Four years ago, my wife and I and our daughter bought a condo in Huron Village, in Cambridge, Mass, where Heather goes to school. ... Right from the start, thinking of Huron Village gave us a "warm and fuzzy feeling". We felt an identification with the other members of Huron Village, a kinship... It felt like "its own entity", even though it is just a mile north of Harvard.
Last year, just for fun, I googled "Huron Village", and was delighted to see some clips on YOU TUBE, about Huron Village. One of the villagers had gone around with a cameraman friend, and interviewed his fellow vilagers, to get a handle on the gist of being a member of Huron Village.
If you have a minute, please do that google search, and see that video, to get this idea.
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Although I have now lived in the Inner Sunset District, for 40 years,... I do not get that same "identification" that I do, when we are visiting the kiddo in Huron Village, which, if it had a Village ball team, I would feel impelled to root for, as they represented My Village, ...not just my shopping district.
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So: this blog is an attempt to see if folks in S.F. , and in particular, my neighbors, right around me, would be open to having the S.F. Planning Dept re-envision my immediate area as "Inner Sunset Village". I want to be able to go down to Big Rec ball field, and root for my Inner Sunset Village Whippets... My neighborhood is more than an "economic unit", more than a shopping district. We are family. We, in fact, are members of the same Village. We just don't think of it in those words. We should. No?
Wikipedia writes about Urban Villages, thusly:
ReplyDeleteUrban village
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For another urban planning concept in China, see Urban village (China).
The main square of Saifi Village in Centre Ville, Beirut, Lebanon
An urban village is an urban planning and urban design concept. It refers to an urban form typically characterized by:
Medium density development
Mixed use zoning
The provision of good public transit
An emphasis on urban design - particularly pedestrianization and public space
Urban villages are seen to provide an alternative to recent patterns of urban development in many cities, especially urban sprawl and modernism. They are generally purported to:
Reduce car reliance and promote cycling, walking and transit use
Provide a high level of self containment (people working, recreating and living in the same area)
Help facilitate strong community institutions and interaction
The concept of urban villages was formally born in Britain in the late 1980s with the establishment of the Urban Villages Group (UVG)[1]. Following pressure from the UVG, the concept was prioritized in British national planning policy between 1997 and 1999[2].
http://www.blinkx.com/watch-video/huron-village/Qd2gqNZqGChIF9uMiyvV0Q
ReplyDeletea walk around Huron Village.