First up, weekend run down! Friday night: steak, broccoli, glazed carrots. Wine and cheese. After Eights. Whoa. Then off to a hockey game, which the Victors took by a 4-2 tally. Apres-game visit to Leopold Brothers for a rendezvous with friends, a few spirits, and the weekend was on. Saturday: Up early, eggs and hash browns at home before setting off for Royal Oak on our annual shopping day. We were both pretty excited about Royal Oak but after about three hours were feeling significantly less excited. We'd had some luck but didn't feel any endearment to the place and found ourselves pining for the Ann Arbor scene - so we headed back. We made the downtown rounds on Main Street and then ate at Siam Square on our way out of town... good Thai but in constant comparison with the food Robin must find. In the evening, a car sale and some tree decorating, with homemade egg nog and Charlie Brown Christmas on the stereo. When the tree was up and ready, we parked on the couch and completed the holiday media experience with Polar Express. Sunday: Was lazy. Some work got done and stuff, but mostly it was pleasant just to be low key for the first whole day in awhile.
My meta-topic for the day is the coolness of cities. Ann Arbor has it, Vancouver has it. Escanaba doesn't, nor does Lansing. Royal Oak should but misses the mark. Michigan has a much-publicized Cool Cities iniative, but this stuff is tough! It doesn't seem like money buys cool, because if it did Royal Oak would have it. Attainably nifty shops and eateries must help, but Royal Oak and Ann Arbor both have both so this can't be a dependent variable. Surely size should matter, but everybody can come up with a counter to that point. I think downtown architecture is key - closeness of space and breadth of the city center (in Europe the pedestrian zone) give that feel. Pity the city with a five-lane street plus parking on each side dividing their cozy downtown. A two-lane street with parking and a greenway might solve the issue, but that urban neighborhood feel is just not possible with 100 feet separating the two sides of the street. Rue the civic planner who was so ambitious that they created a suburb downtown! Although this isn't my area of expertise, there should be zoning that establishes a minimum ratio of building height to facade to opposing-facade distance. Make the buildings on both sides of the street two stories tall but maintain the feeling. Gandy Street in Exeter bears this out perfectly - one and a half story buildings lining a 'street' not more than 8 feet wide made for an inviting downtown space.
Monday, December 12, 2005