What changes would you make to you're OWN CITY?

[nikko]

In Light of the what changes would you make to London thread, I thought we may aswell have another one for you're own city. They can be changes to anything, not just skyscrapers.



Go nuts.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

well, for LA, i would expand the rail service about 10 fold, bury all the utility lines, fix all the streets, add much more landscaping and parkland, remove the concrete from the LA river, stop the sprawl immediatley, Promote Downtown LA, Hollywood and areas around transit as residential areas, hire about 5000 more cops and implement littering and enviormental programs to reduce the amount of trash. I would also make it a goal to wipe out graffiti in the city and to enhance the look of the city.

A lot of these things are underway and we are definitley headed in the right direction, but i wish i could wave a wand and have it be done tomorrow. Rail is being expanded, the police force is growing, transit oriented development is all over the place, with over 5.5 billion dollars worth being built or proposed, Downtown is booming as is hollywood, the wilshire corridor and long beach as well as pasadena (all transit connected areas), and there are actual plans for parks streching all around the LA River and all trash must be stopped from entering the River within 10 years.

[Estboy]

-I would renovate North-Tallinn,that is the weakest link right now:)
-loz and loz of new highrises
-more hotels
-and I would make something with those commie-districts
-new roads
-I would move the railroad stations´..

[waustralia]

Mandurah.
-Make the rail line go into the town centre. Not along the highway in some crummy suburb.
-Develop the town centre, cafe/restraunt strips! With plenty of shops.
-Along the Eastern Foreshore out of the town centre! Turn it into highrise/midrise apartment's. =)

[IchO]

NYC - 50-70 1 Mile (1.6 KM) residential towers in mid town.
Tel-Aviv, A modern Subway to reach all the 4 million ppl Metro !

[ch1le]

a metro for tallinn would be ridiculously good :D

[ShayPlan]

For Sydney:
- Modern Subway/Metro servicing the entire Sydney basin, modelling the London Tube.
- A new airport offshore, similar project to Kansai.
- Redevelop the existing airport site to become part of the Central Business District. :) :eek2:

[aion26]

Oh geez, where do I begin.

Expansion of subway and completely replace the governing board and funding structure of the entire CTA and RTA (bunch of damn crooks).
Tear down most of Clyborn and Elston street and rebuild using current city code.
Approach issues of historic preservation and landmarking with sanity instead of as a political battles.
Take a baseball bat to the head of certain developers who shall remain nameless ;)

[Simpatico78]

Take a baseball bat to the head of certain developers who shall remain nameless

;)

Quite the violent little lady aren't you? :jk:

[aion26]

It's the Chicago way, you should know that, if bribery doesn't work, then brute force will ;)

[Tosspot]

I'd like to destroy all the damn highways that choke the life out of downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

[titeness]

Washington D.C. Area - the sprawl has to stop!! Sprawl in D.C. has now surpassed its 5 traditional suburban counties, yes sprawl of a city with a population of 600k has eaten up 5 counties with a populations of 3+ million.

1. A greenbelt is needed to stop D.C. sprawl, this would be hard because it would involve 2 states + D.C., and about 8 counties, its also difficult to say where D.C. suburbs end and Baltimore suburbs begin.

2. Someone needs to eliminate Virginia, Maryland is a much greener state, Virginia is still building freeways and to counterbalance that Maryland sprawls also, its a vicious cycle.

3. The Federal government needs to hand over complete control of D.C. to its residents, its time people in D.C. had real home rule instead of letting senators in Iowa vote on our issues.

4. The United States needs a 5% tax on all vehicles with less than 20 mpg and a 2% tax on cars over $50,000, this would generate $900 + dollars per car which would be directly applied on all cars with 40+ mpg. Isnt this infinitley smarter than a 5% tariff on chinese goods?!?!?

[titeness]

to all the americans, if we didnt go to war in iraq we could perform nearly all these changes. Well OK , if we went to war and didnt cut the taxes for the wealthy, Well Ok if we kept the tax cuts but didnt reform social security like Bush says, Well OK .. get the point!!!

[Bluestreak]

Oh geez, where do I begin.

Expansion of subway and completely replace the governing board and funding structure of the entire CTA and RTA (bunch of damn crooks).
Tear down most of Clyborn and Elston street and rebuild using current city code.
Approach issues of historic preservation and landmarking with sanity instead of as a political battles.
Take a baseball bat to the head of certain developers who shall remain nameless ;)

Agree. CTA needs some major redevelopment, especially those running it. The El is getting really outdated.

STOP building 50 story ugly condo and apartments buildings in River North, especially btwn State and Michigan avenue, oh wait, too late, all lots have been used.

Definitely pay more attention to the historic buildings in the city. Nobod'y going to look at the Park Hyatt in 80 years and be wowed.

Repave LSD north of Belmont.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

to all the americans, if we didnt go to war in iraq we could perform nearly all these changes. Well OK , if we went to war and didnt cut the taxes for the wealthy, Well Ok if we kept the tax cuts but didnt reform social security like Bush says, Well OK .. get the point!!!


Ya imagine the 200 billion we have used for this unnecessary war for cities. LA could have had rail to every neighborhood, could have fixed all the freeways and roads, build housing for all the homeless and low income, hired enough cops to make the city extremely safe, fixed the airport situation with High speed rail between all five airports, Cleaned the air and water, etc etc with wnough money left over to fix about 2 or 3 other major cities.

[CHI]

Chicago needs better rail transportation. But before everything else, I would change EVERYTHING about the southside.
Take out the big freeways
Rebuild communities in the slums
Low income housing, no projects
More skyscrapers (doesnt everyone want that though?)
Have a forrest section in Grant Park
Add a walkable riverfront area
Destroy UIC because its ugly and sprawling
Have downtown be more booming late at night (besides RushSt.)
Cooler, more unique stores in the Loop.

I'll think of some more later

[Renkinjutsushi]

For St. Petersburg (Well I guess all of Pinellas county since its so urban)
-LRT system.

[bustero]

I'd take a different tack on urbanization change, for metropolitan manila (and outlying provinces which it unfortunately sprawls into), I'd change the system of government from 13 independent towns and municipalities , each with it's own mayor, city council, police force, etc into a unified body. The present conubriation is an unmanageable mess for the 14 million people who live there and the Metropilitan Manila Development Authority can only coordinate these towns. Too much politics between towns and between the towns and MMDA takes forever to get anything done.

[jmancuso]

move houston out of texas.

[djm19]

I could do a lot with LA:

Greatly expand the rail service: a lot of subway, more light rail

Retore old downtown into its former beauty: A lot of the buildings are dirty/abandoned and could use some elbow grease.

A big city like LA needs big towers and big population: More and bigger residental towers, more business towers that really increase the skyline.

Make the streets in general more appealing: clean up sidewalks, fix cracks, fancy up the retail fronts of buildings.

Style up Figueroa St. : Since Staples center and LA Live already move down along Fig, I would like for that theme to carry down more. The theme being sort of a commerical, time square-like street.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

^ djm, i think that thought about Figueroa has potential and is underway. USC is fixing up their part of Fig (New sports arena and new housing) and the LA Live Project will make that area very entertaining and fun, with bars, clubs, restaurants, Electronic Billboards as well as all the housing towers going up on FIg (Fig and olympic, Fig and 9th, both corners) as well as everything in southpark. that place will take off really soon.

[aion26]

Have a forrest section in Grant Park


No kidding, seriously, it looks like every tree there was planted last week.

[THT-United]

Here are my suggestions for KL:

- Expand the rail network by building new LRT, monorail, and train lines in such booming areas as Greater Cheras, Kepong, Ampang, Selayang, Jinjang, Desa ParkCity (outer Kepong), and Mont' Kiara to name a few...
- A more effective recycling campaign (maybe a reasonable cash rebate for every plastic, glass, or metal item recycled, just like what they are doing for newspapers!)...
- Increase usage of English in all government-related matters (Bahasa Melayu has been the lingua franca for way too long!)
- Clean up the Petaling Street area (full of dirty-looking shops and sidewalks, even near the upgraded Street itself)
- Have a major cleaning-up operation at many other areas in KL!
- Revive Subang Airport as a low-fare airline terminal...

[arzaranh]

...
- Increase usage of English in all government-related matters (Bahasa Melayu has been the lingua franca for way too long!)...


Why would you want to do that? Isn't Bahasa Melayu the native tongue? Actually, the whole idea is as asinine as the U.S. government switching to French or Spanish. I don't understand why everyone thinks that anything Western is superior to their own.

[THT-United]

I agree that BM is indeed Malaysia's native tongue...

Unfortunately an entire generation has actually seen huge drops in its English proficiency (considering we were a former British colony!) due to the admirable but flawed policies of the previous administration... Have you heard of the sheer number of Malaysian graduates who come out of uni with impressive degrees but fail to get a job because of their poor command of English?

It is good that the government wants to encourage more English usage since they realize that we have a problem here... There is no need to worry about BM losing its importance as it never will... English acts as a complement to the national language in many matters, especially those pertaining to international trade and commerce...

[TheKansan]

In my city, I would require a height limit that makes the tallest building 5 floors high. I would also use tax breaks as incentives to businesses who stay in my city rather than using tax breaks to lure new businesses and ignoring old ones.

[BANNED]

build another 1000 200m+ towers, bring in a few more million people, build a subway, 20 new train lines, build an underwater/river glass tunnel for vehicels, advertise the city on international tv at least every 2 add breaks, have 'the oc' style show filmed here, & have millionssss of tourists a MONTH visit, yea thats what changed i'd make ;)

[Alvar]

I would pain the big ugly car factory from WWII in all colours. Today it is the biggest factory in the world (and i'm quita proud of that) but it lies near the centre and it is made of dark bricks. http://www.eproplan.de/images/VW-Kraftwerk.jpg
Then i would change the whole old main street. It's a pedestrian street. About 80-150x3km but it is full of small old stores in the middle of the street. I would demolish all this stupid houses and replace them with waterwells trees playgrounds and other things every city needs.
Then i would build a light railway connecting the cultural economical political touristical centre. (and also the most expensive sports park in europe) I would start to build the new ice-hockey hall. And last but not least i would have to destroy all this ugly nazi houses in the city centre and replace them with new smaller residential houses with lots of kindergardens and small parks.
But the best thing is that we already have started to do all this. Exept the coloured factory. :)

[THT-United]

Changes for Petaling Jaya (KL's satellite city and my home!) are:
- Build more 30 to 50 storey skyscrapers clustered together in the PJ State (CBD) area - currently has around 22 high-rises averaging 20-storeys,
- Extend the LRT and Commuter train networks to cover the entire Greater PJ area (which is actually nearly as big as KL itself!),
- Build a new carpark complex on that huge open land in SS2 (one of the busiest PJ suburbs) Commercial District to eradicate the acute parking problem there,
- Conduct a massive clean-up job in all the PJ markets!,
- Have more bowling alleys (currently only three, including two under construction in new malls - how pathetic)...,
- Move Menara Merais (can be seen in the "Other Skyscrapers" thread) to the CBD! :) ,
- Reopen the Jln. Timur Field for sporting activities (currently used as a public square, but the green field itself is still there), and
- Bring in another 500k ppl to grow PJ's population to 1.3m (around 600k today)!

But despite all these changes required, PJ is and will always be my hometown!

[hngcm]

Get rid of the height limit.

[612bv3]

^ what about the airport?

For SF, get ride of the homeless people, maybe lock them up in Alcatraz. :jk: But seriously something needs to be done with the homeless problem.

[hellolazyness]

I think for British cities destroy everthing (with perhaps some exeptions) built between 1955-1985 http://www.clicksmilies.com/s0105/waffen/violent-smiley-021.gif

Then murder the architects of these monstershttp://www.clicksmilies.com/s0105/waffen/violent-smiley-019.gif

[FM 2258]

Well for Austin, TX we need a full freeway connection to our airport and a good rail service around the metro. Plus it would be great to have a train connection to our airport. All we have is shitty incomplete freeways and farm roads as our major highways. :(

Plus we could use more skyscrapers downtown and more freeways.

[samsonyuen]

Toronto: Get a bigger piece of the pie
-extend subway lines (Sheppard east and west, Spadina up to York U, Bloor to Square One), build DLR, Eglinton West subway lines, replace the SRT with heavy rail
-infilling the downtown with taller buildings
-get the Sapphire and Trump built

London: get Crossrail 1 and 2 (aka Chelney) built
-more affordable housing

[xantarc]

Move Vancouver out of Canada!
Built efficient metro systems and airports like Oslo or Copenhagen in both Calgary and Edmonton!

[PanaManiac]

Get rid of the height limit.To get rid of the height limit in San Diego, they would first have to either re-locate the airport, or re-locate the city. As long as they remain in close proximity of each other, the height limit will remain in place, as well as urban sprawl rather than vertical growth. Ditto for San Jose.

[12231989]

stop building all the new houses and freeways in phoenix before we sprawl out to Tucson

remove the 50ft height limit that most of the city has

get rid of the 12,000 homeless people that live here

build a transit system because becides some busses there isnt one,there proposing a 20 mile long 1 segment light rail pathetic

not really much to do here either they need to build some attractions

[PanaManiac]

I would add a rapid transit metro rail system to the transportation infrastructure.

[kiretoce]

For Orlando:
1. Light Rail System for the entire metro area.
2. A more integrated Interstate/Expressway/Tollway system.

[spyguy]

For Chicago:

-Update (modernize) and expand PT with newer stations and trains
-Expand O'Hare
-More greenery and trees
-Get rid of those plain and uninspired condos that somehow got approval
-Finally start constructing the Midwest Highspeed Rail system
-More lower income housing in the south side

[samsonyuen]

Build the Crossrail and Crossrail 2!

[Effer]

MUMBAI,INDIA

Rebuild the worlds top 1000 skyscrapers.
Modernize the Mass Transit system(trains,public buses,etc.)
Build a new world class airport
Destroy all the slums.
Make it a world-class city.
Move the Fortune 1000 companies to Mumbai.(Head Quarters)
Build new beaches,hotels,resorts,etc.
Remove the building height limit!
& much much more!

CHICAGO,USA

Build more taller skyscapers.

[Skopie]

Leeds

Build the supertram system aswell as a line west linknig Leeds with Central bradford.

Encourage more 4-8 storey development in the suburbs

Demolish West Riding house, eugh...

http://www.leeds-cityscape.co.uk/photos/18-03-2005/West%20Riding%20House.jpg

[DiggerD21]

For Hamburg:

- get more international and intercontinental connections for the airport
- increase airport capacity
- incorporate all communities and towns at the Elbe river (incl. Cuxhaven) between Hamburg and Cuxhaven
- increase port capacity
- demolish 60's ans 70's eyesores in the city centre and replace them with at least 20's retro buildings
- build more metro lines
- build up a highrise area between Berliner Tor and Elbbrücken
- make more international promotion for the city
- build a new stadium for the football/soccer club FC St.Pauli
- let some broad roads (like the Ost-West-Straße) vanish under the earth (tunnels) and puild parks and parking lots on it
- build an Autobahn-ring around the city (but not too tight)
- create more (affordable) living space in the city centre
- restructure the University of Hamburg (it is a mess)

[FastWhiteTA]

Portland, OR:

Portland has definitely already started implementing a lot of these (as most people here might know), but I would like to see a few variations to these plans:

-Remove the 40 story height restriction (somehow 2 bldgs are higher than that already, so I'm not sure if it's been taken away, but last I heard it was still there)
-Continue to develop the pearl district (but with slightly taller towers, rather than 10-20 floors, they should be 20-30 floors IMO
-Continued development of the South Water front district - it's a new district - proposed is 130 acres just 1 mile south of downtown, 20 high rises from 20-30 floors, 3000 residential units, commercial, biotech, and retail - 5 buildings are u/c and several others have been approved.
-Connect south water front district to downtown with light rail, then expand that line south to wilsonville (after the water front, the line should cross to the east side of the river then follow I-5 or close to it down to wilsonville)
-Tear down the low density housing just south of downtown (between the south waterfront development and downtown-it's all fairly new, too, I don't get why they built just regular townhomes there, it's ludacris) and replace with tall residential towers
-4 or 5 more rail lines all connecting metro areas to downtown (3 currently exist)
-Subway system in the downtown core and near surrounding areas (if that's possible - not sure due to earth quake zone) like goose hollow, pearl district, NW district and just across the river into the East side, as well as eventually the south waterfront district)
-Build 4 >400' towers, 3 >500', 2 >600' , and 1 > 750' tower in the CBD

[aion26]

-More lower income housing in the south side

only on the south-side?

[Duopolis]

For Warsaw:

- demolish ALL commieblocks (i hate them SO MUCH)
- build at least one skyscraper taller than Palace of Culture and Sience (231m)
- build more and more skyscrapers in CBD (Warsaw's skyline has too many holes)
- change city's president (f***ing Kaczynski)
- modernize city's streets and build new
- replace old & ugly stadium with large, new world-class one
- build new international airport (for at least 20-30 million ppl)
- finish 1st metro line, and build more
- promote city in world

[JDRS]

For London:

- Demolish terrible buildings ike Guys Tower and replace them with far better scrapers
- Improve the tube without changing the stations unless they're in need of an update
- Get Crossrail built
- Ensure all approved scrapers started within a year
- Improve the landscaping such as benches etc
- Start work on the masterplan around Wembley
- Start work on Wood Wharf
- More affordable housing.

The list goes on...

[HirakataShi]

(1) Adopt street names
(2) Revoke licenses from Taxi drivers who don't know where anything is.
(3) Number buildings according to where they are located, not when they were built.

[WANCH]

If I can do it and if it's possible, demolish all those high-rise flats around HK and build alot of houses around HK and Shenzhen. Hong Kongers like me get fed up living in the high-rise where your bedroom is smaller than an typical kitchen in a American home. I like to experience once living in a house with a nice garden and your own garage to park your own car. Experience looking outside your window sideways instead of downwards.

[Skopie]

If they did that wouldn't the population of Hong Kong drop dramatically and house prices rise insanely as property becomes sparse, and 100's of people chase after one house?

[Bombay Boy]

hmm where do i begin

massive investments in mass urban trasnport, public housing, new airports, new sea-links, repeal of rent control law, better pavements, some pedestrian streets, new highways in the suburbs, restoration of the beautiful old buildings and repainting all the old buildings. destroy the concrete boxes and build some really cool towers

does anyone have some spare change? like $50 billion or so?

[C|2azyCanuck]

This thread kicks ass.

For Vancouver:

1. Upgrade highway 1 to 8 lanes all the way to Langley. Possible 6 to Abbotsford. Twin the Port Mann Bridge. All the NIMBYs can suck my dick. In ten years from now our current capacity is going choke buisness and the movement of goods to death.

2. Increase the height restriction. Nothing extreme. Maybe 700-800 feet.

3. Modify these absolutely ridiculous view cones.

4. Oust COPE from Counsel.

5. Downtown streetcars. Free in the peninsula.

6. Major waterfront development for entertainment/greenspace/parkland along any part of false creek/burrard inlet that is not now developed. IMO Vancouver has a jewel that we are not utilizing to full potential in our waterfronts. The VCCEP will help in a big way.

7. Build up the south end of False Creek. Make sure low income housing is not a priority in that area. As much as I feel it is needed in Vancouver, the south end of false creek is not the place for it. There needs to be price parity between the norht and south shores.

[C|2azyCanuck]

Move Vancouver out of Canada!
Built efficient metro systems and airports like Oslo or Copenhagen in both Calgary and Edmonton!


I'm sensing some hostility. Did a polar bear piss in your frozen milk and cornflakes?

[FastWhiteTA]

If I can do it and if it's possible, demolish all those high-rise flats around HK and build alot of houses around HK and Shenzhen. Hong Kongers like me get fed up living in the high-rise where your bedroom is smaller than an typical kitchen in a American home. I like to experience once living in a house with a nice garden and your own garage to park your own car. Experience looking outside your window sideways instead of downwards.

Wow, see, not everyone wants to live in a high rise their entire life (I want to live in one for a little while, though :) ). Anyway, good point of view, thanks.