So I was driving around town today, and got to thinking about the miles and miles of privacy walls in the city. The amount of cinder block and stucco that was pouring into or being made in this city during the boom must have been astronomical. Just think about it -- just about every residential parcel in town is surrounded by 6-foot-tall, solid walls. I remember when I moved here, I was disappointed with the block walls because it wouldn't allow kids to play in neighbor's back yards. In upstate New York, it made sense to play hide-and-seek in the back yards because they all ran together, except for a couple that were enclosed with chain link fence. It gave me a sense of freedom as a kid that I will never really forget.
So, I have a modest proposal for the city government (Mayor Hafen, are you listening?) -- what if we started banning privacy walls in a few years? That way, new development would have to come up with a new way to screen back yards -- either natural barriers like plants and trees or perhaps a lower wall, or even leaving some open space for people to share, even if the parcels aren't clearly distinguished from another. It might eventually force the developers who have stripped this town down to smaller and smaller parcels to start thinking about what that does to a community.
That suggestion does assume that the growth we've experienced over the past 20 years comes back in any real way. I'm not sure it will, but now might be a chance to improve on the model of the past.
1 comment:
Love that suggestion! And I think it's a sign that I've been gone too long that I had no idea Oscar wasn't the mayor anymore! :(
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