101), but who are these folks and what is their agenda?

]]> libbertine http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c617913 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c617913 City Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:24:40 -0800 Comment by Fnarf New Urbanism doesn't have anything to do with yuppies. Yuppies have never shown any interest in living in New Urbanist utopias; that's why they're such a failure. Yuppies want to live in Old Urbanism, the chaotic, jumbled, mixed-up, dare-I-say-funky neighborhoods that exist in most older cities, not through the agency of any planners or designers but from the rank speculators of an earlier age.

New Urbanists are hampered by the fact that they have NO IDEA how vibrant urban neighborhoods are created. No one does. It's like farming truffles; it doesn't work. So what you get instead is marketing, marketing that can be applied to cheesy sprawl developments that ape urbanism but fight against it in every real way. Like Northwest Landing. When you boil it down, New Urbanism is nothing more than a set of pretty watercolors and a handful of Pantone cards. Sort of like the People's Waterfront Coalition.

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c617915 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/02/the_stranger_news_department_suggests#c617915 City Wed, 07 Feb 2007 09:26:21 -0800