Downtowns Quotes

There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans. ~ Jane Jacobs

Stores are the same everywhere; small downtowns are done. Not just in America, but globally. You hear the same music on every station, all our building materials look the same, and all our clothes look the same. But I thought that it couldn't be that simple, because Arizona is not Minnesota. There is this other reality, which is a reality of landscape. ~ Cynthia Daignault

The final assault on the old city arrived via the interstate highway system. In 1956 the Federal-Aid Highway Act funneled billions of tax dollars into the construction of new freeways, including dozens of wide new roads that would push right into the heart of cities. This - along with federal home mortgage subsidies and zoning that effectively prohibited any other kind of development but sprawl - rewarded Americans who abandoned downtowns and punished those who stayed behind, with freeways cutting swaths through inner-city neighborhoods from Baltimore to San Francisco. Anyone who could afford to get out, did. ~ Charles Montgomery

I have been dwelling upon downtowns. This is not because mixtures of primary uses are unneeded elsewhere in cities. On the contrary they are needed, and the success of mixtures downtown (on in the most intensive portions of cities, whatever they are called) is related to the mixture possible in other part of cities. ~ Jane Jacobs

It's too late now. The game's been won by companies who don't two shits about community character or decent jobs. Congratufuckinglations, America! We did the deal. Now we've got an unlimited supply of cheap commodities and unhealthy food and crumbling downtowns, no sense of place, and a permanent under class. Yay. The underclass isn't relegated to urban ghettos either. It's coast to coast and especially in between. Take US 50 west from Kansas City to Sacramento or US 6 from Chicago to California and you'll see a couple thousand miles of corn, soybeans, and terminally ill towns. It looks like a scene from The Walking Dead. If there's such a thing as the American Heartland, it has a stake through it. ~ Finn Murphy