Unfortunately, instead of going out and partying on a Halloween night when women have a great excuse to dress provocative in their costumes, I decided to work on a project and took a break, looking up great quotes. Feel free to add to these.

 

 

"We regret much of what we've built; we regret much of what we've torn down. But we've never regretted preserving anything."

 

--Daniel Sack

 

"Everyone claims to want a city, but no one here wants city living. City living by its definition is crowded. It is tolerant of other people. It is dependent on a sophisticated population that makes a hundred compromises daily so that they can benefit from the collective energy that a city generates."

 

--Robert N. Davis, Jr., May 4, 2004

 

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."

 

--Edward Abbey

 

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."

 

--Bill Cosby

 

 

"We've all often heard the expression, 'It's cheaper to build new than it is to reconstruct.' That's not true. I've always found that it's cheaper to use an existing structure. Now, doing so is more complicated, and you actually have to be a better builder to do that kind of work, but if you know what you're doing, it costs you less money. A lot of the building is already done--you already have your structure--so that's why it's much cheaper. For example, I saved a substantial amount of money when I built Trump Park Avenue in New York City by reusing the Delmonico Hotel's foundation, frame, and exterior."

 

--Donald Trump,"An Exchange with Donald Trump." Preservation, v.58, no. 4, July/August 2006, p. 18

 

 

"Actually, there is a point at which a city can satisy its parking needs. This situation can be found in many small, older American cities and is almost always the result of the same history: at mid-century, with automobile ownership on the rise, a charming old downtown with a wonderful pedestrian realm finds itself in need of more parking spaces. It tears down a few historic buildings and replaces them with surface parking lots, making the downtown both easier to park in and less pleasant to walk through. As more people drive, it tears down a few more buildings, with the same result. Eventually, what remains of the old downtown becomes unpleasant enough to undermine the desire to visit, and the demand for parking is easily satisfied by the supply. This phenomenon could be called the Pensacola Parking Syndrome, in honor of one of its victims."

 

--Andres Duany, "Suburban Nation." North Point Press, ©2000, p. 162 [footnote]

 

"Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them. By old buildings I mean not museum-piece old buildings, not old buildings in an excellent state of rehabilitation - -although these make fine ingredients -- but also a good lot of plain, ordinary, low-value old buildings, including some rundown old buildings....

Even the enterprises that can support new construction in cities need old construction in their immediate vicinity. Otherwise they are part of a total attraction and total environment that is economically too limited -- and therefore functionally too limited to be lively, interesting and convenient. Flourishing diversity anywhere in a city means the mingling of high-yield, middling-yield, low-yield and no-yield enterprises."

 

-- Jane Jacobs, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities." New York: Random House, ©1961.

 

 

 

Planning is so philosophical. I love it. 8-) To all the private sector planners who work to help expressways run through deveopers' rural lands, try to atleast keep these principles in mind, and work to incorporate those principles through negotiation. Damnit.

 

I'm going to copy and paste these into my urban design paper. 

 

 

 

Damn, only 2 pages

"Planning is so philosophical. I love it.  To all the private sector planners who work to help expressways run through developers' rural lands, try to at least keep these principles in mind, and work to incorporate those principles through negotiation. Damnit."

 

You need to put this on a billboard out 71 & 75 way beyond the loop.    Pretty powerful stuff!

Lots of good ones there, thanks.

"In the beginning, the earth was without parking. The planner said, Let there be parking, and there was parking. And the planner saw that it was good. And the planner then said, Let there be off-street parking for each land use, according to its kind. And developers provided off-street parking for each land use according to its kind. And again the planner saw that it was good. And the planner said to cars, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over every living thing that moves upon the earth. And the planner saw everything he had made, and, behold, it was not good."