A_Carr

Human Scaled GIS Response

In reading about the need for a diversity of business and services to support a successful neighborhood. I am wondering if there is a general understanding of what types of businesses and services might be necessary to support residents, workers and visitors in a neighborhood? (I realize that the study was looking a indicators of social interaction, so this question is outside the scope.) Some seem obvious, like grocery stores, cafes and pharmacies, but what others may be required?

When I was in Austin over the holidays I spent a lot of time downtown observing all the changes there, as it moves from largely office/worker based to a more residential/mixed use.  I made a casual comparison of West 2nd Street to a East 6th Street, two areas that have recently added housing and retail. Based on my observations, East 6th had a grocery store, many restaurants and cafes, a big box store with a pharmacy, and a veterinary clinic, while West 2nd had mostly high end restaurants, clothing stores, and a major music venue. So it seems to me that the East 6th may be a more livable neighborhood for residents. West 2nd likely has more social interaction at certain times, particularly nights and weekends.

Returning to the Superilles, I noticed that data was collected at the street level, and then the street data was averaged with data from other streets in the Superilla to get an overall score. I wondered if you would ever want to go back to the street level data to look at areas in an overall Superilla that could be targeted for improvement or further study? Later in the article, there was a return to the street level data to look at public wi-fi accessibility, so my question was answered. But it is interesting that the data collected could be used in different ways to determine potential actions or other research questions.

Based on the data presented, it seems that though the Superilla program goes a long way toward increasing the amount of social interactions in the area, the older established neighborhoods or “villages” like Gracia and Poblenou seemed to have an advantage over the more newly created Superilla Eixample Esquerra. Perhaps there are qualities in established neighborhoods that aren’t yet present in newly established Superilles. Or perhaps the sample in this study isn’t large enough to draw that type of conclusion (outside the scope again). I just went and read some about Esquerra, and it seems like it is lively with a growing art scene, so my impression is likely way off. Having identified about 12 avenues for further study I’ll leave it there.

Separate from my other comments, it is really helpful to see examples of architectural research methods in action after a week of reading theory about said methods for Human Context. Ties a nice bow around everything.