In Tempe, Arizona, Culdesac is reimagining US cities for people, not cars – and inviting travellers to explore its plazas, paseos and Mediterranean-inspired design.
I don’t know how anyone could feel transported by being here. Its literally a single block of “car free” neighborhood development. Outside of that its your standard US city with subpar public transport, little in the way of pedestrian or bike infrastructure, and its very car centric. I think if the neighborhood was self sufficient and was of a size where most of your needs could be found within its boundaries then it could work. It would need to be much much larger for that though. Unfortunately that can’t happen because they have 1500ft or so on their block and all the land around them is developed.
A city block is anywhere from 2-5 acres, so you’re not far off, but it’s 3-8 times bigger than your description makes it seem.
As a comparison, Union Square in SF is 2.6 acres, so Culdesac would be over 6 times the area of Union Square. That’s definitely not a huge area, but in a place like Tempe it must feel like an oasis for those of us who hate suburban sprawl.
My hope is that places like this inspire more areas like this to be created when redeveloping. Anything that reduces suburban car-centric sprawls is good in my book. Even if just a little bit.
I guess to put it another way, the world seems a little bit better with this place in it instead of a 12 acre parking lot next to a 7 acre building, which is the kind of thing that exists all around my little town. We don’t even have a downtown, just a highway with strip malls.
I don’t know how anyone could feel transported by being here. Its literally a single block of “car free” neighborhood development. Outside of that its your standard US city with subpar public transport, little in the way of pedestrian or bike infrastructure, and its very car centric. I think if the neighborhood was self sufficient and was of a size where most of your needs could be found within its boundaries then it could work. It would need to be much much larger for that though. Unfortunately that can’t happen because they have 1500ft or so on their block and all the land around them is developed.
But the article says
A city block is anywhere from 2-5 acres, so you’re not far off, but it’s 3-8 times bigger than your description makes it seem.
As a comparison, Union Square in SF is 2.6 acres, so Culdesac would be over 6 times the area of Union Square. That’s definitely not a huge area, but in a place like Tempe it must feel like an oasis for those of us who hate suburban sprawl.
My hope is that places like this inspire more areas like this to be created when redeveloping. Anything that reduces suburban car-centric sprawls is good in my book. Even if just a little bit.
I guess to put it another way, the world seems a little bit better with this place in it instead of a 12 acre parking lot next to a 7 acre building, which is the kind of thing that exists all around my little town. We don’t even have a downtown, just a highway with strip malls.
This development is specifically made so that necessities are within the community.