This is the city of utrecht. One of the biggest cities of the Netherlands. They started restoring the city center about 15 years ago. The traffic was either put outside or reduced. Biking, trams and buses take care of mass transit. It’s parts of the cu2030 project (stations gebieded) https://cu2030.nl/ if you want to know more. the project has been a great success and is used as a blueprint for other cities in the country.
Thank you for sharing!
My city is planning to make a sports area in a patch of vacant land in the middle of town, the plans show that the frickin’ parking lots take up about 50% of the whole site! They are also building brand new baseball fields there even when we already have 3 right now that’s only 1.63 km away. They haven’t started any construction yet so I’m contemplating a Lil sabotaging, maybe plant some bamboo in that area idk.
Maybe also attend Town Halls and find an opportunity to speak up.
Run for local elections!!!
This should be the first thing everyone tries tbh. Many town halls are online these days it’s so easy to do
A local tower development - one as high as 92 storeys - is also getting a community centre in the middle. The community centre is 8 storeys, with parking underneath THAT.
in short, put the parking underground. I came to say that. If they don’t have a solution that involves parking safely out of the way, then it should fail at city hall.
When the local hospital built a new tower, I was surprised to see they used NONE of the 60-80 feet under-neath the new block for parking. And by parking, I mean 2000 10x20 partitioned but unsegregated underground storage areas that can be used for cars, hoarding of medical equipment in a pre-pandemic phase, or for emergency ward space later. So, everything you’d want to do with your parking lot, but also out of the elements and well-served by power, lighting and security.
What does planting bamboo do?
Bamboo grows and spreads fast and is very hard to remove as it builds a strong network of underground roots. You need very heavy machinery to get rid of it.
The perfect plan. They definitely won’t have any heavy machinery when they show up to start construction on a new sports arena.
Lol, yes. I can’t imagine that it would help much, but it would definitely be annoying. Especially for the parking lot. Imagine that instead of basically flattening the ground and pouring asphalt over it, you’d have to tear apart a thick bamboo forest yard by yard. Also they’d need to make really sure to remove all of the bamboo, or else it could grow back, maybe even through the asphalt.
oh shit that’s definitely going in the back of my mind for a mischevious moment 😈
Attract pandas, which are a protected species and thus cannot be relocated and prevent construction in the immediate area. Oldest trick in the book.
The true definition of baboozling
We ain’t doing shit “when the boomers die” except fight over water and resources on a dying world. Like, I appreciate the optimism, but…
Besides that a significant portion of the youth is turning hard-right as we speak. Young progressives always think all young people are like them.
That’s paired with an even greater portion turning far-left. Overall, Gen Z is far more progressive than reactionary, though there are radical fascists as well.
I haven’t seen any data or polling that supports this. A larger portion of young people are “more liberal,” but I’ve not seen anything that says that the extensions of the far, radical right have been met with equal (let alone greater) turns towards leftist political ideology.
Perhaps you just mean center-left people refer to themselves as “leftists” more often? That’s more of a result of the shift in the Overton window than any actual groundswell of leftist support.
Check Wikipedia, haha. It’s an extremely well known trend that Gen-Z is seeing a rise in actual support for Socialism. The majority lean liberal, but Gen-Z supports Socialism far more than previous generations, as radicalization is increasing in general. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_Generation_Z
Thanks for the Wikipedia link.
That you don’t see the difference between the hyper-radicalization of the right and the “progressive pro-government” tendencies of Gen Z is precisely what I’m describing.
You spend most of your time on this platform talking about videogames and coffee occasionally punctuated by airy anti-capitalist sentiments. The young–and typically white and male–hard right talk about guns and politics, errant and blind though it is, and they train for revolution.
There is no growing revolutionary sentiment on the left that is meeting, matching, or exceeding the violent revolutionary discourse and “propaganda of the deed” by the right.
We’re losing. Hiding behind a hope expressed by a Wikipedia article that maybe this “progressive” and “pro government” sentiment is actually what will pull us out of this death spiral actually makes me more pessimistic about the future.
Go play Starfield.
“Haha.”
There’s radicalization on both sides, but the general trend is to the left.
What prompted you to dig through my comment history? That’s extremely weird.
Well, my point is, no, it’s not. One “side” is growing more radical, and the other “side” is being more adamant about their social media comments. Does that seem equal to you?
“Dig” through your comment history? I took 30 seconds, clicked on your name, scrolled a few times, and then came back. What prompted me to do that? To see if your general profile matches the broad Pollyanna ignorance you’re expressing in this conversation.
a significant portion of the youth is turning hard-right as we speak
Normal thing to happen when the enthusiasm of youth is blunted by betrayal and rejection and defeat.
Like, fuck Fascism, but I can’t really blame a guy who has soured on the whole “Hope and Change” thing. Then having your brain hooked up to the YouTube algorithm of Andrew Tates and JBPs just blasting away all the braincells that aren’t killed by booze and vaping…
The allure of Fascism is the promise of a big ethnic club to end your sense of alienation and despair combined with a near-to-hand enemy you can lash out at with the consent of the police. The Methamphetamine of ideologies - powerful highs and hard crashes. Its what you take when you’re scrambling at the edge of a psychic pit.
Damn, that hit hard.
Who’s JBP?
Jordan Peterson but for some reason they’d say Andrew Tate’s name but not his lmao
Just didn’t feel like typing the whole thing out. Had half a mind to call him “Kermit” but I figure that’s a bit too deep a cut around here.
Not only that, cities don’t even want to pony up the cash for repairing potholes let alone massive landscaping projects.
We can plant trees ourselves. Community gardens, etc.
I feel like this picture is misleading. The first one was taken a lot further away from those towers and you can see most of the trees were already there. The first picture is also taken in rainy weather which makes everything seem way more dull than it really is. It’s hard to tell what has actually changed between these two pictures, if anything at all.
River. It’s the river. Kinda hard to see if you don’t know what to look for.
It’s hard to tell what has actually changed between these two pictures, if anything at all.
The bleeding great moat going through the middle, for a start?
i assumed the moat is simply not visible on the first pic? did they make the water appear out of nowhere?
The road used to be a canal, and was drained, and paved to 12 lanes in the 70’s. They ripped it back out and re-naturalized it to great success.
They canal is the road, the nature is sidewalks. Literally everything is different.
ok that’s pretty epic if true
so I found this location on Street View and there have indeed been some changes since 2014 and now:
Second is most likely a mockup photo for the project as it was proposed.
No it’s real; see my other comment.
Yeah I meant they did go through with it, but it’s not (yet) exactly like the plans show; they’re still building most of the stuff around it.
This is a real picture
I’ll happily believe that once I see where it came from. At the moment I still think it looks uncanny in a way but I may well be wrong.
Here’s a page detailing the results of the restoration with plenty of other photos, including a higher resolution version of the photo in the post
https://arquitecturaviva.com/works/recuperacion-del-canal-catharijnesingel-en-utrecht
Thank you! I looked around but hadn’t found this.
It’s a bit less idyllic at the moment since it’s still winter but in the spring and summer it really does look like that.
Oh my god then shut up and go look it up. Good lord. “I won’t believe this, despite multiple people confirming it, until whatever will make me believe it is spoon fed to me directly”.
I did look for it, and if you had read a few comments further, you’d have seen I have been corrected.
these aren’t plans tho, I’m pretty sure it’s a real picture
That is my hometown Utrecht. It used to be a canal but was partially changed into roads in the 50s. Luckily it has now been changed back to a canal again. Was quite a project but it’s an amazing improvement.
Of course it’s in the Nederlands. Jullie hebben bijna altijd alles goed, bijna…
We laugh, but there are a lot of plans across North America to revert the overuse of car infrastructure. Even Quebec small town, who love saying they’re the opposite of Montreal, are desifying and giving up on doubling lanes on roads, adding bike paths and attempting to work with what they have to reduce solo car usage.
Why not just make a green space? Whats the point of bulldozing and flooding the land underneath the highway? Did a representative for the mosquitos make this meme?
THE MOSQUITO LOBBY
I KNEW IT
I’m pretty sure this meme is just suggesting making green spaces out of former highways, not literally turning it into a canal.
Mosquito lobby. They suck.
GET IT SUCK GET IT
Same with the Vacuum lobby!
No, you don’t get it. The highway is still there, its just been flooded from global warming
Okay so in case you’re serious: The water was there first. They filled it in and built a road before reversing that.
IIRC it was a river before it was a highway, and they decided to restore it to it’s natural state.
You mean bulldozing and flooding the land that they drained and paved? It was a canal before it was paved in the 70’s
Also, the river probably doesn’t suit the transportation of goods necessary for high population densities. Maybe an underground rail?
You do realise rivers have been our highways for thousands of years?
Okay, pal, go ahead and transport 30,000 kilos of produce upriver within the next 2 days 16 times and tell me how efficient this river idea works out.
Spoiler: It’s gonna be terrible.
ok
I don’t think the Goudvis cargo ship’s 18 Meter Width is going to fit in the canal depicted above in Utrecht, just a hunch. I can’t speak for this cargo ship specifically but cargo ships in general are incapable of going upriver.
Feel free to nitpick this random image I got from the internet somewhere, but if you’re really that worried; there’s still a road next to the canal.
You’re complaining that I gave your low effort reply a decent counter argument? I feel like that’s a you problem.
The dutch have more than one road (surprising, I know). Removing the eyesore won’t impact their shipping and transport
Removing a 4 or 6 way interchange absolutely would impact shipping and transport, which is why I suggested underground rail as a replacement.
As neither of us are civil engineers, I’m going to stick with my intuition on this until you can provide proof of impact.
You have no idea of my titles, but thanks for reiterating that you have no idea what you’re talking about.
They’re Dutch.
They get all antsy-in-their-pantsy of they can’t see water from where they’re standing.
When most of the humans die 😂
I thought we were just going to immediately live somewhere affordable, then change jobs…?
There’s small documentary about this canal on youtube. It’s fascinating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fePpwYCs_JM
Why wait? Let’s do it right now!
Can’t. They vote against anyone to the left of a procorporate strike blocking genocide supporting piece of shit in the primaries.
I think you’ll find that isn’t the boomers, that’s the elite.
They are being propped up by the boomers.
NIMBYism
Reminds me of the time when a pedestrianized shopping destination was gonna be built somewhere in the London borough of Westminster, but it wasn’t allowed because the “locals were opposed to it”
I can’t remember much about that, there’s probably a Jay Foreman video that talks about the boroughs of London that mentions it.
ITT: Doomer posting
Yeah, but if we aren’t going to die next Thursday we will have to work do improve shit, and working is hard. Let’s wait for some violent event happening so we don’t have to think about shit
Dunno about a canal in a populated area, that’s breeding grounds for bugs. Definitely down with fucking the car-centric building we have now though.
It’s mostly only standing water that breeds insects. If the canal is moving it should be fine.
They did similar things in Seoul (albeit not nearly as beautiful), and I’ve seen them in Japan. You’re not going to have many bugs, because at the end of the day it’s still only a dozen meters wide in the middle of the city.
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If everything online English people say is any indication, I think that’s a yes.
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This is because they’re too south to be northerners and to north to be southerners. The literal middle child of England. Every time you have to drive down south and it’s either pay to take the M6 toll road or deal with going closer to Birmingham, every stingy northerner is thinking in their head “fuck, this is a difficult choice”.
Bugs are good! More biodiversity!
Doesn’t matter. You and everyone else will too by then. No doubt.
It ain’t gonna happen. I don’t mean to downplay what a shit gen the Boomers were but let me tell you, there are still boomers in Gen X and Millennials and this bullshit is going to persist unless lessons are learned and people stop touting and financing and voting for toxic politicians and corporations running the show. Is it getting better, maybe, but the assholes are going to continue to land in power and gain popularity because people are dumb and narrow-minded. I already see it in others from my generation and I don’t think we’re headed for the anti-boomer utopia we’re all wishing for, maybe better than their generation but a long way to go still
Boomers hope this won’t happen because it would underscore just how bad they were for the entire world.
