The
Advantages Of Compact City
Compact
City - Elimination
Of Urban Sprawl - Flexible Construction - Automatic
Deliveries - Airconditioning - Easy
Recycling - Low / No Congestion
Elimination of Urban Sprawl
With its initial population of 250,000, Compact City would occupy about 2.2 square miles of land. If one lived on the outer periphery and wished to walk to the city center, the total distance covered would be 4,420 feet. The city at this stage would consist of eight levels, one above the other, 40 feet or more apart. A level in Compact City is thus equivalent of a conventional piece of land, and like any land, a level can be used for open space around homes, recreational areas, or for building structures with a height limitation of three conventional floors (30 feet). The city grows by increasing the size of its base and the number of its levels. If it were to grow to a maximum size of 2,000,000 people, it would have a base of nine square miles and 16 levels. The same city, if laid out flat on the earth's surface, would cover an area of 140 square miles. But in that case a network of highways and extensive parking facilities would be needed, hence, a present day city built to the same standards would occupy an area of 178 square miles.
At its maximum size, Compact City would still be a convenient place to live. It would house more people than the Borough of Manhattan in New York City, but at only one-fifth the effective density of Manhattan and in only one-third the land area. Manhattan is a classic example of dense use of land.
San Diego, California, and its suburbs, by contrast, constitute a sprawling metropolitan area with 1,318,000 people spread over 4,262 square miles. Compact City could provide this many residents and more with ample sized lots and homes. Its climate would be ideal, recreational facilities within and near Compact City would be readily accessible to all. Yet, Compact City would occupy only 1/500 of the land area of San Diego Country. Indeed, if it were located in central San Diego, it would occupy only a fraction of the area within the boundaries of the city proper.
Part of the greater metropolitan areas of Cleveland
and Washington, D.C have a population of roughly 2,000,000 and both spread out
over hundreds of square miles. Originally, the land set aside in Virginia and
Maryland for the capital of the United States covered 100 square miles, in the
shape of a square 10-by-10 miles. Because it was not a first used, the part
of the square west of the Potomac River was returned to Virginia. Now, the greater
metropolitan area of the District of Columbia spills out over a vast area of
Maryland and Virginia and it, in turn, is part of a huge megalopolitan belt
that sweeps many hundreds of miles up the Atlantic Coast, all the way to Boston