Week 5: Eyes on the Street

Welcome back. It’s finally time for me to gush about Jane Jacobs, who I’d call the most important American urban reformer of the 20th century. Her most famous work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, is a foundational piece of literature in modern urban planning; it was published int he context of urban renewal movements throughout the 20th century that prioritized “slum clearance” of poorer, minority, and older neighborhoods in exchange for new tower blocks. See the demolition of Boston’s West End below (left: Boston’s West End before demolition; right: Boston’s West End after demolition — all from West End Museum):

The Jacobs-ian viewpoint was for the retention of older, dense neighborhoods as a method of maintaining stronger community. A key principle of her reasoning was the “eyes on the street” principle: a walkable, accessible streetfront will lead to natural deterrence of crime as there is inherent trust within the local community. See where this is going?

We left off last time with a discussion on bus depots. Greyhound’s bus depots were, for a long time, an American icon. These grand constructions would be symbols to appear on postcards, and (at one point) even had their own bespoke chain of in-station restaurants. They’ve largely been abandoned in the modern day in favor of curbside, intermodal connections to rail or local buses. The city of Chicago, however, recently took a different route, purchasing the city’s bus terminal and making it public property. I believe this is key to revitalizing the intercity bus as a major part of the American transportation network.

If you recall from the very, very start of our journey, Greyhound grew as a romantic mode of transport. Film, music, and advertising gave it an image of freedom and American-ism; the loss of this luster could not be illustrated better than through the loss of the station buildings. But, alas, there are examples we can turn to on how this problem can be remedied…

Passenger railroads have always been a similar industry to the intercity bus. Both move people relatively long distances from point to point. Railroads, in the 1970s, faced a similar issue of declining revenue and increased competition from other sources (including, ironically, intercity buses). However, passenger rail was absorbed into Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, a public corporation meant to run passenger trains.

One of Amtrak’s first orders of business was to develop the Amshack (to right — Wikimedia), a standardized national station building design. It doesn’t look great, and especially not after half a century of wear and tear.

For every single Amshack that has been demolished their replacement stations almost universally now emphasize intermodal connections: that is, facilitating local, regional, and nation-wide connections.

For Greyhound’s credit, it’s made strides towards this. In 2011, a brand new terminal opened inside Washington, D.C.’s Union Station facilities, creating intermodal connections with DC Metrorail and Metrobus, Amtrak, and other intercity buses.

As we move onto the terrifying portion of this project where I’m to begin filming content, I also need to begin considering a coherent argument. So, then, here goes nothing: more cities need to begin treating bus terminals like public spaces, and investing in the areas around them. A law like California’s SB 79, which allows higher density buildings near major transit stops, if applied to intercity bus terminals, could be incredibly beneficial to reintegrating bus terminals into the urban fabric.

One more week of a comparisons and solution-building, then it’s onto the brutal ordeal of filming and editing. I’ve got one more month, let’s make it count!