blackrobertmoses

My fav neighborhoods are strange picks................ Dorchester (Boston) - Lots of triple deckers.........I find the triple decker to be a unique piece of urban architecture.... Bushwick; the ungentrified part (Brooklyn) - The rowhouses and the urban grit are intriguing......... South Bronx - once a symbol notorious of urban decay and hip hops birthplace, the old south bronx was a gritty, desolate wasteland. Although most of the vacant lots have been filled in, the grit and poverty havent gone anywhere...... the grit make it an unconventional place..... Coney Island (Brooklyn) - Projects on the beach...........I know few places like it..... far rockaway (queens) - see coney island Uptown (NW) Trinidad (NE) Potomac Ave (SE), Washington DC - the working class rowhouse architecture..... Ivy City (NE) Washington DC - small, yet abandoned, dangerous slum...........its a bite sized slum............and an intriguing one..... SouthWest DC - So many public housing buildings in a quadrant so small its seen more as a neighborhood...... Deanwood-Lincoln heights (DC_ - kinda reminds me of east New York Brooklyn..............far from downtown, dangerous, yet it was a middle class area @ one point in time......marvin gaye also grew up in the area..... South and West Chicago - intriguing rowhouses in abandoned prairie.......odd landscape..... Philadelphia - yea, I really like rowhouses....... Flatbush (Brooklyn) - the vibrant caribbean culture on display.......... Downtown (Newport News, VA) - interesting area: a country slum that sits behind massive industrial cranes...... Harlesden (London) - beautiful rowhouses..........also a diverse neighborhood of Jamaicans, Irish and Brazillians..........how many places in the states can say that they have that kind of diversity...... East London - the council estate buildings that litter this part of town each have a different, odd, yet intriguing design to them......

City planner with a mayors authority!

Originally posted by: Duke87 Originally posted by: blackrobertmosesIn New York, I find the most menacing public housing projects can have these sweet peaceful names.....quote> Well, they're not going to give them nasty sounding names, now are they? A lot of them were named after the neighborhood they were built in. The Throgs Neck Houses are in Throgs Neck, the Marble Hill Houses are in Marble Hill, etc. That's where most of those "nice" names come from. Something also worth noting about projects in New York: originally, they were not nasty or crime-ridden places (and of course they weren't intended to be). What brought about this change was a change in policy. Originally, the projects were only open to families where the father had a job. Single mothers, people on welfare, divorced parents... they weren't allowed. It was when the projects were opened up to them that they really went downhill. Indeed, originally the projects were only intended to house the less fortunate but responsible and productive. Then it was determined that they needed to let in all the "riff-raff" and burdens on society that originally were prohibited and the projects thus became concentrations of "riff-raff". Another interesting tidbit: many of the projects were originally white only. Then that became illegal and they had to integrate. The idea of housing projects filled only with white families may seem completely surreal, but that's how it was in the beginning.quote> I knew all that stuff........but its still ironic @ the end of the day.........

In SE DC, theres 2 major strips known as Good Hope Rd and Minnestota Ave............and this is in the poorest and most violent area in DC...........When you think of inner city slums and ghettos, Minnesota is not the first thing to come to most peoples minds.........In addition, theres another section of SE DC known as congress heights...........you go there and youll find theres nothing congressional about it........... In New York, I find the most menacing public housing projects can have these sweet peaceful names.....examples are: Castle Hill Millbrook Soundview Forest Melrose Cypress Hills Redfern Edgemere Ravenswood

o yea and one more: Baltimore - extend the I-70 into downtown via the Franklin ST/US 40 hwy trench.....and Id also make sure those who were dislocated (although thered be more vacant slum clearance than anything else) found housing , close to their original block if possible.....

Originally posted by: screamingman12 Originally posted by: blackrobertmoses get rid of all the damn traffic cameras......quote> I take it you had an experience? BTW, the reason Metro was built was so that I-95 wouldn't have to slice downtown in half. Urban freeways are a bad idea in my oppinion. Im aware of that and Im also aware that building that hwy wouldve been DC's equivalent to the cross bronx expwy in terms of the amount of upheaval it would cause......like I said, Im aware it would cause upheaveal......on the other hand, I dont like driving a series of zigzags via backroads when i want to infiltrate city limits......the only folks who have direct access are those who live along the anacostia frwy.......Boston halted a lot of its freeway plans too but the I-90 access least give direct access since hwys were built (among other things) for direct, quick access...... Anyway, here's my list: DC: Extend the Red to Germantown as originally planned Extend the Yellow to Fairfield Revive the M street subway proposal Extend the Green/Yellow out to Laurel Build that bleeping silver line Put Metro in the median of the beltway, connecting all the above extensions Build that bleeping streetcar system, and connect it with the Columbia Pike streetcar im not sure if I like streetcars.......those things clog up the road, theyre dated and tehyr ugly.....least to me anyway (see Boston and Philadelphia.....) San Francisco: Rebuild the B-Geary as a streetcar line and connect it to the Transbay Terminal and MSS Build the E, extend the F to Fort Mason Build light rail in the Van Ness corridor Add more cars to the F and E lines Extend the T to SFO Boston: Restore E service to Arborway/Forest Hills Restore the A Watertown if youre going to do the A train plan, least fortify the train in the middle of the street with a median as done on the B and C lines.......restoring the E train back to forest hills, nice idea but in terms of logistics, make sure you include widening centre st in the plans...... Extend the Blue line to Charles/MGH Extend Blue to Lynn Buy EMUs for the NEC sections of the commuter routes.quote>

o yea and in addition for DC: - do some renaming........To get in lockstep with the DC roadway nomenclature tradition (giving major avenues names after states), Id rename Branch Ave into Ohio Ave, Loughboro Rd to California Ave and Sheriff Rd, Burroughs Ave and maybe even Wheeler Rd would be renamed Wyoming Ave - although this would cause some upheaval, run I-395 up along the path of N Capitol St into maryland, link it with the 95-495 interchange and rename that whole stretch of hwy into I-95 so that outsiders have more direct access into the city - put a subway stop in Georgetown on the blue line - get rid of all the damn traffic cameras......

lets see......ill talk about the cities I know since I lived in them.......... New York: The Bronx - bring back the 3rd ave elevated (known as the 8 before being scrapped in 1973) - make the 5 train between E 180th and Dyre run more frequently (esp on weekends) - if possible to be done with minimal damage........merge the Sheridan Expwy (I-895) into the Bronx River Pkwy and call all of that the sheridan.... New York: Brooklyn - extend the 2/5 line down flatbush ave all the way down to kings plaza mall with stops in between New York: The ghetto - halt gentrification (even if means bring back rent control) - make the replacement buildings look somewhat authentic rather than the cheap cookie cutter townhouses that litter all over the south bronx and east NY New York: on a whole - lower all hudson river toll crossings to $3-$4 Washington DC - take the yellow line going uptown and @ Petworth station, split it and run that up the georgia ave corridor into silver spring with stops @ Upshur St, Gallatin St, Missouri Ave and the Walter Reed Hospital - make buses run more frequently and reliably - extend metro train service to Dulles airport and tysons corner mall - overhaul the fare system and used a fixed rate Boston - extend the orange line into roslindale, hyde Park and West Roxbury areas using the trenches set aside for the commuter rails - convert the commuter rail line from south station to readville into a subway line - bring back train service to dudley square........run an elevated down washington st into dudley from downtown as another branch of the orange line.......from dudley, run the train (elevated or submerged) up warren street into blue hill ave and have that train run all the way down blue hill ave, terminating @ Mattapan square. Stops would be placed @ Mass ave, dudley, MLK BLVD, Grove Hall, Columbia Rd, Talbot Ave, Morton St, Walk Hill St and Mattapan Square - eliminate the silver line and the mattapan-ashmont trolley