[sustran] If you care about cities, return that new iPad

[Vinay Baindur]

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/if_you_care_about_cities_retur.html




If you care about cities, return that new ipad[image: Kaid Benfield]

Posted March 13, 2012 in Living
Sustainably<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/issues/living_sustainably/>
, Moving Beyond Oil<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/issues/moving_beyond_oil/>
Tags: apple<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/if_you_care_about_cities_retur.html>
, corporatecampus<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/if_you_care_about_cities_retur.html>
, retrofittingsuburbia<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/if_you_care_about_cities_retur.html>
, smartercities<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/if_you_care_about_cities_retur.html>
,smartgrowth<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/if_you_care_about_cities_retur.html>
, sprawlrepairmanual<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/if_you_care_about_cities_retur.html>
, sustainablecommunities<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/if_you_care_about_cities_retur.html>
, walkability<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/if_you_care_about_cities_retur.html>

  [image: the new Apple "campus" (via City of
Cupertino)]<http://www.cupertino.org/index.aspx?page=1107>

If you care about cities, about walkable communities, about healing the
crappy environment thrust upon us for the last four decades in the form of
suburban sprawl, then get a refund on that new iPad 3.  Take your iPhone
back, too.  Because its manufacturer, oh-so-hip Apple, Inc., is betting
that the company is cool enough to get away with violating even the most
basic tenets of smart growth and walkability in the sprawling,
car-dependent design of its new
headquarters<http://www.cupertino.org/index.aspx?page=1107>.
Don’t let them collect on that bet.

While communities all up and down the Silicon Valley are trying to repair
sprawl by replacing it with smart
growth<http://www.siliconvalleycf.org/content/press-release-october-12-2011-regional-planning-grants>,
Apple is actually taking a site that is now parking lots and low-rise boxes
and making it *worse* for the community.  Yes, it will be iconic, assuming
you think a building shaped like a whitewall motorcycle
tire<http://scootershop.com/catalog/images/PX150-007.jpg> is
iconic, but it will reduce current street
connectivity<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/being_connected_is_a_very_good.html>,
seal off potential walking routes and, as I wrote some time back,
essentially turn its back on its
community<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/why_is_apple_turning_its_back.html>.
With a parking garage designed to hold over ten thousand cars, by the way.

It is essentially the opposite of the great vision of a suburban retrofit
that was presented in this space
yesterday<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/how_to_retrofit_failing_suburb.html>.
The site is remarkably similar, actually.  But, while June Williamson and
Anne Vaterlaus proposed increased walkability, infill housing, and a street
grid on the site, Apple is removing a street and putting up “perimeter
protection” to make sure that anyone who might want to ride a bike or walk
from point A to point B will have to go around the enormous site.

The definitive synthesis of land use and travel
research<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/massive_study_confirms_that_de.html>
found
that the degree of street connectivity (frequent intersections and blocks
sized for foot travel, creating multiple pathways, are best) is the number
one indicator of how much walking takes place in a neighborhood.  And it’s
the number two indicator of how much driving takes place, bringing
emissions with it.

  [image: the existing site (via Google
Earth)]<http://www.flickr.com/photos/mapei/6977904645/>

  [image: the future of the site (via City of
Cupertino)]<http://www.cupertino.org/index.aspx?page=1107>

While the area is so car-dependent now that I’m sure few people there do
much bicycling or walking, that’s not the point:  This will be locked in
place for thirty, forty, fifty years down the road.  A lot of us are hoping
current suburbs can be made more sustainable and people-friendly by then,
with walkable mixed uses.  Everything that Richard
Florida<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735804575535880450842698.html>
and Chris Leinberger<http://saportareport.com/blog/2012/01/urbanist-chris-leinberger-impressed-by-new-trends-in-gwinnett/>
have
been telling us for the last decade points to a future market that is going
to want more, not less, walkable
urbanism<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/when_the_real_estate_market_re.html>
.

The business community in the currently car-dependent, asphalt-and-low-rise
suburb of Dublin, Ohio, believes that the kinds of employees they want to
attract are going to demand
it<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/remaking_a_suburb_for_the_crea.html>.
Companies all over the country are abandoning the tired suburban campus
model<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/is_it_over_for_suburban_corpor.html>
in
favor of more urban settings.

Apple seems to think it is hip enough to transcend what most of us want for
the future from everyone else, and that the city of Cupertino will be so
appreciative of the company’s jobs and tax revenue that high-concept design
and the corporate equivalent of a gated
community<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/gated_communities_are_not_nece.html>
will
be more important than trying to cut down on automobile dependence.

The company didn’t have to do it this way.  They could have built the site
with a combination of corporate offices, new housing (the notorious
shortage of affordable homes in the Silicon Valley causes much
environmental damage<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/impact_study_predicts_environm.html><http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/impact_study_predicts_environm.html>),
and neighborhood services.  They still could have found a way to secure
parts of their offices that need to be secure.  If they built enough new
units of housing, perhaps they could reduce the hefty amount of corporate
parking, because some employees could choose to live nearby and walk.  By
facing the street, they could have set themselves up nicely for a future
transit line.

They could have helped create a real neighborhood by knitting together a
district that is currently fractured spatially.  They could have made this
about the community rather than about themselves.  But this isn’t really
for the people, see; this is for the one percent.  If the Occupy movement
had a clue, there would be tents going up in Cupertino right now.

When the new facility was first proposed, Galina Tachieva, author of
the *Sprawl
Repair Manual <http://www.sprawlrepair.com/>*, criticized
it<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=galina%20tachieva%20apple&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgalinatachieva.posterous.com%2Fnot-this-time-why-the-new-apple-campus-doesnt&ei=HrVeT-TIAqre0QHO5cW4Bw&usg=AFQjCNG5jr66MDjBnrzV0NEjZ5AILQwYOA&cad=rja>
.  So did Lloyd
Alter<http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/one-ring-to-bring-them-all-and-in-the-darkness-bind-them-apples-new-headquarters.html>
 of *Treehugger*.  So did the *LA
Times*<http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/10/entertainment/la-ca-applehq-20110911>
.  So did I<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/why_is_apple_turning_its_back.html>.
(But one urbanist whom I like very much but who apparently worships at the
Church of Steve Jobs actually celebrated Jobs's
advocacy<http://www.myurbanist.com/archives/7467> for
this mistake.)  I had some hope that the design would be improved before
being formally submitted.  Silly me.

I guess I don’t have to like it.  But I don’t have to buy Apple's products,
either.

*Move your cursor over the images for credit information.*

*Kaid Benfield writes (almost) daily about community, development, and the
environment.  For more posts, see his blog's home
page<http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/>
. * *Please also visit NRDC’s Sustainable Communities Video
Channel<http://www.youtube.com/user/NRDCcommunities>
.*