Thursday, May 21, 2009
40 Jealous Whores / Politics / The Economy Why Reston, Virginia Isn't Something We Should Aspire To
Posted by Pete Kotz on Thu, May 21, 2009 at 5:20 AM
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Another word from our Maytown correspondent, Brenda Butka:
Ah, Reston, Reston, Reston. That holy grail of planned community, that platonic perfection of mixed-use development. Reston--the word is meant to conjure all that is right and good in a new city, a new city that can pour tax dollars into county coffers, a new city that is a destination city, a place that draws a stream of developers and their cronies, flying in in private jet splendor (or, as we have recently learned, not-so-splendid tiny noisy seats in those private jets) from the remote provinces to observe and emulate.
Maytown is supposed to be Nashville's own Reston, but, as far as I can tell, the only Restonian thing about Tony G.'s ambitions on the Cumberland is the photoshopped pic that puts a model of downtown Reston into Bells Bend cowpastures. Pull up Maytown on the web, and see for yourself.
Robert Simon, Reston's original founder, picked his 6,000 acres smack dab between Washington D.C. and the new Dulles Airport, which he said would "cause the desert to flower" -- i.e. create business. It might've been country, but it was country right in the middle of a burgeoning traffic pattern, a place where people were already going to go.
The Mays, as far as we can tell, picked Bells Bend because they could--it was for sale. Bells Bend isn't on the way from anywhere to anywhere, unless you are a vulture flying from Charlotte Park to Joelton, or an escapee from Riverbend taking the hard route across the river to scale the bluffs and run down Tidwell Hollow Road...
Other Bells Bend plans have foundered on this basic truth: years ago Kodak abandoned a plan for a factory--no access. The dump got dumped because of no access, plus little things like misplaced creeks and stony hillsides. The Zeitlin mini-mega condo project--well, you can't put 2000 condos at the end of a tiny 5-mile road and expect fire, police, and ambulance service and a happy clientele.
The Frank and Jack solution is to make the project so ginormous, so absurdly out of scale, that it can afford to create its own access. So, let it be done--one bridge, no--two, no--make that maybe three. But an infinity of bridges still wouldn't put Maytown on the route to anywhere.
Maytown is all about business, supposed to be like the Reston Town Center, with 8,000 or so condos tossed in. Urban, offices, 15-story hotel, retail, a little city--you've heard the drill. Folks, Reston built 4 villages and had 50,000 residents BEFORE the Famous Reston Town Center was built! It never occurred to Simon, or anyone else who knows anything about cities, for that matter, that you could just build a downtown. By itself.
Simon bought his 6,000 acres not only between Washington D.C. and Dulles Airport, but in Fairfax County, one of the wealthiest counties in the U.S., and at that time the single fastest-growing county in the entire country. Do we even have to say that Davidson County is not, and Bells Bend is most decidedly not either of these?
So, if you want to have Reston as a model, find property that lots of people have to travel through, in the wealthiest county in the country, that is also the fastest-growing county in the country, and start planning the perfect place to live, with the focus on community and quality of life. Thirty years later, after nearly going bankrupt at least once, you can start your town center, and fifteen years after that people from Nashville will fly in to ooh and aah.
Of course, Nashville really doesn't want a fake version of a new town that looks like all the other new towns scattered around the country. Nashville's bright treasure is that it isn't remotely like Reston, or Herndon, or anyplace else, and our best hope is to become more like ourselves--peculiar, gritty, and a little weird, but oddly successful--the place where Prince's Hot Chicken Shack, the Ryman, and HCA somehow all coexist.
Never heard of a kid in small-town America, ear to radio and plunking at a guitar, dreaming of just gettin' to Reston...
Comments (4)
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Every argument against Reston is an enormous argument FOR May Town Center.
It is a 'destination' place. This will draw the attention of the young and ambitious corporate workforce that is looking for some original thought put into "Location."
The open space of Bells Bend does two things. It preserves land that those proposals you offered above, but failed. The open space also will be the key to drawing relocationg corporations to a 'Progressive' looking Nashville, Tn.
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Posted by
grapa
on June 3, 2009 at 1:52 PM
It's funny that you finally spoke up! I have been waiting for someone to bring this out to the open! Anyway... nice post. I will be back.
Posted by
High PR Bookmarks
on January 2, 2010 at 11:54 PM
