Have You Noticed? The Facade of our City is Changing

They're building a new Kroger store in the Short North at the corner of King and High. I stopped today to take a few photos because they were using a cool machine to get gravel up to the roof of the new building. It uses a conveyor belt and can move lots of gravel fast--the power of machines!

 

But what's really interesting is WHERE they're building the new Kroger--right on the sidewalk!

 

This is really revolutionary and is a reflection of urban development coming full circle. We used to build storefronts next to the sidewalk to attract customers, aka pedestrians, who were walking or biking by. But somewhere along the way we decided we needed to accomodate customers in cars, so we moved the stores back off the road and put parking lots in front of the stores. This made for really lousy, cold, impersonal urban design, in my opinion, and helped discourage walking and biking in our communities.

What's so interesting about this particular Kroger site is that there's been a Kroger here for years.

 

The contrast between the old style Kroger, with the parking lot in front, and the new Kroger built on the sidewalk, with the parking lot in back, is striking. I really like this new urban design and  think it will help "reconnect" our community............just like twowheeling.

So, back to twowheeling--here's another snazzy cruiser that I noticed parked in front of the Huntington Center downtown. Maybe it belongs to an enlightened banker?

 

I'm keeping my eyes open for cool cruisers and will try to snap photos when I can.

 

 

Comments

[John]

Doug-
I'm enjoying all of the new stories and photos that you have been posting recently. Keep up the good work, Captain Morgan!

[Rodney Orton]

The buildings look pretty from afar, and up close, it's even more beautiful. One thing I've noticed with modern architecture is that buildings have flat and even roofs. Well, in the future, the city will be filled with skyscrapers. And such an architectural accent would likely be a fixture in a number of buildings.