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The New Haven-Hartford-Springfield Corridor


Bartholomew

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you guys arent looking for enough into it. You see more cars=>instant global warming=>bad.

you are just scratching the surface.

Sprawl is entrenched in conventional wisdom about urban thinking as one of the most negative and evil descriptions to some in the entire lexicon about modern cities. The sprawl you are quoting is basically land consumption, long commutes in gas-guzzling SUVs, and therefore global warming and big-box retail.

There is so much more to it than that, and it goes in big cycles. America's sprawl problem was in the decline of our cities a century ago. These cycles have happened to every city and civilization for thousands of years.

The fact that you want to attribute ALL of global warming to driving our cars is naive.

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Um, I wasn't making that case at all so watch who you are calling naive. I was using global warming as an example of a problem some people choose to ignore because it is inconvenient for them to think about. Sprawl is such an issue. I wasn't attaching global warming directly to sprawl (although they are related). When you say the sprawl problem is in decline, what do you mean? We continue to relplace farms and open space with wasteful large lot subdivision housing. We keep building bigger and better roads so people can live farther and farther from our cities. We continue to build yes, huge big box stores that eat up land and necessitate automobile traffic. Shall I continue? If you are saying we are doing less of that than we did in the 50s, fine, but that does not mean sprawl is not a problem or it is somehow going away.

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I really don't have a problem with the Berlin Turnpike because I consider that more of a highway with retail on it. In other words, most of the businesses popped up along the edge because of a high concentration of through-traffic before I-91 was built. The strip malls along the Berlin Turnpike are more like rest stops than anything else. What I hate are the strip malls that pop up along the edge of towns like Buckland Hills in Manchester or the Shoppes at Farmington Valley in Canton. It must be said however that the Shoppes at Famington Valley is the nicest "strip mall" I've ever seen and is designed to look like a downtown area of a city. The problem is the placement along Route 44 which prevents it from acting as a town center. There is pretty much no way into the place if you don't have a car.

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I really don't have a problem with the Berlin Turnpike because I consider that more of a highway with retail on it. In other words, most of the businesses popped up along the edge because of a high concentration of through-traffic before I-91 was built. The strip malls along the Berlin Turnpike are more like rest stops than anything else. What I hate are the strip malls that pop up along the edge of towns like Buckland Hills in Manchester or the Shoppes at Farmington Valley in Canton. It must be said however that the Shoppes at Famington Valley is the nicest "strip mall" I've ever seen and is designed to look like a downtown area of a city. The problem is the placement along Route 44 which prevents it from acting as a town center. There is pretty much no way into the place if you don't have a car.

so the same can be said about the post road in milford/orange. the strip malls are just rest stops along the way because it used to be a major through road. it's sprawl no matter how you look at it, no matter how long it's been there. old sprawl is better than new sprawl in that it's not taking over open space, but it's still sprawl.

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so the same can be said about the post road in milford/orange. the strip malls are just rest stops along the way because it used to be a major through road. it's sprawl no matter how you look at it, no matter how long it's been there. old sprawl is better than new sprawl in that it's not taking over open space, but it's still sprawl.

I understand what you are saying but you have to look at these things in terms of how they effect the towns surrounding them. While I agree the strip malls on the Turnpike are still technically sprawl, I'd rather it be along a highway than on the farmland outskirts of a developed town.

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Sprawl is NOT a problem in Connecticut.

i really want to know what your definition of sprawl is, because i think we're thinking of very different things. but if you define sprawl as any development that reduces density, makes for a very pedestrian unfriendly environment, and is based on the automobile, then CT is full of it.

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There is good development and bad development in urban areas and in suburban areas. For example a development in a city does not autmatically make it pedestrian friendly and mixed use.

They are building a new shopping plaza at the corner of Airport Road and Wethersfield Avenue in Hartford's South Meadows/South End. It will have a CVS and additonal retail space. To make room for this they knocked down a former restaurant. This is not good development...espeically in a city.

Now I have to say I love Hartford and basically I want everything good for Hartford but I have to say West Hartford Center and hopefully Blue Back Square are good developments. They encourage people to walk, they are higher density, have parking mostly in back of the the buildings, etc.

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There is good development and bad development in urban areas and in suburban areas. For example a development in a city does not autmatically make it pedestrian friendly and mixed use.

They are building a new shopping plaza at the corner of Airport Road and Wethersfield Avenue in Hartford's South Meadows/South End. It will have a CVS and additonal retail space. To make room for this they knocked down a former restaurant. This is not good development...espeically in a city.

Now I have to say I love Hartford and basically I want everything good for Hartford but I have to say West Hartford Center and hopefully Blue Back Square are good developments. They encourage people to walk, they are higher density, have parking mostly in back of the the buildings, etc.

this is very true and more towns in CT need developments like west hartford center, but development like what you're describing for airport road sounds horrible and does not belong in a city. that's sprawl (kind of like the walmart being built in providence with a large parking lot). CVS is notorious for parking lots and unwalkable development.

i have a couple pictures of providence where there's a CVS and walgreens across the street from each other with lots right out front on the intersection of 2 fairly major roads in teh neighborhood. the walgreens is slightly more walkable and at least has some landscaping. the CVS is awful.

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