The apportionment of responsibilities between the three layers of government needs to be rexamined. Right now we are taking tax dollars out of cities and sending them to state capitals or to Washington, and then we are sending those tax dollars back in the form of block grants -- after the central government takes its cut for overhead. It would be far better to simply leave the tax authority in the hands of the city to take care of city issues. It would lessen the amount of government at the higher levels, and thus save money. So the overall tax burden will be less in the first place, and the city's residents would have a much clearer understanding of what their money is paying for and how effective the various programs are.
 |
Cities should work closely with suburbs and exurbs to create a transportation network that ties in all the parts of the metropolitan reason. Over the next century the population will come to double in nearly every metro area, and these same areas will grow larger in square miles. By planning now and beginning to lay in the infrastructure metropolitan areas can work on solving the traffic problem. More and larger highways will no longer be feasible. My bumble bee tower, alternating grey and yellow glass in horizontal bands, with black metal trim. A shallow triangle towerette, rising just 2/3rds of the total height is offset from the more rectangular central tower. The crown is a bold black and yellow metal irregular checkerboard patter on a slant, visible from the street. |
||
 |
The federal and state governments should not be requiring cities to do things without providing the money to complete the tasks. The deadlines for fullfilling mandates should be on a longer time frame than is currently the practice. This tower with 4 curved lobes rises about fifty floors. There are two much shorter subtowers, giving the foot print of the building a rectangular shape. A range of pink to orange glass is used in each lobe, in a never quite harmonious way. Each lobe has a peaked roof, with a slab like protuberance on one side and a crisp clear line on the other. . |
||
 |
Cities should be more active in encouraging the saving of architectural gems within the city. In areas that are blighted an ambitious plan of education of the residents, coupled with grants and loans to fix up property should be followed. The more people trained to do these restoration projects means more people employed, which leads to the revenues required to get the job done. Major tax incentives and even active cash investment by the city should be enacted. Streets should be beautified through plantings, removal of the worst buildings and a major clean up and repair program for small parks, sidewalks, lamposts, medians and corners and other things the city is already responsible for. A leaning pyramid as the lobby entrance points the way upward. Dramtic grey glass and black trim slashes across a red glass facade lead the eye upward to an irregularly shaped dome. The tower speaks of energy. . |
||
 |
The federal and state governments should give massive tax incentives and direct investment into the redevelopment of blighted areas of the city. As these areas begin to pick up they will create the jobs which will employ the people who can than get back on the tax roles and upkeep the property. This sort of coordinated attack, through education, vocational training, tax breaks, cash investment and other incentives will bring back these areas of the city and become self-sustaining. It might take twenty years to get it done, and that's the important concept -- understanding that it will take decades for these areas to bounce back. Big bold colorful irregular polygons are scattered across the facade of the building, in a building block look. There are several white glass sections that seem as if someone didn't finish putting in the color tiles. . |
||
 |
Despite the long standing American dislike of cities the reality is that the vast majority of Americans live in city-like circumstances. Even the suburbs as we knew them in the immediate post-war period have become urbanized in ways that were never imagined. Still, there is the lingering belief that the suburbs are these pure pristine pastorale places instead of the rather dense urban conglomerations, with commerce and major roads and mass transit systems and all the things that make cities cities. The lego brick effect, in an icy white and blue, with dark blue outlines of the blocks. The tower is softened with large curving setbacks boldly outlined taking the square base to an irregular polygon at the top. The crown is akin to an old nurse's cap, a complex dome of glass and large tubular beams. |
||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | |
