Human landscapes in SW Florida

[6a]

One of the comments says it looks like circuit boards, and that's not far off.  I haven't been to FL in 20 years, and even then I don't recall it being quite like this.  I just can't imagine living on some of those lots, although the undeveloped ones with random houses scattered throughout would have been ace as a kid.

Oh yeah, something something about sprawl

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/09/human_landscapes_in_sw_florida.html

A couple weeks ago, I was listening to a story by NPR's Planet Money team about "Toxie" a toxic asset they had purchased to follow and help tell the story of the recent financial meltdown. One of the mortgages in Toxie was on a home bought for investment in Bradenton, Florida, and the team took a look at housing in the area. Many homes there are empty and have been for years. Huge developments sit partially completed among densely built up neighborhoods and swampland. A guest stated that there were "enough housing lots in Charlotte County to last for more than 100 years". Boom and bust residential development has drastically affected parts of southwest Florida for decades now, and I spent some time (with the help of Google Earth), looking around the area. With permission from the fine folks at Google, here are a few glimpses at development in southwest Florida.

[Alps]

You have to wonder why developers choose all these fancy shapes.  From the ground, all people notice is that they have to turn down a precise order of streets to get to their dead end where they can't interact with anyone else.  The best organized developments are the most boring ones from the air - plain grids with every street connecting.  They also usually make the best use of a particular plot of land.  Call me New Urbanist, but I prefer to think of myself as Old Urbanist.  Ghost developments are ridiculous - there's plenty of opportunity to infill and gentrify cities rather than move ever farther away and end up with ever more traffic on feeder roads that doesn't need to be on any road at all.  It would make public transit more viable in many places too.

[mightyace]

  What puzzles me about these pictures is the vastness of the paved roads to nowhere.

Economically it makes to sense to pave a road until you are ready to build that section of the development.

[Scott5114]

Well, I suppose it makes more sense to developers to build the roads first, so you can get all the roadbuilding done at once and get that out of the way, allowing the housebuilding equipment to use the new roads to get to the lots.

[Alps]

What puzzles me about these pictures is the vastness of the paved roads to nowhere.

Economically it makes to sense to pave a road until you are ready to build that section of the development.

Well, you also have people who come in and want to check out the scenery before buying a lot, or who want to see a home under construction.  Here in NJ, there are roads that remain unpaved even after houses have been completed, but the market for homes here is a lot greater than down in Florida, so they can get away with it.

[6a]

You have to wonder why developers choose all these fancy shapes.  From the ground, all people notice is that they have to turn down a precise order of streets to get to their dead end where they can't interact with anyone else.  The best organized developments are the most boring ones from the air - plain grids with every street connecting.  They also usually make the best use of a particular plot of land.  Call me New Urbanist, but I prefer to think of myself as Old Urbanist.

One of the things that struck me was the amount of circular subdivisions (not cul-de-sacs).  That's something I've not seen before, perhaps it gets the most bang for the developer's buck?  And the one in picture 20 is ridiculous, I bet the surrounding owners are plenty pissed about that little gem.

On the subject of dead-end roads, some years ago I and a friend did a study trying to link cul-de-sacs with ADHD (among other things.)  It was interesting coffee talk, but probably wouldn't have been published, lol

[agentsteel53]

The best organized developments are the most boring ones from the air - plain grids with every street connecting.

those are the second-best organized developments.  

the best look approximately like this:



that's about the right level of development, yes.

but the reason for all that demented fancy amoebic shit is because people want to be assured that they, and only they, can live in Olde Turnipe Estatese, and no riffraff is going to use their streets as a - heavens! - way to get to Point B.  If the grid were simple, well laid-out, and easy to understand, you'd get all kinds of untermenschen in there.

[mightyace]

If the grid were simple, well laid-out, and easy to understand, you'd get all kinds of untermenschen in there.

Sad but often true.

This kind of lack of connectivity frustrates law enforcement, fire and other first responders as well as any private sector delivery operation like UPS, FedEx, Dominoes, Pizza Hut, etc.

[TheStranger]

This makes me ask: When was the last time a new development involved a traditional, interconnected street grid, as opposed to geographically-noncontextual cul-de-sacs and loops?

[Scott5114]

Now how could we possibly know that?

[mightyace]

This makes me ask: When was the last time a new development involved a traditional, interconnected street grid, as opposed to geographically-noncontextual cul-de-sacs and loops?

I don't know about residential development.  However, there are a couple of commercial developments around Nashville that are designed in a faje town style with a grid of "streets" interconnecting the shopping areas and the center of the development looks like a "downtown" with the smaller shops.  (The big box shops are in the outer areas.)

[deathtopumpkins]

The recent replacement of Coliseum Mall with Peninsula Town Center here in Hampton  was like that. It's a grid of streets with mixed-use (stores, offices, apartments) tall (5-6 story) buildings in the center, shifting to big box stores and parking lots on the outside.

[BigMattFromTexas]

Some of those seem like a typical American (unfortunately), but we seem to care more about how stuff looks and being showy, than thinking about the other people whose houses are completely falling apart, and especially those who don't even have a house. It's a sad day today...

But I myself made a funny looking thing in my fictional city "Tyson" it looks like a dude looking sideways. It's pretty funny.

But some people really need to see some of the houses in the ghettos, or even Mexico.. (Crazy!!!)
BigMatt

[florida]

I've always wanted to drive into the middle of Rotonda West.....to have a true WTF moment. That thing is our answer to the Nazca Lines.

Also love the great idea to build a six-runway "Everglades Jetport"....in the middle of the Everglades. Thanks, but one ValuJet, one Northwest Orient and one Eastern crash were enough.

And #20 is a total clusterf*ck; it looks like the designer was a Mahjong fan.

[bugo]

I'd rather live in a small, modest house on an acre of land than in a McMansion on a lot not much bigger than the house.

I also wouldn't want to live that close to a body of water.  Too many water moccasins and gators and other undesirables hang around water.

[Scott5114]

I wonder whether maintenance is actively done on the streets in those dead developments, or whether the useless streets are being left to be reclaimed by nature.

[mightyace]

I certainly hope they're aren't being maintained.

Of course, most of us know that even abandoned or neglected pavement can remain passable for decades.

[realjd]

One of my friends' brothers works as an urban planner in the Chicago area. He does work laying out subdivisions like these. His nickname is Ace, and he swears that he planned the roads in one neighborhood to spell out "Ace". He also claims to be a fan of putting two roads with similar/identical names into a neighborhood on opposite sides, like "Willobrook Trail" and "Willobrook Trace".

[mightyace]

He also claims to be a fan of putting two roads with similar/identical names into a neighborhood on opposite sides, like "Willobrook Trail" and "Willobrook Trace".

That man is sick.  Something needs to be done about him.  Suggestions?

[agentsteel53]

is this Ace feller responsible for Carmel Hell here in San Diego?  A bunch of streets in the same area have Carmel as the first word.  In fact, on the 56 freeway there is a distance sign listing the next three exits: Carmel Mountain Rd, Carmel Valley Rd, Carmel Creek Rd.  

faceplant!

there are at least two others I can think of: Carmel Canyon and Carmel Country.  

and don't get me started on Vista Sorrento, Sorrento Valley, Mira Sorrento, Mira Mesa, Miramar, Del Mar, Del Dios, etc etc... the chain can be extended to cover damn near every road with a Spanish name in North County.

[Chris]

Interesting stuff, I noticed these empty subdivisions before, but I didn't think they were from the 1960's, as Florida had 13 million people less back then than today. (you think that'd create some need for housing)