Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Monday, June 11. 2007

Louisville after the bombings

We have mourned, on these pages, the destruction of the great American downtowns during the 60s and 70s in the name of progress. And we have praised the liveable, human-scale cities which, for whatever reason, managed to escape the wrecking ball. Why does Savannah, GA always come to mind? Georgia on my mind, I guess.

In 1950, Louisville was the 12th largest city in the US, and a thriving place. But the downtown lacked parking lots, so lots of buildings "had to" come down.

Photo below: the 1920 Rialto Theater during the 1969 demolition, replaced by a parking lot. I'd be willing to bet they wish they had the Rialto now. An essay, Louisville after the Bombings, here. Our Dylanologist says the same essay could have been written about Nashville.

 

Posted by Bird Dog in History, Our Essays at 12:29 | Comments (5) | Trackback (1)

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Well-Preserved Town of the Week: Staunton, Virginia
With all the posts Bird Dog and I have written about the tragic fate of so much of the nation's architectural legacy during the 1960s and 70s (here and here, for examples), I decided to put a more positive spin on things by focusing instead on those for
Weblog: Maggie's Farm
Tracked: Jun 19, 05:30

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We used to live in Old Louisville, in Belgravia Court (http://www.oldlouisville.com/Belgravia.htm). When I was a kid, downtown Louisville was thriving, with large department stores and old (still operating) theaters. The 60s and urban development changed all that. By 1970, the department stores and theaters were boarded up and closed, and downtown Louisville was empty of anything but junkies and whores (the essay disingenuously downplays the high crime of that era). In the 70s, the city tried to revitalize the downtown by making it less functional and turning one of the major streets into a walking mall (it still is). It has eventually worked, though it isn't the business center it was, and all those beautiful buildings are gone.
#1 rightwingprof (Link) on 2007-06-11 17:26 (Reply)
A "walking mall," AKA "downtown"
#2 BD on 2007-06-11 17:28 (Reply)
I decided not to become an urban planner when I realized that the profession was full of barbarians.
#3 Skookumchuk on 2007-06-11 20:49 (Reply)
Latent totalitarians.
#3.1 BD on 2007-06-12 07:52 (Reply)
Aesthetic barbarians, political totalitarians.
#4 Skookumchuk on 2007-06-12 09:42 (Reply)

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