Weather versus urbanism

 

Record one-day snowfall hits Providence
(Swiped from WPRI 12 website)

As the Northeastern U.S. staggers under record-breaking snowfall (above, CNU33 host city Providence), I come, laptop in hand, to report on my weekend. This is not the post I was going to write. 

Jane and I traveled to Dubuque and Galena to celebrate her birthday. These are two river towns northeast of Cedar Rapids that long ago were economic hubs; then, when the economy shifted underneath them, they lacked the money to update their built environment. Eventually, their historic walkability attracted tourism, and their fortunes were made.

We had snow the night before we left, though nothing unmanageable. In its aftermath came several days of cold, windy weather. As the temperature dropped through the day on Friday, wind speeds averaged 20+ mph, with regular gusts over 30 mph. It happened pretty much exactly as forecast.

I was aware of the weather forecast, and that we were there to celebrate Jane's birthday, but I am Never Not Blogging, and I thought I would write about how urbanist design makes foul weather bearable, because in a truly walkable neighborhood destinations are close enough that you're never out in the foul weather very long. By the time you realize you're uncomfortable, you've gotten wherever you were headed. That's essential to urbanists' antipathy to skywalks:

While sidewalk substitutes may sometimes be justified by fast-moving traffic, the more economical solution is to design and signalize streets for lower speeds. Poor climate alone is rarely justification for sidewalk substitutes, as some of the world's best walking cities, such as New Orleans and Quebec City, still attract pedestrians during many months of truly miserable weather. (Duany, Speck and Lydon 2010: 7.5)

We started our day in Dubuque with lunch at Charlotte's Coffeehouse, which calls itself "Dubuque's Third Place," with considerable justification, given the number of people eating together. And they're open til 5:00 p.m. seven days a week! (There were also quite a few people eating alone. Is that still third placey?) Their 11th and White location is northeast of Downtown, and not terribly far from Loras College.

Limerick Candles and Vintage Reads, used bookstore, two blocks away at 1108 Iowa Street:

River Lights Bookstore, retail bookstore, one block away at 1098 Main Street, where I purchased Shade by Sam Bloch, which I will report on soon:

Dubuque Museum of Art, four blocks away in the Voices Dupaco Building at 1000 Jackson Street. They say they're open 10-4 Friday but the door was locked.

That's a total of seven blocks, all within the Millwork Historic District, not counting wrong turns, which happen sometimes in an unfamiliar place. Sometimes those wrong turns can lead to unexpected delights, but on Friday, let me tell you, in the face of that wind, every step was purchased dearly. There didn't seem to be a lot of potential stops between the destinations, and there were zero people on the street besides us. So maybe this isn't the perfect urbanist neighborhood, though it did have enough destinations to keep us going. Anyway, today, the score was Weather 1, Urbanism 0.

SEE ALSO: Bill, "The View from My Doorstep," WestWords, 24 February 2026

PRINT SOURCE: Andres Duany and Jeff Speck with Mike Lydon, The Smart Growth Manual (McGraw Hill, 2010)