Movie theater

[Just the facts]

What is pretty funny, my wife and I were watching Small Soldiers the other night with the kids and she said if we moved to a small town like the one in the movie she would be willing to live a higher density downtown area. The joke was on her though because the 'small' town in the movie is Orange, CA (part of the greater LA area).

[Stew]

Bomber - walkable doesn't mean from your car to the store. Walkable means from your house to the store.

Let's say they built a multi-story parking deck instead of 70 acres of parking, created an interior street grid that the businesses faced instead of the giant parking lot (with all the same stores), and then added residential units above the stores. How would that negatively impact you?

On the benefit side, you could park in a nice cool dry parking garage instead of a parking lot where you are open to the elements. Businesses would be oriented so they provide shade on the sidewalk in the summer, or sunshine in the winter, awnings along the interior street grid would protect you from rain/snow, and businesses could have nice display windows. Plus, since people lived on-site 24/7 more businesses would be open later (maybe even 24 hours) and there would be a better mix of business - plus more of them since the parking lot isn't taking up 70% of the space.

Have you ever been to Midwest City?

[Just the facts]

Have you ever been to Midwest City?

Yes. Why do you ask?

[Lauri101]

Old Fogiette post alert - Bomber - when I was your age, walkable meant a 20 klick ruckmarch with a 40 pound pack on my back. Pretty easy stuff.
Walkable now is different - and in the not too distant future, will entail a walker and/or chair. Shrug - it's the nature of the disease. I'd like to be able to walk - even slowly, from one store to another without feeling as though I'm back in boot camp. ITA with JTF - a parking garage and set up he described would have utilized the space more efficiently and allowed for even more retail.
Don't misunderstand - I'm thrilled with just having Town Square so close to the house. When Target expands, I'll rarely have to go outside the OSM to get what I need - will save the weekend time for rest rather than driving. It's all good - MWC benefits from the sales tax and residents benefit from closer retail without driving to OKC.

[bombermwc]

Hey guys, you realize that some of the projects the city is planning for the Original Mile (ie the same area Town Center is in) actually is mixed use? That wasn't the purpose of Town Center. You can call it whatever "center" thing you want, but it's been a shopping center from day 1. It was never intended to be anything other than that. The central area has served as a gathering place for events, but it's mostly just for looks. That's not that uncommon for developments like this....look to Norman for a larger scale. I don't hear the Normanites complaining about mixed use there. And basically every single store in that place was already in Norman somewhere. At least MWC added stores that weren't even in the state yet.

But let's be realistic. MWC is a suburb. It stopped being a walkable city as soon as it expanded beyond the original mile's borders. Developing a SHOPPING CENTER won't change that. Plus it's already done, so why keep harping on it? Until I go to the place and see people get off their lazy butts and walk from one store to the next, the walkability talk is worthless. People don't do it even if it's there as an option. I see people drive from Target to Kohls all the time...some even to Penny's....NEXT DOOR! You tell me how you're going to convince people to walk any distance when they don't even do that. My family is used to walking and we do it every time we are there. We take a 30 minute walk after dinner every night so our kids get used to walking too. So you're preaching to the walking choir here, and even I think you're barking up the wrong tree.

[Just the facts]

Is anyone else reminded of Green Eggs and Ham?

[RadicalModerate]

Is anyone else reminded of Green Eggs and Ham?

Good call, JT . . .
Somehow this one came to mind first:

=)

(ever read it? it's the best of all the T. Geisel Classics Illustrated.)