Howard Blackson
@hblackson
A new urbanist in San Diego… www.howardblackson.com
Why are our streets are still mostly empty on high-density blocks? It’s because our mixed-use bldgs are still auto-oriented with a majority of units facing the alleys and directly to parking garages. Walking up and down stairs 4-floors takes the same effort as walking a quarter-mile (5-minute walk).
Now that our entire economic future is based on 1 unstable computer program (AI), connected to our phones & computers, while the plutocrats manipulate how we govern ourselves and transfer more wealth to them… know that we lived productive and chaotic lives just fine w/o this tech before Gates/Jobs.
Good luck unraveling this immoral racket: The Fortune Global 500 ranking of the ten biggest companies in the world by revenue released this morning on Axios. 20% are American health insurance companies…
It’s easy to spot marketing eras too… such as when a Downtown Association hired this or that firm with a new marketing/color palette scheme that changes every 10 years or so and becomes a mash up of bins, poles, seats, and old stuff. Both fun and silly. (The lovely painting is unrelated to my point)
One of San Diego’s most beautiful public buildings. Santa Fe Depot station, downtown.
The common 4 to 6-story, walk up, liner/wall building type puts the highest number entrances on the street by design. That’s why it’s seen in every pre-auto-oriented city. It’s the only building of the three that pre-dates the late 19th century. The only rule needed is a front setback/build-to line.
I have learned the following truth writing form-based/objective design codes… less rules are needed to build civilization w/4-floor attached, walk-ups. But, as density rises to a tower bldg type (elevator/common entry) or lowers to detached homes (sprawl), we need more design rules to civilize them.
On the #TdF this morning, saw this tree filled square in front of a historic church and it looked like an oasis in the mid-day heat… add a small fountain in the shade and it truly is a respite from the oppressive heat. San Diego plazas, such as Horton, de Panama, & waterfront, would benefit w/trees.
Del Toro on the podium again today in the big mountains, behind Pogačar. This unfortunately subjects my wife to hearing about how difficult my 1999 Rosarita to Ensenada finish was again…
Oligarchy, plutocracy, Robber Barons, Gilded Age, Tech Bros, Citizens United… The Gilded Age ended after an economic collapse and Republican President Theodore Roosevelt taking office. We reformed rules to regulate big business, broke up monopolies, created labor laws, and new environmental rules.
San Diego’s downtown must learn from its vertical cul-de-sac mistakes on B Street’s Central Business District and build a new code for vertical and 3-dimensional mixed-use buildings block-by-block. Horton Plaza, Seaport Village, and B St CBD are failed attempts at sustainable urbanism.
Asleep at the Wheel, Coach House, San Juan Capistrano, now… my cousin is the slide guitar player. Great Texas swing/fun.
Was in Pasadena and Fresno this weekend… and their streets have a different ‘feel.’
I share the GOP’s want for beautiful buildings, but it comes at the expense of authoritarian control, our civil rights, oligarchy power, and Trump’s hateful, grifter grievances. The way to build beautifully is to financially support schools that teach architecture, which the GOP ignorantly defunds.
So #Padres Ty France made an error at 1st base, letting the ball go between his legs, and our announcer, Tony Gwynn Jr, said the ball was hit to the A-Hole… I laughed, but Don did not. Appears Don only laughs at Mud’s jokes.
It’s philosophically frustrating, but I’m happy. Rush hour, wall-to-wall traffic on the streets, $35 to Lyft about 8 miles, and I’m watching the Padres game mostly by myself. Relaxed. San Diego is still 30 to 60 years away from mixed-use, walkable, transit-supported urbanism.
Padres rule (but never give out puffy jackets again, please and thank you).
“Cities are a collection of self-interested entities who need each other at close contact so they can have daily profiting from each other.” On why zoning is destructive. - Leon Krier
Designing miles and miles of walkable urban neighborhoods, districts, corridors, and a downtown… drawing for days and days (1’=200’)…