KunstlerCast #24: One City Block - Part 2

The Rise, Decline, Revitalization and Future of One American City

James Howard Kunstler continues his walking tour of one city block in downtown Saratoga Springs, N.Y., a classic Main-street American town. We resume the tour on the corner of Division Street and Railroad Place, where a major urban infill project has produced a brand new urban street that is well defined on both sides by five-story high buildings, with dignified frontages, ground-level retail space and apartments above. Kunstler points out some architectural problems and weird transitions but he's mostly pleased by the new buildings in this neighborhood. As we leave the new urban street, things completely fall apart when we encounter the results of the urban renewal schemes of the 1960s. Most of the 20 acres in front of us is surface parking, occupied on the fringe by inappropriate suburban buildings.

[Note: Use Google Street View to follow along with this program. Visit: http://maps.google.com and enter this address: 402 Broadway Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. Cross Broadway, head up Division Street and turn left at Railroad Place.]

Direct Download: KunstlerCast_24.mp3 ( 14 MB | 20 mins.)

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Note: Use Google Street View to follow along with this program:

Map of our route:

Google Street View of our Route:

Note: You can change the camera view by grabbing the image with your mouse. If you click the view larger map link above, the route will appear highlighted in blue.

Part 1 Start: 402 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
> Turn left (west) at Division St.
Continue west on Division St to Railroad Pl
End Part 1
> Part 2 Start: Turn left (southwest) on Railroad Pl
Continue southwest/south on Railroad Pl to RT-29/Washington St.
> Turn left (east) on RT-29/Washington St.
Continue east on Washington Street to Broadway
End Part 2