Tuesday, April 24, 2007

A post from the past

In my previous post, I included an excerpt from the Tradition, South Carolina Web site, which described the new development as having drawn inspiration from "charming communities of days-gone-by." Included among the traits of these supposedly extinct places are:
  1. A living arrangement that allows residents to walk or bike to stores and restaurants.
  2. Front porches, from which residents may greet "passing neighbors."
  3. Parks and playgrounds.
The image you see in this post was made in my front yard on Saturday evening and satisfies two of the characteristics described above. First, the five bikes in the yard were ridden to Queeny's just moments after I snapped the photo. Check. Second, front porches are visible in the picture. Check. I'm certain that more than one "passing neighbor" passed by before we departed for Queeny's and I'm equally sure they were greeted by at least one person in our dinner party. Check and check. You'll have to take my word for it, but there are three small parks and one large one with a playground within a four block radius. That takes care of No. 3.

Based on this indisputable evidence, I've come to the conclusion that for the last five years, I've been living in a community of days-gone-by. Quick, someone send me a golf cart cart so I can get with the times.

2 comments:

Jett said...

A yard full of bikes. SO lovely.

Anonymous said...

Tradition looks very like the Stapleton development in Denver. Stapleton is an awful, sterile place to be. It is isolated by street layout from the surrounding communities. One can walk and bike around, but there's really no place to go and, (particularly) on a bike, no good way to get there.

I have stashed a critique of "new urbanism" for a post I haven't gotten around to writing. I'll see whether I can find it and send it to you. The most interesting thing about the critique is how apt it is applied to Stapleton, though it was made many years ago.