#City Beautiful

[the-city-in-mind]

Dave Amos of City Beautiful examines pragmatic strategies to fix stroads, aka “suburban arterials.”

[franklloydalwaysright]

City Beautiful: Lessons Learned from Paris and Chicago

Located alongside the Ohio River, The Banks is the oldest neighborhood found in downtown Cincinnati.  Originally the epicenter of freight rail for the western portion of the United States, The Banks have always been central to Cincinnati's identity and image.  Only recently has it been renovated due to the Ohio River flooding in 1997.  After this tragedy that left all buildings in The Banks unusable, the movement to completely refresh this area of Cincinnati was finally put to work.

Pictured above is the original draft for The Banks presented in 1997.  If you are familiar with The Banks you will notice that the original draft presented is almost identical to how we see this area today.  Most of the reasons why is due to its clear inspiration from the City Beautiful movement, found in Chicago and Paris most notably.

Railways and Roadways: Cincinnati’s railways and train stations are not present in the downtown Cincinnati Banks area. Originally the Cincinnati Union terminal, built in 1933, held traffic over World War II and saw a decline over the next decades. This decline caused the train concourse to be demolished in 1974 and was then reoperating in 1991 as the Cincinnati Museum we know and love today. Union Terminal’s purpose was to bring together the railways to decrease congestion in the city and the poor conditions the tracks were kept in prior to the construction of the Union Terminal. Today the benefits of a train concourse would bring connectivity to other cities allowing more visitors to move smoothly through the area and bringing in more social and economic connections. 

As seen above, Cincinnati houses the Great American Ballpark for the Reds and Paycor stadium for the Bengals, introducing visitors from states all over the US. With this incoming traffic, railways and train stations would be more effective in reducing congestion on highways and roadways. Cincinnati has a higher car dependency than other cities due to limited transportation options, with the increase in public transportation in the Banks, less congestion, aging of the roadways, and maintenance problems would occur. Ways Cincinnati can emulate Haussmann’s designs is to designate walkable areas and travel areas. This would enhance the city's community as well as the city's public spaces. Haussmann’s boulevard design in Paris can be emulated in Cincinnati today with the development of pedestrian-friendly spaces and more road width to reduce the backed-up traffic. Hausmann’s boulevard design improved traffic flow as well as pedestrian flow which Cincinnati is currently lacking. Cincinnati is also known for hosting various festivals and events. These events are usually hosted on roadways which harms the traffic downtown. Grant Park Chicago, which echos Haussmann’s advances made in Paris’ green spaces, hosts similar events that can be replicated on the Banks with their green spaces. With more public green spaces and areas these events could be moved to, it would be more efficient on the traffic as well a more efficient use of space for pedestrians. 

One of the many changes made to Paris and Chicago during the City Beautiful movement was to improve sanitation in the city by destroying infected alleyways and centers for epidemics.  While currently, The Banks does not have any infected parts of its streets, the Ohio River is not the clean blue river that it once was.  Many complaints for other states that the Ohio River runs through have been filed most notably by the state of Kentucky.  Kentucky filed a complaint against DuPont, a company responsible for creating a broad array of industrial chemicals, for the mass amount of chemicals that can be found in the river.  The most notable of which is the pre-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, which are known as forever chemicals.  It goes without saying that having these chemicals run through the heart of Cincinnati is absolutely not sanitary which does violate one of the four guiding principles of the City Beautiful movement.

Debate Question:

Which aspect of the City Beautiful movement should Cincinnati work towards implementing first?

[sunlitsoil]

there is always tomorrow

[wocina]

[staticsnowfall]

michaela mabinty deprince (1995-2024)

🩰˚✧₊⁎

today, september 13th, 2024, the ballet world lost an extraordinary dancer and woman.

michaela mabinty deprince was born on january 6th, 1995, as mabinty bangura, in sierra-leone. she was orphaned, her parents passing to due to both direct and indirect causes of the civil war in her home country. she was demonized by her caretakers for her vitiligo, being called a “devil’s child”, and suffering from other forms of neglect and abuse. in 1999, deprince was adopted by an american couple along with another girl, and they were taken to new jersey, united states of america.

her hopes of becoming a ballerina had been planted when she found a ballerina on a magazine cover in her home country. she didn’t know of ballet at the time, but treasured the picture and dreamed of dancing. this dream blossomed into truth when she moved to the states, being put into ballet lessons soon after her arrival. deprince was a four-time participant in youth america grand prix, one of the largest ballet competitions in the united states. she was awarded a scholarship to study at the jaqueline kennedy onassis school of ballet, the associate school of american ballet theatre.

despite facing racial discrimination and other hardships in and out of the industry, deprince persisted in her dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer. in 2012, at the age of 16, she became the youngest member of dance theatre of harlem, and the next year, she joined the junior company of the dutch national ballet. she soon rose through the ranks, joining the main company and attaining the rank of soloist. she was the first dancer of african origin to ever join the company, and a shining advocate and role model for black women in ballet.

her other accomplishments include being an ambassador for war child holland, a dutch organization working to improve the wellbeing and resilience of children directly affected by war. she visited uganda and lebanon through the organization. she also appeared in beyoncé’s 2016 music video for ‘freedom’.

she will dance among all the stars in the sky. rest in peace beautiful michaela mabinty, you are already so missed. ♡

[dixt]

utrecht, the netherlands ⋅ ph. utrechtalive 

[sclappin]

Man whose definition of "monster" is extremely flexible.

[zegalba]

Fiona Apple in a suit of armor on a NYC subway photography by Joe McNally (1997)

[reminis8e]

gouda city, netherlands

[peacefulandcozy]

ig credit: charmingwanders

[rocy5]

[urbanistreport]

Residential streets are too wide. Here's why. - City Beautiful

[egophiliac]

do skully have pokemon?

Pumpkaboo is the obvious one, but y'know, sometimes the obvious one is the right one! (we'll say SUPER SIZE Pumpkaboo, just for fun. big pumpkin for big skeleton boy.) and another person actually also suggested Greavard, which I somehow hadn't considered, but feels so perfect that I feel like I should have. dangit.

(they can also have little Nightmare Suit costumes :D)

[2toonice]

Full video 2:40

[jamespoeartistry]

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[spookyasmr]