feast your eyes
Alex Bauman
Urbs 3500
Northwest Tour, 9/21/06
When entering Edinburgh after seeing a swath of the rest of Brooklyn Park, the first difference I notice is the system of berms which separate the housing from the through-streets. A visual barrier meant to be as obvious as possible, berms are only different in degrees from the fences which surround gated communities, and both are meant to exclude people who don't belong in order to preserve privacy for those who do.
I found examples of design tools intended to foster a sense of privacy throughout Edinburgh, which stood in sharp contrast with the rest of Brooklyn Park, in which houses and businesses fronted directly on through-streets, implying an openness and willingness to foster community that Edinburgh mostly lacked.
A visitor is most likely to drive through Edinburgh, as the area mostly lacks infrastructure such as bike lanes or even sidewalks. It should be noted that a regional trail does run through the area, making limited bicycle commuting feasible, though the system does not penetrate the area thoroughly enough to make it immanently "bike-able" or "walkable." This may have something to do with the lack of transit options in Edinburgh. In addition, the layout of the streets does not encourage interconnectivity between the residential areas and the commercial nodes along 85th Ave N, leaving the automobile as the only real option for residents and visitors.
This automoblile-dependence is another example of Edinburgh's emphasis on privacy. With all traffic in the area being personal cars, there is little face-to-face interaction of any kind. A driver will notice after some travel in the area that the streets are arranged oddly. In fact, they seem to have been meticulously planned so that as few houses as possible will have another house behind their backyard. Again, privacy seems to have been the main motivation.
A third design feature that emphasizes privacy is the swollen cul-de-sac that is ubiquitous in Edinborough. Instead of a small paved circle that usually comprises a cul-de-sac, small parks are built in a circular or ovular shape, which are usually landscaped so as to obscure the houses across the cul-de-sac from one another. These swollen cul-de-sacs also appear as little tumors in the course of a road, though on a smaller scale.
All this privacy is not merely for the comfort of the residents, but it is also intended to make them distinct from others. It is an attempt to create an upper-class image for Edinburgh, which is notable because Brooklyn Park in general is known as a blue-collar community. The other examples of Edinburgh's attempts at upper-class branding are fairly obvious. The largest is the eponymous golf course around which the residential area situates itself. Golf is not a sport that has a blue-collar image. On entering Edinburgh from Noble Ave N, the visitor sees on the west side the Edinburgh Animal Care Center. In addition to the just-built facility and the brightly-colored, intricately-painted sign, the mere fact that it refers to itself as an Animal Care Center rather than a Vetrinary Clinic is an attempt at distinction that implies that area residents have the luxury to lavishly care for their pets.
But Edinburgh might not be as successful at attracting those high-income residents as it would like to be. I found one house for sale for $300,000, and according to the website www.relocate-america.com, few houses are sold for much more than that. While that price is about $75,000 higher than the region's median home price, it seems to be less than prices in other second-ring Hennepin County suburbs.
Probably the reason for that is its location in blue-collar Brooklyn Park. Edinburgh is clearly planned to be as seperate from the rest of the city as possible. The north and the east sides of the area are bounded by highways, to and from which there is no access. The west side, across Noble Ave N with its berms, is an area similar to Edinburgh. On the south side is 85th Ave N, which is lined mostly with old light industrial buildings, in themselves a sort of boundary from the other neighborhoods of the city. Still, Edinburgh cannot escape its Brooklyn Park address, which prevents it from attaining the upper-class status it seems to be striving for.
O'Dean Ave NE, an entrance road to Mississippi Parkwood, currently has no stoplight at County Road 39, but it most likely soon will. That is because O'Dean Ave south of 39 is a major route through the rapidly expanding town of Otsego. It is certainly not because Mississippi Parkwood itself will grow, which would actually be antithetical to the mindset of the development. It is this contradiction that permeates the development. Despite having been built entirely within the last decade, the development exists in opposition to growth that manifests itself as change.
The residents of Mississippi Parkwood expressed their desire for stasis by building on large lots of one or more acres. In this manner, they expressed their belief that life will continue pretty much as it was in the late 20th century, with families of two to five people relying on cars (one for each member) to supply all of their transportation needs. The residents see no need for sidewalks or bike lanes. The residents I saw walking were in the street, and clearly walking for recreation. The space they left between their houses leaves no room for transit, as the sparsity and unfriendliness towards pedestrians of the surroundings would make it very difficult. All these factors show that the residents are not interested in changing their method of transportation.
There is plenty of open space in Mississippi Parkwood, but it is all private. A swimming pool sits near the street, but it is clearly not intended for public use. Despite its location on the Mississippi River, the subdivision has no park. These factors indicate that although the residents may be interested in interacting with one another, they are not interested in civic involvement on the neighborhood level. The lack of maintenance of basic infrastructure and the lack of reliance even on city sewers indicates the libertarian attitude of the residents. In order to bring change to a developed neighborhood from within, there must be some local organization in place. The lack thereof shows that the residents are not interested in improving the infrastructure of their neighborhood.
Mississippi Parkwood has one direct entrance onto County Road 39. The streets are laid out to direct the subdivision inward towards itself. On the west is another insular development, on the north the river, and on the east an area of piecemeal, sprawling homes. The pattern of the streets within Mississippi Parkwood are not unlike a spiral labyrinth, keeping traffic within the district. In conjunction with the suburban lifestyle, which focuses residents only on commercial strips once they leave their own homes, this spatial organization shields residents from the reality of how other people live. In this way, residents avoid changing their own lifestyle.
The contradiction in this form of development lies in the fact that it depends on constant growth and replication while avoiding lifestyle change and the personal growth that comes with it. Because it is a very sparse form of development in terms of population, sprawling development must cosume massive amounts of land to accomodate even minor population growth. However, once construction is complete, residents of a subdivision such as Mississippi Parkwood need not come into contact with any other forms of living, and are protected from the reality that their neighborhoods must someday change, even if the change is as small as a new stoplight.
Change will come to Mississippi Parkwood, and when it does, the district will most likely find it difficult to cope. If Otsego succeeds at growing as large and as quickly as it can, the residents of Mississippi Parkwood may no longer find the area reclusive, causing the sparse, private style of building to be obsolete. If the city attempts to add sewers to the area (as they would if they were at all concerned about the environment), the residents may find it difficult to resist, having no prior experience in community organization. The scenario in which the development is least able to adapt may be the one in which the automobile that Mississippi Parkwood is built around becomes obsolete, and the district has no choice but to go with it in to obsolescence.
I'm posting this for spell check purposes only. Audrey, feel free to use it as you like, though it is not intended to be a formal paper.
Urbs 3500
Northwest Tour, 9/21/06
When entering Edinburgh after seeing a swath of the rest of Brooklyn Park, the first difference I notice is the system of berms which separate the housing from the through-streets. A visual barrier meant to be as obvious as possible, berms are only different in degrees from the fences which surround gated communities, and both are meant to exclude people who don't belong in order to preserve privacy for those who do.
I found examples of design tools intended to foster a sense of privacy throughout Edinburgh, which stood in sharp contrast with the rest of Brooklyn Park, in which houses and businesses fronted directly on through-streets, implying an openness and willingness to foster community that Edinburgh mostly lacked.
A visitor is most likely to drive through Edinburgh, as the area mostly lacks infrastructure such as bike lanes or even sidewalks. It should be noted that a regional trail does run through the area, making limited bicycle commuting feasible, though the system does not penetrate the area thoroughly enough to make it immanently "bike-able" or "walkable." This may have something to do with the lack of transit options in Edinburgh. In addition, the layout of the streets does not encourage interconnectivity between the residential areas and the commercial nodes along 85th Ave N, leaving the automobile as the only real option for residents and visitors.
This automoblile-dependence is another example of Edinburgh's emphasis on privacy. With all traffic in the area being personal cars, there is little face-to-face interaction of any kind. A driver will notice after some travel in the area that the streets are arranged oddly. In fact, they seem to have been meticulously planned so that as few houses as possible will have another house behind their backyard. Again, privacy seems to have been the main motivation.
A third design feature that emphasizes privacy is the swollen cul-de-sac that is ubiquitous in Edinborough. Instead of a small paved circle that usually comprises a cul-de-sac, small parks are built in a circular or ovular shape, which are usually landscaped so as to obscure the houses across the cul-de-sac from one another. These swollen cul-de-sacs also appear as little tumors in the course of a road, though on a smaller scale.
All this privacy is not merely for the comfort of the residents, but it is also intended to make them distinct from others. It is an attempt to create an upper-class image for Edinburgh, which is notable because Brooklyn Park in general is known as a blue-collar community. The other examples of Edinburgh's attempts at upper-class branding are fairly obvious. The largest is the eponymous golf course around which the residential area situates itself. Golf is not a sport that has a blue-collar image. On entering Edinburgh from Noble Ave N, the visitor sees on the west side the Edinburgh Animal Care Center. In addition to the just-built facility and the brightly-colored, intricately-painted sign, the mere fact that it refers to itself as an Animal Care Center rather than a Vetrinary Clinic is an attempt at distinction that implies that area residents have the luxury to lavishly care for their pets.
But Edinburgh might not be as successful at attracting those high-income residents as it would like to be. I found one house for sale for $300,000, and according to the website www.relocate-america.com, few houses are sold for much more than that. While that price is about $75,000 higher than the region's median home price, it seems to be less than prices in other second-ring Hennepin County suburbs.
Probably the reason for that is its location in blue-collar Brooklyn Park. Edinburgh is clearly planned to be as seperate from the rest of the city as possible. The north and the east sides of the area are bounded by highways, to and from which there is no access. The west side, across Noble Ave N with its berms, is an area similar to Edinburgh. On the south side is 85th Ave N, which is lined mostly with old light industrial buildings, in themselves a sort of boundary from the other neighborhoods of the city. Still, Edinburgh cannot escape its Brooklyn Park address, which prevents it from attaining the upper-class status it seems to be striving for.
O'Dean Ave NE, an entrance road to Mississippi Parkwood, currently has no stoplight at County Road 39, but it most likely soon will. That is because O'Dean Ave south of 39 is a major route through the rapidly expanding town of Otsego. It is certainly not because Mississippi Parkwood itself will grow, which would actually be antithetical to the mindset of the development. It is this contradiction that permeates the development. Despite having been built entirely within the last decade, the development exists in opposition to growth that manifests itself as change.
The residents of Mississippi Parkwood expressed their desire for stasis by building on large lots of one or more acres. In this manner, they expressed their belief that life will continue pretty much as it was in the late 20th century, with families of two to five people relying on cars (one for each member) to supply all of their transportation needs. The residents see no need for sidewalks or bike lanes. The residents I saw walking were in the street, and clearly walking for recreation. The space they left between their houses leaves no room for transit, as the sparsity and unfriendliness towards pedestrians of the surroundings would make it very difficult. All these factors show that the residents are not interested in changing their method of transportation.
There is plenty of open space in Mississippi Parkwood, but it is all private. A swimming pool sits near the street, but it is clearly not intended for public use. Despite its location on the Mississippi River, the subdivision has no park. These factors indicate that although the residents may be interested in interacting with one another, they are not interested in civic involvement on the neighborhood level. The lack of maintenance of basic infrastructure and the lack of reliance even on city sewers indicates the libertarian attitude of the residents. In order to bring change to a developed neighborhood from within, there must be some local organization in place. The lack thereof shows that the residents are not interested in improving the infrastructure of their neighborhood.
Mississippi Parkwood has one direct entrance onto County Road 39. The streets are laid out to direct the subdivision inward towards itself. On the west is another insular development, on the north the river, and on the east an area of piecemeal, sprawling homes. The pattern of the streets within Mississippi Parkwood are not unlike a spiral labyrinth, keeping traffic within the district. In conjunction with the suburban lifestyle, which focuses residents only on commercial strips once they leave their own homes, this spatial organization shields residents from the reality of how other people live. In this way, residents avoid changing their own lifestyle.
The contradiction in this form of development lies in the fact that it depends on constant growth and replication while avoiding lifestyle change and the personal growth that comes with it. Because it is a very sparse form of development in terms of population, sprawling development must cosume massive amounts of land to accomodate even minor population growth. However, once construction is complete, residents of a subdivision such as Mississippi Parkwood need not come into contact with any other forms of living, and are protected from the reality that their neighborhoods must someday change, even if the change is as small as a new stoplight.
Change will come to Mississippi Parkwood, and when it does, the district will most likely find it difficult to cope. If Otsego succeeds at growing as large and as quickly as it can, the residents of Mississippi Parkwood may no longer find the area reclusive, causing the sparse, private style of building to be obsolete. If the city attempts to add sewers to the area (as they would if they were at all concerned about the environment), the residents may find it difficult to resist, having no prior experience in community organization. The scenario in which the development is least able to adapt may be the one in which the automobile that Mississippi Parkwood is built around becomes obsolete, and the district has no choice but to go with it in to obsolescence.
I'm posting this for spell check purposes only. Audrey, feel free to use it as you like, though it is not intended to be a formal paper.