More On Arcades

This week's column by Allan Horton in the Pelican Press continues the cry for more sensible growth. He also zeros in on arcades:

Abusive to pedestrians whose sidewalk spaces they overwhelm, the developers of its newest breed of high-rises now want license to capture leasable or salable, air-conditioned space within the volume of a building cube that confiscates and exploits a “canopy” or “arcade” touted as shelter, but which really is no more than urban cavern. By executing such architectural trespass, the developers automatically eliminate street trees – the single remaining element of the streetscape that lends grace, human scale and natural ambience to congested, concrete canyons.

Everyone should read Alan's eloquent cry against what is happening here.

We also need to let everyone know that the Commission hearing on the text amendment that would eliminate arcades will not be Dec 12 as we had believed. Since the Commission expects much input and discussion of many of the proposed downtown code text amendments, they have decided to cover these issues over three different meetings.

We do not yet know for sure when the arcades will be discussed but believe it will be Jan 17. We won't know for sure until the agenda for this meeting is published in the newspaper.

In the meantime we would ask that readers of this blog let the Commissioners know your feelings. We of course oppose allowing arcades to cover our wonderful pedestrian friendly sidewalks.

Commissioner contact information is found at the City web site.