THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 24, 1995 TAG: 9512240007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
What's the difference between urban and suburban?
The Life Building on Main Street in Norfolk is urban, not because it is old, but because its front door faces a public street. Soaring Dominion Tower on Waterside Drive, which faces a private driveway, is not.
Beecroft & Bull on Main is urban. Its sister store in a strip shopping center in Virginia Beach is not.
Designers say that to be urban, a store, office or home must face a sidewalk and street with no parking lot, lawn or driveway in between.
Accommodating the automobile is what has pushed development from urban to suburban. It's difficult - some would say impossible - to keep a place urban and still have easy, plentiful parking.
Cities like Portland, Ore., still have downtowns that feel urban because they have mass transit systems of light rail, buses and trolleys to take people to and around downtown. Parking or driving is actively discouraged.
Cities such as Charlotte and Norfolk have gone in the opposite direction, tearing down buildings and creating parking lots and garages to accommodate the usual means of transportation in the 20th century.
The problems with modifying older downtowns for the car, say urban design analysts, is that this eventually kills what makes an older downtown special: public streets that face the front doors of homes, offices and stores, and that fill with people. It's relatively easy to drive into downtown Norfolk. But it's hard to find a street that is bustling with people. by CNB