No panaceas

 

Raleigh hosted a "Big Ideas" workshop last week, a brainstorm which produced the predictable golf-ball-sized hail of notions about monorails, artificial rivers, and "filling in the skyline" with lots more tall buildings. 

Big ideas are seductive, and they lend themselves well to slush funds and grandstanding.  Naturally, politicians love 'em. But (by and large) they're not what makes cities livable. 

Rather, city comforts -- also known as "quality of life" -- are all about small ideas: little details, multiplied many times.  It's a place to sit in just the right spot, or a colorful new coat of paint on an ordinary building; places for kids to play safely and close to home (above); a crosswalk just where it's needed.

By the same token, a little detail gotten wrong can destroy city comfort:  a roaring exhaust fan at street level, or a bus stop without a rain shelter.

City Comforts author David Sucher says we need to pay more attention to "the small details of cities that really make the difference in our comfort ... the thousands of small details that make up our daily experience."

Comments

[Jason Sullivan]

My big idea? Redraw the bus routes so that they're actually useful (no map needed there, unless you want to use the old one for an example of what _not_ to do).

For the record, nobody suggested a monorail.

[AVOTC]

We are so pleased to hear it; Raleigh has come a long way.

Your bus-route idea is just the kind of modest but fundamental change that would promote function and ease.

[David Sucher]

Btw, I have changed my tag line a bit and now it is thousands of details and three simple but very big rules."