QotD: Urban "beautification" projects

[. . .] But I was talking about the Plans to revitalize downtown. One of the plans is aimed specifically at rolling the Head-On of Urban Joy on the skulls of the walkers: today's paper had a story about making the sidewalks more entertaining and welcoming, with the usual greenery and pots and signage. Again, I'm split: great idea, sure, but some urban beautification projects might actually make people more wary. When I see evidence of a big plan in a downtown, I think: it's in trouble. A healthy downtown gets what it needs. Think Manhattan — where the one-way is frickin' king, incidentally — and you realize that it's not the pots or street signs or occasional poor poisoned tree dying in a grate that makes New York such a feast; it's the stores and the people. WE don't have stores and people on the ground floor for most of the year, because they're in the skyway. That was our great contribution to urban design: the vast and ever-fascinating skyway system, a new urban paradigm. But now it's the enemy, because it killed the Street. Apparently it is more important to see people on the street in January, freezing, than to be among people in the skyway in January, walking or shopping or eating. The latter may be feasible and profitable and convenient, but the latter is preferable in the abstract.

Anyway, I see lots of planters and old-timey signs, I calculate the likelihood of getting sapped from behind just doubled. But here's what really amused me about the plan: greenery will be installed not just to make things green and lively, but to prevent "climate change."

You could raze the entire downtown core and plant trees, and it wouldn't effect climate change. I swear, it's become the secular equivalent of "peace be upon him."

James Lileks, The Bleat, 2006-11-20