When we pay less attention to cars in the city, we have more room to make nicer places to live and work. How about a revision like this:
The way it works is simple. A 100′ deep lot for housing (rowhouse, townhouse, apartment building), a 28′ wide walkway with lots of plantings and shade, then a terrace for the shops and cafes, the new commercial spaces themselves, (which could be multiple stories, and have multiple uses as well) and finally the roadway. The Promenade would also be used to collect, filter and redistribute rainwater. The plan could look like this:
The roadway is wide enough for the streetcar and one driving lane in each direction. Otherwise it’s a pedestrian zone. The alley could go away if the cars do, but still, it’s nice for service, and the local game of stick ball. It could be planted instead of paved, and it would also house the local infrastructure, like water and sewage treatment, energy generation, and other elements, allowing each block to be self-sufficient. The elevation of the block might look like this:
This kind of approach would obviously work if the buildings were more dense as well.
It’s an idea that has roots we are all familiar with:
Simply detatch the addition and push it out into the street, reclaim the space between, and voila.
Just a thought.
