Lloyd Alter, head honcho over at said site, is a New Urbanism – hates suburbia, seemingly hates rural areas, loves the city and wants us all to live there “sustainably” and in a “walkable serenity”. No cars, only public transit; enforce “neighborliness” in which a “community” will flourish (if you’re an introvert, yer outta luck) and lots of conversations bloom! Small fridges and small kitchens (and small apartments in high density area – think “rack’em and stack’em”) mean you WILL spend your time shopping pretty much every day – you WILL love your fresh food from the neighborhood grocery (think small – and expensive). Yep, lots of the Progressive tell of “you don’t need that” with this one.
His latest rant is the width of sidewalks in his hometown of Toronto, Canada – they are small and the butt of his rant is are telephone / electrical poles built into the sidewalks – they disturb his sense of “wa” and promotes an inability to walk two by two. Go read it if you want but what caught my eye was this description of Toronto’s government structure that’s supposed to keep this from happening:
“inter-divisional and inter-agency Walking Strategy Team chaired by the Director of the Public Realm Section [must] ensure city-wide coordination of Strategy projects.”
Well…