Think my own apartment, which is in a 7 story building. I’m talking about a modern apartment building in my own city.
I’ve never been to your building. What I meant by think Paris is that they have a good model for allowing many people to live close together comfortably. Maybe a city with only housing comprised of copies of your building would also be just as good. I can’t really comment.
And I can comment. Stoops are terrible. My girlfriend’s grandparents lived in such a building, and couldn’t make it up and down the six steps at the front door. But they didn’t communicate that properly, and it turned out they just didn’t go outside. Just stayed in their building.
Then they moved to an assisted living apartment, with zero step entry and an elevator, and suddenly they were going for walks. Now the grandfather has an electric wheelchair and can finally get out and about more wide ranging, and can roll right into his apartment.
If they lived in our building from the start, they wouldn’t have needed to move to a new place. Or they wouldn’t have just stopped leaving their apartment.
Giving me a story about how bad a non ADA compliant building was for someone who needs the ADA to maintain their quality of life doesn’t somehow make stoops bad.
No really, it’s okay to admit that stoops are bad. Just do it. It’ll feel good.
I just cant do it, I enjoy having a good neighborhood too much.
No, but it does emphasize the point: non-ADA (and that’s not even really enough, but that’s a whole other conversation) buildings and space exclude the people who need the accessibility standards. They also limit how the other people in the life of anyone with a disability can interact with them. Having a modern apartment entrance was the biggest factor in choosing my current apartment because of this.
And in spite of how people think it looks good or not, the stairs at the entrance is just limiting and unwelcoming. It tells people, “you aren’t really welcome here.” There’s a bar in Rochester, they have stairs at their front entrance, and the ramp is this rickety thing on the side of the building. Never been back there, even alone, for any reason. The half-recessed bar just across the street that serves German beer? Their ramp is in a back alley that a “colored entrance” sign wouldn’t look out of place on (comment made by GF’s brother when he visited there).
The idea of urban living isn’t just stoops and porches. It needs to be thinking about the spaces, how you move about them. The Liberty Pole was recently turned into a small paved shared space, and in warm days, there’s usually a number of people there to enjoy it.
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My first post wasn’t about stoops, I’m not even sure how those got brought up tbh, I was originally talking about how zoning is often used as a weapon.
This I strongly disagree with. It may be true in the abstract, like how it’d be true if you looked at the building in CAD, but in real life having a stoop outside your building with people sitting on it talking and laughing is very inviting and charming. It shows, social people live there and are clearly willing to enjoy the company of others.
You’re talking about “inviting” as this nebulous concept. I’m saying, flat out, that stairs aren’t inviting and a constant frustration to people who use wheelchairs and have other mobility concerns. And you can take that idea and go in different directions. The building I live in doesn’t have steps, but has the same welcoming space outside. It’s helped by the fact that it’s situated between two bars, but there’s often a number of people there.
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I like the exterior of your building, I’m pretty sure I remember it from just around when I lived up there. It also looks pretty nice. Commercial space on the ground level helps.
Stairs are a constant frustration to those with mobility concerns. That is correct. That’s not up for debate, and that’s a definite drawback for stoops. So what then abolish stoops? Abolish stairs? I’m hoping nobody is advocating those positions seriously.
So seeing as how we’re not for abolishing these things, perhaps let me enjoy them while I acknowledge their shortcomings.
While we’re at it, we can also acknowledge the ballooning effect elevators + pumps for water pressure above the municipal line + warm air heating do to the maintenance costs of modern buildings. The most common outcome for low income housing is the principal is funded so it gets built, followed by the maintenance being underfunded, leading to the sorry state many of the “towers in the park” style hosing finds itself in.
This is the thing I wish could be improved, but practically it isn’t feasible. The people I live geographically close to are not there because we have any common interests, especially because I am an outlier to the demographic of this area. Whereas my good friends that I play games with and enjoy hanging out with all live 10-100 miles away. We need a physical location for geek communities! (but with a filter for “that guy” somehow)
My parents visited Berlin for three days! My father has been disabled for 35 years now, and while he can walk he needs two sticks. When doing any tourism stuff it’s always better to ask to borrow a wheelchair. Thankfully most places have them available.
Anyway, what I wanted to point out is that the entire three days he was here, he only had to walk up or down four steps, and that was in the tunnels under the Reichstag. Everywhere else had rolling access for the wheelchair or for when he was walking with sticks. He did actually go down one other flight of steps to go to the bathroom in a restaurant, but when he came back up a waiter told him there was a disabled access toilet on the ground floor.
Here taking a tour around the German parliament buildings, where Juliane’s father works.
Here they are visiting our apartment for the first time:
All to say: fuck stoops.
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I’ve had great experiences with porches/stoops in some neighborhoods and alternatively I have literally been woken up in the night from someone smoking a doobie on my porch next to my window AC unit. I think if the porch/stoop actually fosters engagement depends on people actively hanging out on their porch/stoop and being friendly.
I think that parks and public spaces are paramount for creating a neighborhood feel.
As too the physical spaces for geeky people. Unfortunately that/those dudes with social problems or the inability to shower get in because they tend to be Whales for whatever CCG/Mini game is hot right now at the shop in my experience.
In many ways, we did this to ourselves.
If my whole queens thing doesn’t work out, maybe the Netherlands is a good idea.
Netherlands has been the number one best place to live for quite some time, but it’s not exactly easy to move there.
With enough money, anything is possible.
New law for New York:
Every time there is a delay on a metro line out of Manhattan, the road bridges at the same point have to be closed until the line is running again.
Car users will start voting for improvements to the MTA in a hurry, because it’ll be in their best interest to have the roads open as much as possible. You don’t even have to charge them money, just charge them time stuck in traffic.
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