If You Don't Have a Downtown
Maybe you have noticed this trend: mixed development projects are becoming much more common in suburban communities. One driver is the fact that suburban residents want the experience of a downtown, even if they don't have one. That is the story of Crocker Park in Westlake, Ohio, a western suburb of Cleveland.
Read the story here.
posted by Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. at
Thursday, September 08, 2005
2 Comments:
Don,
There's been a lot of this type of development in recent years, which often goes by the term "suburban town centers" in planning circles. These locales do verge on being a little too Disney for my tastes, but one cannot but commend them for being a vast improvement on the traditional strip-mall, enclosed-mall, secluded-office-park suburban development.
By
Anonymous, at 1:57 PM
Don:
Westlake, a community incorporated in 1811, did not have a downtown adequate for a growing community of 35,000 people except for the crossroads of Center Ridge and Dover Center. Just as the Van Swerigen brothers created a new downtown (Shaker Square) for their development in the farmlands of the Shaker Lakes, downtowns are needed to serve the shopping and business needs of outlying communities, create a sense of place and community identity. The days of 2 million people driving to downtown Cleveland to buy a pair of shoes or to go to a movie (as I did 50 years ago) are long gone. It all started in the 20's with the Van's and continued with Severence Center in the 60's. People that think that everyone needs to drive 30-40 miles round-trip to do all of their shopping, entertainment and work haven't thought about the roadway and transportation network that would be required and the energy it would consume.
Town center development in five mile grid spacing (not unlike the original townships) is certainly superior to continuous and uncontrolled strip retail development along major arterials throughout the county and north east Ohio. Furthermore, the planning concept of Crocker Park with higher density urban life should be looked on as models for other communities in place of the sprawl type low density development common post WW2.
By
Anonymous, at 10:39 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home