EXPLORING THE PUBLIC REALM
Inspired by James Howard Kunstler's "Home From Nowhere" Bob and Camille take a critical look at their surroundings in Denton, Texas
June 24, 2007
THE GOOD - HISTORIC DOWNTOWN
THE COURTHOUSE
Built in 1897, this inspiring piece of architecture is still used in an official capacity by the County, as well as housing the Denton County museum. The lawns and gardens are beautiful. There are inviting benches and shaded walks which lure the general public out of their air conditioned homes and offices. On Saturday mornings, musicians gather here and provide free entertainment for anyone who happens by.
THE OPERA HOUSE
The historic downtown district combines residential and commercial zoning. The Opera House, across the street from the beautiful court house, is a good example of this. Built in 1898, it houses a wonderful used bookstore on the ground floor and apartments on the second floor, with a nice terrace out back. Residents can easily walk to some of the best restaurants in town as well as to the grocery store.
"The best way to make housing affordable is to eliminate mandatory car ownership, which means building and restoring compact mixed-use traditional American neighborhoods." - James Howard Kunstler
PUBLIC ART
We found this lively monument to Diego Velazquez on the UNT (University of North Texas) campus.
DESIGNED WITH THE COMMON GOOD IN MIND
The Biology Building at UNT combines beauty and function. Unlike the strip mall building further down the page, the architecture is pleasing to the eye, benches are provided for the public and the entrance is clearly defined. Bob gave a biodiesel presentation to over 100 Environmental Science students in this building June 28.
TREE LAWNS
This street welcomes pedestrians. The tree lawn protects them from the street traffic, while the trees provide shade. Other components of the traditional neighborhood include narrow streets with parallel parking and alleys for garages and garbage.
FINE LIVING
The best feature of this beautiful home is its location. It is within walking distance of everything down town has to offer, including several schools.
THE BAD - THE SUBURBS (our neighborhood)
ROAD TO NOWHERE
You can't get there from here, is what we see about the way our neighborhood is laid out. Instead of being laid out on a grid, as they are in traditional neighborhoods, the streets are designed to go nowhere. Children who live a mere tenth of a mile from the elementary school must be driven out of their neighborhood, down to the main thoroughfare and back over to the school.
ONE DEAD END AFTER ANOTHER
These are the views we encounter when we walk in our neighborhood.
UNFINISHED STREETS
The sign says "Street to be developed when property develops" The field on the other side of this barrier is home to wildlife and offsets the eyesores offered by the rest of the neighborhood but it is off limits. We often stop here to gaze across the field longingly, wishing there was even a small path through the weeds that we could walk on.
Another street waiting to be developed. It isn't unusual to find illegally dumped furniture and bags of garbage on this road to nowhere.
And another dead end. It's really no wonder we never see any children playing in this neighborhood.
EVERY HOME A CASTLE
Ahhhhhhhhh! THIS is the life - a nice little lawn and a pair of Tiki Torches. This, in addition to the obligatory satellite dish, plastic kid furniture, dog, A/C, plasma TV, industrial sized kitchen, walk-in closets, and Jacuzzi bath.
"Having made the public realm of towns and cities desolate, and our civic buildings laughable, Americans are left with the private realm of the house. The fanatical obsession with individual houses and the comforts they must provide today is striking. Here, unlike the miserable outside world, the patterns of things can be lovingly and carefully arranged to work in harmony to create places that will satisfy our neural and spiritual needs." - James Howard Kunstler
SAY, WHAT?
Look closely at the bricked up front window on this beautiful suburban home and tell us what you think it is saying to the stray pedestrian or the neighbors, as they hurry from home to car.
THE UGLY - STRIP MALLS
How to ruin a neighborhood. To quote James Howard Kunstler, "We'd turned a rich, dense, finely grained, classic American small-town business district into a single commercial corridor - and made all the other streets running off it either functionally irrelevant or too ugly and forbidding to walk on."
"The dead shopping center syndrome became particularly aggravated in the 1980's, when the U.S. government deregulated the banks, then known as savings and loan associations. Under the relaxed rules, the directors of S&Ls could profit hugely off any cockamamie real estate venture, whether it succeeded or not. [Whether it succeeded or failed,] the principals would have long since transferred their personal fortunes to the Cayman Islands, Panama, or Switzerland, where all the U/S/ Treasury agents who ever lived could not pry loose a single deposit slip. " - James Howard Kunstler
OUR CABIN IN THE WOODS
There are two models for illusionary escape, according to Kunstler - the Manor in the Park or the Cabin in the Woods. Our acre insulates us from the rest of the neighborhood, giving us the illusion that we are totally self sufficient and have no need for a relationship with our community. We pay for that with a feeling of isolation. Were our cozy and idyllic home located in a traditional neighborhood, there would be places to walk to but in our case, our choices are few.
"The only way of living I'd known was in these pre-automobile-based towns where a large portion of the population didn't need a car, where you had neighborhood schools, where there was this sense of community and roots, where there was no crime. And then you come to this Nowhere of South Florida were you don't have any friends, where everybody's constantly moving around, where the communities - if you can call them that - aren't made to live in for long periods of time. It disgusted me." - Dan Cary
