Sneak Peek Wed June 12, 2024
Added 2024-06-12 13:52:58 +0000 UTCNew video on YouTube today! This one's a bit of a case study on what I call "simulated urbanism" -- basically, places people go to experience an active, walkable and/or bikeable environment even though, for some reason, they often don't choose to live their day-to-day lives in places that have those qualities.
I won't say more about the specifics of the video, but I do want to talk about the whole idea of "vacations." The US really lags behind most other economically developed nations in how little paid vacation we receive -- we're often lucky to get two weeks per year. Besides this kind of just being an abysmal situation in itself, it puts a lot of pressure on the individual to maximize the benefits of whatever allotted paid leave they have, because there's so little of it. This leads to a question I'm curious about.
Given that just about all of us here share certain values around living in walkable, well-connected places with good access to urban amenities...what's your number one priority for your vacation time? (This question is a bit predicated on the idea that you work full time, and I know not all of us are in that situation right now, so if you're in school, retired, etc., imagine working a full time job with two-ish weeks of vacation a year.) The core thing I'm getting at is...do you use that time to visit other cities (domestic or overseas!) or do you use that time to "get away from it all," i.e. camping, road trip to small towns, etc. Or if it's a mix, or something in between, that's fine too. Part of my ulterior motive here is to share cool vacation ideas, honestly!
Somewhat related, I just got back from my excellent North Carolina adventure yesterday. I usually just create one "city visit" type video when I do a four-night trip like this, but...I think I got two videos out of this one. Stay tuned!
Comments
I'm gen-X... My kids and I just visited Mt Hood area for a week. The kids instantly (and I mean instantly!) wanted to be outside all the time. That struck me as a meaningful data point, because I have come to question my own upbringing, as an anomaly. (Maybe it wasn't?) I'm not sure what to make of our current politics, but it seems ...uh, feral. ...primal? I'm tempted to say, "we really, really don't like strangers." Then I ask myself for whom I'm designing... The most general version would be a space of say 4 square miles, in which it was mostly safe for kids to run free on bikes. That's basically a vacation for kids, 365 days a year. The parents just need to see minimal "out-group" strangers in order to feel relaxed because their kids are safely ignored. But, just implementing that much would (I don't know, actually π€...) break most of our current economy? Even in the town I grew up in, there were "in-group" and "out-group" demarcations. The old railroad tracks model was a thing, literally. And family farmers. They still had family farms back then. Vacation, now, is visiting the remnants of the above. The example I started with is Camas, Washington. There's a huge paper mill that was recently pulled back to just an eyesore, but which used to stink up the whole area. It's an ideal vacation spot, and if you need to recall the problems arising from dense human populations, you can drive across the bridge to look at the homeless in Portland. Yes I'm deeply concerned about this contrast between the okay and the not okay. (Don't get me wrong: I'm laughing. But it's a nervous laugh.) For starters, the walk score in Camas looks to run at about 40 to 50. The irony is so thick you can barely move. While we were there, the town hosted a community event! A ...CAR show in which they closed off the five or so streets in the "old downtown" to make it walkable. We could stop in at the high-end foodie shop selling infused oils and vinegars, between a restaurant and a jewelery store. Zillow says you can buy ~1800sf for about $500,000. I'm just wondering how long they'll keep the paper mill muzzled.
Slug Forcontacts
2024-07-22 18:29:24 +0000 UTCMy spouse led a revolt of younger admins to stop having business meetings at golf resorts. None of the younger admin wanted to be in a place where they couldn't cycle or run. Now they meet in DC or other urban areas. We vacation for cultural stuff which is usually big city art museums, concerts, etc. Curious about concerts and culture like Burning Man, Wanderlust, etc. Are there examples of temporary cultural events becoming permanent? Maybe Chataqua NY?
Nancy Alkire
2024-06-14 02:54:20 +0000 UTC
