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Land Use
03/28/2010 6:08 PM by John M
Land use in Church Hill and Short Pump. Both are shown at the same scale.
Inspired by Stuart Squiers’ side-by-side of Short Pump and the Fan (below), I put together the above comparison of our walkable mixed-use community and the mockery of this out on West Broad Street.
James Howard Kunstler, the great American observer of the crumbling infrastructure has a great series called the KunstlerCast. You can hear more about the above topic here:
kunstlercast.com/shows/KunstlerCast_103_Parking_Milita…
at first, i wasn’t really interested in the comparison, because they’re really not comparable. however, it makes sense. here’s how we used to design cities. and here’s how we screw it all up now. blerg.
#1 the other Lisa – have you read his short novel ‘World Made By Hand’? Or ‘The Geography of Nowhere’? My cousin, who lives in upstate New York, knows him socially. I found World Made By Hand to be extremely depressing, but you might want to try it, (I have to admit I finished it, and remember most of it even now), and my cousin recommended Geography of Nowhere to me but I haven’t read it yet.
A drive up Express Market and Deli would look beautifully in the middle of that top left Short Pump parking lot.
I just wanted to compare the size of those parking lots to a city block. When you’re in a huge parking lot there’s no frame of reference to understand how much space it takes up. A 400’x400′ city block is roughly two acres and I’m guessing you can put more than 10 city blocks into those parking lots. So that’s 20 or more acres of land that’s been covered with asphalt that drains into those gnarly ponds around the perimeter. It’s a really inefficient use of space.
Can we get some stats with these pics? What’s represented here in terms of retail, housing, impervious cover, public space, and green cover? Photos have great impact but don’t help people understand the true differences.
@ #1 and #3, ‘The Geography of Nowhere’ is an excellent book!
Remember, the pictured Church Hill area has been urban for more than a century. The Short Pump, on the other hand, was rural (and good, producing farmland) until recently.
I would like to see some stats on stormwater runoff.
#5- I’m a little confused with your comment. Both photos seem to have about the same percent impervious cover and both have about zero green *public* space by my estimation. I was curious about the amount of retail space in the church Hill pic…seems you’d still need to drive to shop, right?
#8- Most farms in the Richmond region are not growing food, nor are they profitable. The average net income of a Henrico farmer in 2007 was $6500. Richmond City was rural for most of its history…pre-Columbian.
Short Pump reminds me of Northern Virginia (where I am originally from)..a whole lot of nothing.
I bet we lead short pump in crack hos per acre
There is a 1/2 square block of public green space across from St.John’s (top left). Just out of frame at the bottom right is Libby Hill Park and then Chimborazo Park.
Looking at the yards, the small park, and the green spaces around St.John’s and the elementary school (far right, middle), I’d guess that at least 1/3 of the Church Hill landscape is not impervious surfaces.
My take on the two photos is less about surfaces than the differing emphasis on the necessity of having a car and the options folks have on how to get around. The amount of space given over to parking illustrates and reenforces the need to drive to get anything accomplished in the suburban developments.
We have to drive for some things, sure, but hopefully less as time goes by and the currently vacant and underutilized retail space is redeveloped. Even now, I can easily walk or ride my bike to get groceries, coffee, and booze, or to any of our 3 great parks, the river, either of the community gardens, community pools, or the library. I can also easily get to 6 or 7 restaurants, with 2 or 3 times that just a little further into Shockoe.
Holy cow! The picture illustrates perfectly why I can hardly ever be coerced into going anywhere near Short Pump. It leaves me depressed for the whole rest of the day.
Truly a place not worth caring about.
#3-yep, and I also recommend “The Long Emergency” and his talk on TED.com!
Thanks John_m. Helpful post! Anyone from Shortpump able to talk about that experience, from a resident’s standpoint. What’s it like to live there?
I was out in the west end, not as far as short pump about 5 yrs ago. Almost no where I could go without a car. Even a bicycle would have been a brave venture out of my neighborhood.
We looked around and chose here over northside due to walkability. Like John M, I hope it keeps improving, or really getting back to how it was!
“Both photos seem to have about the same percent impervious cover”
*****
I think Church Hill has much more permeable landscaping than is apparent in the photo. Nearly all the lots have front and/or back yards and there are tree wells in the sidewalks. It’s true the roads and roofs create a runoff problem in the city though. The photo was also taken in winter so you can’t see the tree cover in the neighborhood, it’s pretty green.
#9-In cities, the sidewalks are considered “public space”, and when they are planted thoughtfully with trees and ground cover in tree wells, they are really quite lovely places to be, out and about, walking, and saying hello to neighbors.
Suburbs and mega malls miss out on this great part of creating an urban fabric.
As far as the walkability issue goes, I plugged random addresses into walkscore.com to see what would happen. 2700 E. Broad, which is roughly the center of the photo, got a score of 74, making it “very walkable.” Surprisingly, Kilburn Circle, right across Broad from the mall, was rated a 75 making it also “very walkable.”
But if you go into the neighborhoods out there, like Glen Gary Dr., the score quickly drops off to a 38 making it “car dependent.” And the 75 score on Kilburn Circle is misleading since the site doesn’t take into account pedestrian infrastructure which is lacking in Short Pump. For example, the mall property has well-marked crosswalks across its entrances, but there are no crosswalks across Broad St to where the people actually live.
Shortpump, nice to visit when you’re in a shopping mood and an overall good mood to deal w/the traffic!! Otherwise, I avoid it like the plague.
There’s little need to go west of Three Chopt. Plan ahead: buy online.
Brick sidewalks are also less impervious (more pervious?)to water than concrete and asphalt.
I completely see both sides of the issue. I would be interested to see how many occupiable units exist in the Short Pump community versus the area in Church Hill. I bet we’d all be surprised at how many units are located in the Short Pump location. Also, remember that current code requires specific amounts of parking spots per unit, which the Church Hill location obviously doesn’t. With the baby-boomers beginning to retire, I feel like more and more smaller “condo” type living arrangements are going to be needed. Leave the larger homes to be lovingly cared for by the younger generation, while starting families!