THE FUTURE OF DOWNTOWN URBAN DESIGN IDEAS

It is on the decisions of our local leaders and their staff to create an urban frontier in Bakersfield’s Downtown City building. The partnership of landholders is essential to truly create lasting value to our downtown.

The partnership decisions made together consecutively are somewhat about familiar urban things. They do however carry an awesome responsibility about the future of urban growth. These decision makers burden is essentially to carry changes for the way we collectively think of future city building.

Decisions about City building should be made about some inventions on the urban frontier. To accomplish this stepping into the future a development framework plan must be made for downtown as a realm to incorporate urban design ideas.

The right to innovate should be built into property owner’s rights to guarantee citizens the fate of “Commons” in this connected downtown building development. “Commons” are the streets, highways, parks and public buildings that are open for everyone. (Infrastructure) The balance of future land-use intensity should be supported by greater expansion of “Commons” or at least the certainty of a planned future commitment.

Any single property owner who obeys the regulations and rules of the development process established are capable of building. There are few applications that can be excluded for political reasons or protectionism.

The lack of a clear and concise downtown development framework plan that should offer a guide for interpretation by private and public entities is presently an opportunity lost to both the city and it’s downtown landowners. There is no such thing for our present downtown urban renewal area futures.

The lack of a central theme that has never been committed to a document for interpretation and therefore has no legal standing is a risky path to travel for any partnership. This existing downtown condition is not productive in the setting of suggesting individual ideas without a general and acceptable consensus of priorities. This was never clearer than when City Manager Tandy recently suggested the redefinition of downtown goals and objectives.

Due to this past lack of a direction, the suggestion that Councilman Benham with the Council further these strategies openly and discuss them in public rather than behind closed doors in a huddled private session was good indeed. An opportunity now exists for Council members and officials with the public at large to openly discuss appropriate downtown development. Rather than to offer a variety of singular specific individual ideas as how to move into a self enlightened future, an array of ideas should be welded together to form some majority consensus in the geography of downtown.

The marketplace bestows success, not government policy or corporate patronage. Competitive instincts and risk taking should thus be measured together as the essential thing that innovation needs. The development process should be competitive and rather seek the balanced evaluation for the winning project by the structural process already in place. The freedom of these activities does not need to be constricted by over zealous conservatism and extraordinary financial evaluations.

All specific individual development applications should be part of a larger and more encompassing plan about the changing values of ideas and property rights in our downtown area. The remarkable developments in other comparable economies and city downtowns are only mere markers in remarkable experiments of public policy inspired by developers with thoughtful, well conceived and timely development plans.

Excellent urban design ideas are the only true foundation for real action. Until government and public services rise in our city to a broader realization that quality of design should be valued as highly as the probable risks of financial success, it might be impossible to build into Bakersfield’s cities future a “Commons” either worthy of our great past settlers or prized by the next generation to dwell within.

BY Graham Kaye-Eddie – Master Urban Designer.

Makabusi Inc. – Bakersfield – California

Email – makabusi@pacbell.net

Black people aren’t animals

For democracy to work in Africa it's essential to treat black people as fully human, not as children, idiots, or animals. A shocking idea, but it might succeed...

EPA Settles suit over lax enforcement

One wonders what the future timing for clean up actions might be?

A (brief) break for delinquent taxpayers

Arizona, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Ohio have recently proposed or held amnesties for delinquent taxpayers, in an effort to help balance budgets. By Associated Press

Behind America's latest borrowing boom

With the lure of low interest rates and hefty discounts, Americans borrowed in record amounts in November.

DEBTORS IN AMERICA

Last year set records for both the number of companies defaulting on debt and the amount owed, the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's reported. Worldwide, it said, 211 companies - 162 of them from the US - left $115.4 billion unpaid. Among the leaders: Enron and two major California utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison. The old records, 132 defaulters and $42.3 billion in debt, were set in 2000.

BRITISH RAIL FUTURES

A 10-year plan to spend $48 billion on rebuilding and modernizing the struggling national rail system was announced by the British government, although it conceded that matching private investment likely will be difficult to raise. The system, which has been called Europe's worst, was forced into bankruptcy last October. It has been dogged by a series of crashes, delays caused by emergency repairs, and strikes, all of which have sapped public confidence. The government's Strategic Rail Authority estimates the overhaul will cost up to $101 billion

Free trade's dual impact down on the farm

Even as President Bush extols open markets, farmers wonder who wins.