BREAKING NEWS:
"'We never thought in our wildest dreams a sky bridge would be proposed for Main Street', said Stephen Goldsmith, who is reprising the anti-sky-bridge effort today as the Mormon Church and its mall developer partner, Taubman Centers, propose the sky bridge of his nightmares."Source: A Bridge Too Far in this week's SLC Weekly.
the sky bridge of his nightmares.
the sky bridge of his nightmares.
the sky bridge of his nightmares.
posted by d l wright at 12/13/2006 11:32:00 PM
17 Comments:
Wow, he really looks pissed! Not that I love the idea of a sky bride or anything, but the one here in Portland which connects the two sides of the downtown mall really isn't all that bad. People don't even use it all that much, and the street below is always packed with people.
logan for president. no no, logan for director of city planning.
it's sort of amazing. i have nightmares about skybridges, too.
If this is anything like the movies I have seen, this bridge is going to kill your father and you are going to have to go back to Elsinore to avenge him. Funeral baked meats may be involved.
the bridge is designed to make sure that mall patrons don't have to see pan-handlers, homeless, goths, etc. The owners don't have to deal with 1st amendment issues in an enclosed bridge. This kind of segregation undermines community and exacerbates that the we/they tensions that already permeate our insulated culture.
I'm really more interested in debating what stores will be in the malls than how I'm going to get from one to the other. I mean, will there be a create and barrel, or not?
In Minneapolis (aka Target City) it seems like every building downtown is connected with a sky bridge. I figured it was done to keep people warm, which is a nice thing. BUT it makes the whole downtown feel like one big mall. And one big mall means only people who can afford to buy things, which often means mostly white people (except Mark). I mean, can't people go into the mall and buy a fucking coat? They have to be outside everywhere else.
And another thing. Why would the developer want to build a sky bridge? People will go to his mall anyway, and building a bridge must cost a million dollars, so what's the point? I would be shocked if more or less people used a mall based on a sky bridge.
I say if they do build a sky bridge, we should take it over, build bunk beds, and make it a homeless shelter.
ps- In the event that the bridge kills my father, I will only avenge him if there's a sky bridge from here to Elsinore. Cuz I aint walkin on the street with the regulars.
Indeed. Nell pointed out to me that the bridge here is different because there are no shops below... The bridge simply separates two halves of the mall.
I think it's a very positive article despite the hyperbole. It'd be awesome if y'all could stop it from happening.
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well there aren't really shops below this proposed skybridge except ones that also have mall entrances.
unless you count rite-aid and see's, but you wouldn't walk past those just going from mall to mall either.
i've been to the lloyd center mall and i'm not sure this would be all that different (is that the one you're talking about?)
i don't mean any offense, and i'm certainly no lover of skybridges, but i just don't see people going out of their way to use the skybridge unless it's really damn cold outside or they're already on the skybridge level. if they're on the ground floor (the majority of mall traffic,) they'll go outside, even with goths and ladies selling pot-holders or handing out anti-mormon literature.
i think it's a bit of a stretch the bridge is designed for segregation. if anything i'd say it's designed for novelty first and
convenience second.
i'll grant that the owners wouldn't have to deal with 1st amendment issues in the bridge (depending on the way the permit works out) but a bridge certainly wouldn't circumvent 1st amendment issues on main street. (like say selling the goddamn city street to a private entity.) the most foot traffic will still be on the ground level.
i just fail to see how a skybridge is more elitist than it is convenient.
which, again, is not to say i like the idea.
My wife and I were recently chased by a panhandler who wouldn't take "No" for an answer... (I wasn't even being a bastard. I genuinely never have cash. Cards only.)
So while I completely agree that sky bridges do segregate people from reality and that they're ugly as hell –– I can't say that I have much love for the panhandlers.
I expect comments like that from Brad, but not Mark. Although I did like reading 'my wife and I' (in a heterocentric kind of way).
Goldsmiths stop deleting your comments. And Sam, its heteronormative.
So basically Brad, your argument is that nobody is going to use the skybridge, so why worry about it?Novelty and convenience are not good enough reasons.
Unless its an escalator up Mt. Olympus. That's a proposal I can get behind.
And also, we should note that the skybridge is essentially against city ordinance:
"The 1995 downtown plan, along with a 1990 urban-design document, prohibits bridges on Main Street because they would block views of the mountains, including Ensign Peak, and such landmarks as the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum."
But whatever. Utah needs to be part of the American consumer elite:
"Of the 980 comments submitted to the church about City Creek, few cared about the sky bridge, with 42 against the span, according to church-provided figures. More people were interested in recommending stores for the mall, such as Crate and Barrel, Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales. "
I expect comments like that from Brad, but not Mark.
Hey, sometimes a monkey is just a monkey.
And anyway... couldn't you make the sky bridge argument against secured apartment and condominium complexes too? What insulates more than a locked complex?
Not to mention the first amendment issues. Do Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Political Canvassers really have no right to have an open discussion with you at your place of resident.
Ahh... but I guess that's different because it's private property, right? But so is Main Street... eventually. (Right Rocky?)
Sorry to promote an anti-Populist viewpoint... no, wait. I'm probably not.
Also, how come no one is mentioning the eyesore of a sky bridge that goes from Trolley Square to a parking lot across 600 South. It's ugly and no one uses it.
So do we use too much sarcasm, irony and satire on this blog? Sometimes, I can't tell.
Wait.. so are you with us, or against us?
The history of skybridges in the US is clear: in Denver in the 70's they built about a dozen of them and in the past 10 years they have spent millions removing them in order to get people back on the street.
The segregation issue in Minneapolis' skybridges, where the climate has been an argument in favor, has been the source of hundreds of articles among planners and architects through the years.
These bridges to have their appropriate places, such as connecting the University Medical Center to Primary Children's Hospital for example--intra-campus and intra-institutionl uses such as hospitals, research facilities, hotel and conference centers (in some cases only) airports etc.
But where the public way, the heart and soul of cities is concerned, these structure do create a we/they segregated space. When American Stores built their skybridge at Gallivan Plaza they argued it was for their "executives" who needed a dry way to walk from the parking structure, as if a skybridge was the only way to do it. And within a few years American Stores was sold.
The same could happen with the new mall, which would leave the city in the same place the Denver found themselves--abandoned skybridges to nowhere, dusty and leaky and dark, adding to the death of the street.
And for those who don't want to see/hear/smell or speak to the those who are other, I suggest that we stop and understand that the very act of not wanting to see/hear/speak is a segregating act--one that each of us has to own as we make our way through the real humanity of our places. In an era where our culture of immediacy and isolation are privileges of the few, we run the risk of closing ourselves to an honest evaluation of our condition.
If that happens, we'll need to find some other ways to bridge the economic and social divide that could be our ultimate undoing.
well, i'm definitely with everyone on the ugly factor, altough i do think the ex-american stores one looks cool.
my point is not that we shouldn't worry about it, JHC, when did I say that?
alls i'm sayin' is i don't buy the elitist argument.
i do buy the "what happens when nobody goes to the malls and the church gives up" arguement though.
SOLD!
P.S.
I expect comments like that from Brad, but not Mark. Although I did like reading 'my wife and I' (in a heterocentric kind of way).
Someone's gotta be predictibly egocentric, right Sammy?
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