Blog: Bad Streets

Bad urbanism on the Potomac waterfront

In December, I got into an interesting debate on the Dupont Forum neighborhood list about my feelings concerning the Third Church landmarking. Lance, who considers the building a "masterpiece," asked if my desire to get rid of most 1970s-era buildings in downtown DC extended to more widely praised structures like the Watergate and Kennedy Center.

I replied:

The Watergate and Kennedy Center are, as mid-20th century buildings go, pretty nice, and I'm not in favor of razing them. However, they still do not represent good urbanism either, especially when considered in context with the Potomac River Freeway which was built around the same time (the West Leg of the 1971 Inner Loop plan, whose cancelled North Leg would have ruined Dupont). Both buildings are clearly designed for cars and with a more suburban sensibility, such as the way the Watergate has an interior park but presents a mostly blank wall to the streetscape. Most land around the Kennedy Center is used for getting cars in, out and around, than for human beings.

I added that I hadn't really had a chance to explore those sites in detail, which prompted me to take a walk down there for some photos.

Bangkok: the Las Vegas of Asia

Bangkok evokes, to me, what I imagined of the anarcho-capitalist cities depicted in cyberpunk novels like Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. In the lawless cities of the future in these books, housing and shopping developments barricade themselves behind fortifications and private security, the only way to stay safe. Bangkok is far from lawless, but our hotel nevertheless had security guarding its gates to the street, and a restaurant we visited was located in a small shopping center surrounded along with its parking lot by a gated wall.

The city has developed so quickly and become so commercialized that many sections of main road simply pass mall after mall situated right next to one another. There are few pedestrians, with most tourists riding around in taxis and most locals using motorbikes. For those who do try to brave a short walk, the sidewalks are narrow and poorly maintained, and in many areas practically nonexistent, while traffic does not even stop reliably for red lights.

The closest analogy in the United States is the Las Vegas strip, a similarly tourist-centered fake environment.

YearlyKos

The second annual YearlyKos Convention (and last, since the conference will be changing its name to Netroots Nation next year) took place at the start of August in Chicago. The conference was terrific, with many great people I knew and many I didn't, numerous interesting panels (I moderated a panel as well, about prognosticating the future of technology in politics), a great bar trivia contest testing obscure political knowledge (Living Liberally placed sixth!) and best of all, fun parties including one thrown by Living Liberally each night.

The conference venue itself was a little annoying. McCormick Place is in an isolated part of Chicago lacking nearby food options, and the food for sale is ridiculously overpriced. Through no fault of the conference organizers, the convention center changed the rooms at the last minute to several distant clusters with a ten-minute walk between them. And the hotel tried to extract a several hundred dollar bribe for bringing liquor into our room for a party.

But everyone I talked to had a great time, getting seven Presidential candidates to a blogger conference is an amazing accomplishment, and pulling off a convention like this is truly astounding given it has only one paid staff person managing an army of volunteers. Thanks for a great time, Team YearlyKos!