Avoidance of Enterprises and Uses Harmful Because the Scale Is Wrong? NO
Jane Jacobs pointed out that there were enterprises or uses which she referred to as `exploding’ the street that were not, in themselves wrong, but which were harmful if they were operating at too large a scale, with too much disproportionately large street frontage. The disproportionately large street frontages at Ratner’s Atlantic Centers are examples of such street exploders and bode ill for Atlantic Yards. Security problems at Metrotech have created similar problems at that location which have gone unaddressed. But even if the ground floor space at Atlantic Yards is leased to retail operators that use smaller street frontages in a break from past Ratner practices, the effect of the street being broken up will occur because the buildings in Atlantic Yards are spaced apart so that they will not have continuous uninterrupted streets. They will be unavoidably broken up by large gaps. If anything, this may make it more of practical challenge to arrive at good street frontages where there is continuous street frontage.
JJ Cites: [. . . . enterprises harmful not because of their nature, exactly but because in certain streets their scale is wrong. . . . . Visually, they are disorganizing to streets, and so dominating that it is hard- - sometimes impossible– for any countering sense of order to make much impression. . . . On certain streets, any disproportionately large occupant if street frontage is visually a street disintegrator and desolator, although exactly the same kinds of uses, at small scale, do no harm and are indeed an asset. . . . a use that abruptly takes street frontage on a large scale can appear to explode the street- - make it fly apart in fragments. P. 234 a big cafeteria, supermarket, a large woodworking factory or printing plant- - - can wreak havoc (and sometimes auditory havoc) because it is on a different scale. P.235]
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