Live Small and Prosper: PT 2 - London - The Healthier City

[“We became addicted to the culture of big.” Avi Friedman, architect, urban thinker, June 2, The Londoner]

London is a healthy city like many others in the top twenty most-populated cities in Canada. And without argument it could be healthier.

As a boomer I could be healthier too if I bumped up the intensity of my exercise program, e.g., enough to run a future 10 km. race in less than 50 minutes, or half marathon in less than 1 hour, 46 minutes.

Of course, I’d have to make the effort to shed 15 pounds to get close to my last best running weight of 140 - 145 pounds (2005), and trade in my exercise bike for a more-demanding treadmill (or hit the running trails and local hills as I used to do).

And what will the fair city of London have to do to get healthier?

I believe it will have to do more than shed 15 pounds of excess weight. It will have to shed the culture of big.

Avi Friedman, renowned architect, while addressing “planners, politicians and students... at the Coldstream Community Centre in Middlesex Centre May 17” (June 2, The Londoner), referred to the culture of big, meaning “20th century city planners’ propensity for designing spread-out cities and remote mega-malls with vast parking lots based on the assumption of cheap gas.”

He said, “This was wonderful when gas was cheap, but it’s not anymore.”

The culture of big. Spread-out cities. Mega-malls. Mega-car-lifestyle (Friedman refers to “a lifestyle where cars are used to get absolutely everywhere”).

As fuel prices rise, will the culture of big, approx. 50 years in the making, hang around London’s waist and slow it from becoming a healthier city?

Let me think about that.

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One aspect of the culture of big - the size of buildings

1871


[Photo and info link, click here]

Joseph Spettigue, a native of Cornwall, England, came to the Canadas in the 1840s and opened a store on the corner of Dundas and Clarence Streets in 1855.

In 1871, he built Spettigue Hall (later the Duffield Block) which contained an elegant 663-seat concert hall on the second floor. Designed in the Second Empire Style, the structure was 197 feet long, 63 feet high, and cost $12,000 to construct. London Public Library Image Gallery

Author's note: The building’s width is not listed but I estimate the building to be about 10,000 sq. ft. per floor. GH

2011 - 140 years later


[Wal-Mart photo and info link.]

Walmart Discount Stores

Walmart discount stores are discount department stores with size varying from 51,000 square feet (4,738.1 m2) to 224,000 square feet (20,810.3 m2), with an average store covering about 102,000 square feet (9,476.1 m2).[43]

As of April 2011, there were 706 Walmart discount stores in the United States. In 2006, the busiest in the world was one in Rapid City, South Dakota. Wikipedia

Walmart Supercenter

Walmart Supercenters are hypermarkets with size varying from 98,000 to 261,000 square feet (9,104.5 to 24,247.7 m2), with an average of about 197,000 square feet (18,301.9 m2). Wikipedia

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Please click here to read PT 1 - London - The Healthier City.

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