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RedPiggy
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God, I'm bored. However, as I lack the patience or the software to model this visually, I will describe my ideal city and would like to hear your thoughts. I do this as the occasional news article will mention things like the Gulf Coast trying to revamp after Katrina, or northern cities trying to cut costs by reorganizing their land use. If you could just have carte blanche to bulldoze a city (or have Nature do it for you), how would you redo it?
Community living wouldn't just be for the elderly. It would be broader based to encourage staying there for a good percentage of your life. All apartment complexes would have multiple wings that were each easily identifiable inside (like using different colors or trim or something). This would help the visually or memory challenged. One wing would be devoted to pet owners, with extra sound-proofed walls, hard floors for easy cleaning, etc. There would be not only a pool and a gym, but also a covered almost park-like exterior space for exercise of both man and beast, fenced in to protect pets from running off. A health clinic would be onsite, either in the complex itself or as a stand-alone building, offering to help with routine measures like fitness goals, nutrition, medicine/equipment ordering, and patient education. Its services could either be included with the rent in a package like with utilities or a la carte if you have your own providers but just need a quick check on something. All hallways and other public areas would be supervised by security personnel. The complex would have wireless internet service and an in-house tech team. Apartments would vary by size (and naturally, price). A community garden would be available, including raised gardens for those with limited mobility. Individual apartments would also have small raised beds for raising their own stuff if they want. There would be a cafeteria on-site that could be staffed by local small-business owners or franchises, using in part food grown in the community garden. Roofs would have solar panels and the buildings would use geothermal energy as well. Rainfall would collect in cisterns for future use. Natural lighting would be encouraged as much as possible. A security system would be in place for the entire facility, using numeric codes or biometrics as backup.
In my ideal city, a commercial zone would be within walking distance to every residential zone. New commercial areas would be encouraged to share land instead of being spread out all over. If a block were like a square, this is how I'd imagine it: the apartment complexes would follow the border of the square, entertainment areas would be at each corner of the square, followed by food, retail, and financial areas, all leading to the center of the square. In this way, you're guaranteed to have all your major needs rather close at hand.
Industrial areas would be kept to the outer border of the city, surrounded by existing or newly-developed "natural" areas to improve the environmental quality and the aesthetics. Those zones would alternate with more "spacious" housing and larger-scale agriculture.
Fire and police and such would be in the corners with the entertainment district, if only to make their trips more efficient. Staffing of these could be cut reasonably by improving security at community living centers and having multiple safeguards for fire safety.
Public transportation would be available, of course. They would have dedicated "express" lanes, as would bicycle riders, to keep individual traffic moving more smoothly. All community living spaces would be furnished with times, routes, etc.
Education would be revamped. Small schoolhouses would be brought back out of the "old days", but with the perk of having video conferencing and other modern technologies. Each city would have certain goals in mind, and those goals would be the benchmarks, not individual skills. For example, there could be a development project or something proposed and schools could compete. Each school would be developing not only practical skills but a sense of community involvement as well. For the sake of economy, labs in various subjects would be handled by museums and college/universities, which would lend time to all students. This way, we could fix the "my district is richer than your district" problem, where posher schools are fully decked out but impoverished schools are lucky to get 15-year-old textbooks. Students could take as long as they want to finish objectives, up to age 18. If they finish earlier, they could begin a type of junior apprentice program so that at least they'll be productive while they wait to be "legal".
I think that by cutting down on wasted space and consolidating everything you can into manageable blocks, we can cut administrative costs a great deal. Making individual blocks more self-sufficient will not only reduce the risk of some idiot terrorist making everyone's life miserable, but will also ease the government's NEED to run stuff.
Obviously, not every location is equal. The environment should be paid attention to. If you're in a windy city, use more windmills. If you're in tornado alley, have underground shelters. If you live on a coast, give your city a wide outer border to compensate for hurricane damage and forbid people to live or work there.
Community living wouldn't just be for the elderly. It would be broader based to encourage staying there for a good percentage of your life. All apartment complexes would have multiple wings that were each easily identifiable inside (like using different colors or trim or something). This would help the visually or memory challenged. One wing would be devoted to pet owners, with extra sound-proofed walls, hard floors for easy cleaning, etc. There would be not only a pool and a gym, but also a covered almost park-like exterior space for exercise of both man and beast, fenced in to protect pets from running off. A health clinic would be onsite, either in the complex itself or as a stand-alone building, offering to help with routine measures like fitness goals, nutrition, medicine/equipment ordering, and patient education. Its services could either be included with the rent in a package like with utilities or a la carte if you have your own providers but just need a quick check on something. All hallways and other public areas would be supervised by security personnel. The complex would have wireless internet service and an in-house tech team. Apartments would vary by size (and naturally, price). A community garden would be available, including raised gardens for those with limited mobility. Individual apartments would also have small raised beds for raising their own stuff if they want. There would be a cafeteria on-site that could be staffed by local small-business owners or franchises, using in part food grown in the community garden. Roofs would have solar panels and the buildings would use geothermal energy as well. Rainfall would collect in cisterns for future use. Natural lighting would be encouraged as much as possible. A security system would be in place for the entire facility, using numeric codes or biometrics as backup.
In my ideal city, a commercial zone would be within walking distance to every residential zone. New commercial areas would be encouraged to share land instead of being spread out all over. If a block were like a square, this is how I'd imagine it: the apartment complexes would follow the border of the square, entertainment areas would be at each corner of the square, followed by food, retail, and financial areas, all leading to the center of the square. In this way, you're guaranteed to have all your major needs rather close at hand.
Industrial areas would be kept to the outer border of the city, surrounded by existing or newly-developed "natural" areas to improve the environmental quality and the aesthetics. Those zones would alternate with more "spacious" housing and larger-scale agriculture.
Fire and police and such would be in the corners with the entertainment district, if only to make their trips more efficient. Staffing of these could be cut reasonably by improving security at community living centers and having multiple safeguards for fire safety.
Public transportation would be available, of course. They would have dedicated "express" lanes, as would bicycle riders, to keep individual traffic moving more smoothly. All community living spaces would be furnished with times, routes, etc.
Education would be revamped. Small schoolhouses would be brought back out of the "old days", but with the perk of having video conferencing and other modern technologies. Each city would have certain goals in mind, and those goals would be the benchmarks, not individual skills. For example, there could be a development project or something proposed and schools could compete. Each school would be developing not only practical skills but a sense of community involvement as well. For the sake of economy, labs in various subjects would be handled by museums and college/universities, which would lend time to all students. This way, we could fix the "my district is richer than your district" problem, where posher schools are fully decked out but impoverished schools are lucky to get 15-year-old textbooks. Students could take as long as they want to finish objectives, up to age 18. If they finish earlier, they could begin a type of junior apprentice program so that at least they'll be productive while they wait to be "legal".
I think that by cutting down on wasted space and consolidating everything you can into manageable blocks, we can cut administrative costs a great deal. Making individual blocks more self-sufficient will not only reduce the risk of some idiot terrorist making everyone's life miserable, but will also ease the government's NEED to run stuff.
Obviously, not every location is equal. The environment should be paid attention to. If you're in a windy city, use more windmills. If you're in tornado alley, have underground shelters. If you live on a coast, give your city a wide outer border to compensate for hurricane damage and forbid people to live or work there.