Re: Fwd: Main Plaza of the city or town- car free, Towards Carfree Cities IX York - discussion

This post from Mexico is very important.

> In Mexico all the towns (more 5000) and big cities (more 30)
have a Main Plaza sourrounded by the palace municipal,
state or national as is the case and a cathedral or church
following the model of millenary mexican cultures: teotihuacan, etc.

> It would be a good advance that the heart of the city
the main plaza where most people converge will be
carfree.

The centre of cities and towns should all be preserved.  However, this is 
hurt by the presence of moving and parked cars.

The centre of cities is analogous to the hearth in homes.  Just as modern 
homes have lost much of its hearth, thanks to central heating, rather than 
the fireplace, where the family gathered around for all activities, cities 
are losing their 'hearth' by allowing them to become part of the 
"transportation network," which means cars, as if the centre is a place to 
get through quickly and without a need to even slow down.

The hearth also should be "open for buisiness" at all hours, never closed. 
Today's children who are not allowed outside the house on their own, are 
also mostly trundled off to day-care or school in a chaperoned manner in 
motor vehicles (or even these funny hybrids, "walking school buses"), 
meaning that their family hearth is closed for the day, five days a week.  I 
don't think we realize how much harm this does the ties of the family and 
the feeling of security children have.

The city, too, needs to protect its 'hearth,' which should provide a 
symbolic form of heat by being open at all hours to all visitors and 
citizens, and able to handle any needs on a short-term basis.  (Even 24-hr 
public bathroom would be a nice touch).

I like the word 'hearth,' in that it is a nice overlap of the words "heart" 
and "earth."

Chris Bradshaw
hearth-4RaF2LCGXOgHnOGtNXmfMvd9D2ou9A/[email protected]




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