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TOD: The Urban Planning Problem by v.heftiThe Point Urban planning issues arise from poor or lack of planning. Often this poor planning is

due to disregarding the human experience that the city ought function for. A major shiftin the strategy of urban planning toward the human experience is Transit Oriented

Development. Planned and implemented well, TOD can increase the development ofpedestrian-scale communities, minimizing the centricity of automobile use therebyincreasing, amongst other things, green space.

According to a recent poll, most Americans (56 percent), if given the choice, wouldnow prefer a rural life; 25 percent would opt for the suburbs, and only 19 percent for an

urban living environment (Simonds, Starke 300). InRhetoric, Aristotle asserts theblame for this is to the planners, who lack persuasiveness or more compelling concepts.

Truth and justice are by their nature better than their opposites, and therefore ifdecisions are made wrongly, it must be the speakers who (through lack of effectivepowers of persuasion) are to blame for the defeat (231).

The Urban landscape issues/problems root in improper or lack of planning. This lacking

Planning can involve strategy, coherent relationship and plan continuity, economic analysis,Problem amenity, optimal function, ecological needs, and the aesthetic. The consequences of

improper urban planning lead to a vast number of issues including suburban sprawl,ecological issues, traffic congestion, impervious surfaces, lack of green/public space,

lack of aesthetic, etc.

There is no quick fix solution. Urban solutions can take place over decades, as the areasin most need are those that have been developed, sometimes, for over a century,whereas new developments have the clean-slate opportunity to plan properly from the

beginning. A well thought-out plan taking into account all factors, both current andpotential is needed. The plan ought to be stringent enough to solve the issues/problems

with the greatest efficiency (greatest benefit with the least cost), maximumfunctionality, including ecological sensitivity, variable uses and amenity, and aesthetic,

yet flexible enough to allot for an array of potential factors that may arise over thepossible decades of implementation.

The James Corner suggests a move away from scenographic designs toward more

Strategy productive, engendering strategiesto more prosaic concerns for how things work,Problem why they do, how they interact and what agency or effects they might exercise (24).

These bleak new Utopias are not bleak because they have to be; they are the concrete

manifestationsand how literallyof a deep and at times arrogant, misunderstanding ofthe function of the city (William H. Whyte Jr., Simonds, Starke 302). Many planners

have disregarded that the basic tenet of urban design is disarmingly simple: the bestcity is that which provides the best experience of living (Simonds, Starke 301).

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To approach mending the cities, to once again serve the human experience, it isnecessary to deal with what they currently serve first, which seems to be the

automobile. Transit Oriented Development (TOD) attempts to reorient the city towardthe pedestrian by limiting automobile access within the city limits, but also not

neglecting the need for transport by instead utilizing public transit.

Public transit is not the only solution to the problem. The problem then becomesintegration of uses, proximity, and access. The urban planning of TOD requires

defining districts, their use, and allotting the proximity of uses maintain reasonablewalking access to basic amenities. Integrating the strategy of New Urbanism, that

public spaces like streets, squares and parksbe a setting for the conduct of daily life;a neighborhood should accommodate diverse types of people and activities; it should bepossible to get to work, accomplish everyday tasks (like buying fresh food or taking a

child to daycare) and travel to surrounding communities without using a car (Katzxxv).

Over time, the city transitions toward closing unused roads for plazas and parks, slowlythe rigid pattern of block softens, and in places, dissipates. The city will becomeintegrated with nature. And it will invite nature back into its confines (Simonds,

Starke 315).

The The problem of today, in what we lack, is best stated by Rasmussen commenting onHistoric Renaissance Rome, Great artists formed the city, and the inhabitants, themselves, were

Overlook artists enough to know how to live in it. Cities that uphold this statement conceive thecity as three-dimensional civic art with patterns of form and open space through plazas,

piazzas, courts, squares, fountains. These cities have a distinctive, indefinable spirit.So, perhaps today, it is the artistry of the craft that requires retaining.

Bibliography

Aristotle.Rhetoric. 123

Bressi, Todd W. Planning the American Dream. The New Urbanism: Toward an

Architecture of Community. Peter Katz. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. 1994. Xxv.

Corner, James. "Operational Eidetics: Forging New Landscapes."Harvard Design

Magazine Fall 1998: 24.

Rasmussen, Steen Eiler. Towns and Buildings. Cambridge: Harvard Unveristy Press,1951. 257.

Simonds, John Ormsbee, and Barry W. Starke. "Urban Design."Landscape

Architecture: a Manual of Environmental Planning and Design. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006. 300-315.