Dawn Xiana Moon: Melodic folk pop infused with passion and honesty. From Chicago.

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Sunday, May 16, 2004

Chicago and Functional Cities

In my last post, I alluded to the prominence that the issue of suburban sprawl has had lately in my thoughts. I guess that's what I get when one of my closest friends is an architect.

Last week Patrick and I took a spontaneous road trip to Chicago, which was a needed break from being in Ann Arbor--I'd been rather stir-crazy for the last couple of weeks, and he wanted to get out of town since a planned camping trip had fallen through. On the way there, I started reading James Howard Kunstler's Home from Nowhere, which I'll be blogging about soon, a book that talks about the consequences of the suburban sprawl that we as a nation have grown so heavily attached to. Anyone, when they actually think about it, would rather have a leafy street of townhouses than a strip mall, but there are significant barriers to building such areas nowadays, primarily being administrative rather than purely economic. But with such ideas of beauty in mind, Pat and I sought out neighborhood cafes and restaurants, discovering a couple of gems: the Bourgeois Pig (what a great name), one of the best coffeeshops I've been in--incidentally our barista had graduated from the University of Michigan and was in Chicago for the year before going to Michigan State this fall for her masters--and Panes Bread Cafe, which had incredible (you guessed it) bread and sandwiches. We also spent a good amount of time on the campus of Wheaton College, a half hour from the city, where our friend Andrew was living, and explored the art building in depth. Wheaton itself is a small town, but unfortunately Andrew says that most of the students don't venture downtown much although it's a mere five-minute walk: they consider it far away and would rather drive if they go there at all. What a shame. I suppose living in Ann Arbor, a functional mid-sized city, has affected my sense of proportion--and I've come to appreciate the privilege of being able to walk to coffee, food, friends, etc. The rest of the country has much to learn from city planning done before 1940.

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