The Community Services Departments Manager assumed the chairmanship of the City Planning Committee in 2011, and also drafted the city survey plan. Revisions to the 2010 plan were made to address an anticipated population increase. The consensus of the City Planning Committee was to proportionally increase the city footprint, starting with the inner Esplanade area. This had a cascading effect to add capacity to all annular blocks.
To ease pedestrian and bicycle movement and access at the back of the city, sixteen new short radial streets were added at the fifteen and forty-five clock positions. The new streets begin mid-city at G or “Graduation”, and ended at the last street, Liminal. G was made a wider boulevard starting in 2011, and double-deep blocks sit along G’s border. The new plan held our population’s increase perfectly, so we did not have to implement our contingency plan to add additional back blocks as we had in 2010. By all accounts the 2011 city plan was quite successful.
The increase of radial streets was certainly influenced by the vision of Black Rock City’s long-term city designer Rod Garrett, who we sadly lost in 2011. We will reflect on his vision as we plan future Black Rock Cities.
Submitted by,
Terry Shoop