May your alleyway never be the dodgy feces grease and urine obstacle course that is Pioneer Square near Yesler.

Damn it, I like alleys BECAUSE they're dirty and totally lacking in aesthetic charm.

We have some quite picturesquely filthy ones here in Kern County.

ekdikeo4: Walk around downtown San Francisco.  Even the alleyways where they keep their dumpsters are clean, lit, and even decorated in places.

Yeah, you gotta go the tenderloin for the real filth...

NSFW Link (scene 3 is my favorite)

/I'm sorry

illannoyin: http://forum.jerkoffzone.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat &Number=217304

Hidden camera in my shower?

/not clicking that

So where, exactly, are the Dumpsters supposed to be placed once they are replaced with panoramic paintings of multiracial children holding hands around a rainbow and community herb gardens? These alleys have 'trash receptacles' in them specifically to keep them from being placed on the main roads or in parking areas. If the back entrances at literally every single job I've ever had are any indication, any planters or sculptures or whatever else they put there will wind up filled with trash and cigarette butts anyways.

The ped mall may want to change its name.

My neighborhood has alleys between all the houses, I have no idea why. Currently two coyotes are roaming them. No one drives down them, and you put your trash on the street. It's just ten feet of wasted space between houses, that the city has to keep from becoming overgrown with weeds, bushes, etc.

Captain James T. Smirk: So where, exactly, are the Dumpsters supposed to be placed once they are replaced with panoramic paintings of multiracial children holding hands around a rainbow and community herb gardens? These alleys have 'trash receptacles' in them specifically to keep them from being placed on the main roads or in parking areas. If the back entrances at literally every single job I've ever had are any indication, any planters or sculptures or whatever else they put there will wind up filled with trash and cigarette butts anyways.

They should go in the underground transit area just like the delivery semis and employee vehicles.

CruJones: My neighborhood has alleys between all the houses, I have no idea why. Currently two coyotes are roaming them. No one drives down them, and you put your trash on the street. It's just ten feet of wasted space between houses, that the city has to keep from becoming overgrown with weeds, bushes, etc.

FromSomewhereElse: An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane found in urban areas, often for pedestrians only, which usually runs between or behind buildings. In older cities and towns in Europe, alleys are often what is left of a medieval street network, or a right of way or ancient footpath in an urban setting. In older urban development, alleys were built to allow for deliveries such as coal to the rear of houses. Alleys may be paved, or simply dirt tracks. A blind alley has no outlet at one end and is thus a cul-de-sac.
Many modern urban developments do not incorporate alleys, but some may provide a service road to allow for waste collection, or rear access for fire engines and parking. Andrés Duany, American architect and urban planner, has long espoused the use of alleys as leading to a better integration of automobile and foot traffic in a neighborhood.[citation needed]

In the United States alleys exist in both older commercial and residential areas, for both service purposes and automobile access. In residential areas, primarily those built before 1950, alleys provide rear access to property where a garage was located, or where waste could be collected by service vehicles. A benefit of this was the location of these activities to the rear, less public side of a dwelling. Such alleys are typically roughly paved, but some may be dirt. By 1950 they had largely disappeared from development plans for new homes.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/alley#ixzz2IYYtGGoM


(should the old alleys be removed from the southwest?)

FTA: "In 2010 and 2011, Fort Collins completed two alley projects, which improved the lighting in the two alleys and added better lighting..."

I wonder if they also replaced the bad lighting and made the lighting brighter as well?

/If you put outdoor furniture in my alley, it's in the bed of an old pickup within two hours.

If 1970's action movies are to be believed, they were once popular places to park trucks loaded with empty cardboard boxes.

I have an alley behind the house where our trash gets picked up I got a notice on my trash cans last week saying the cans need to be stored on private property. Everyone's cans are in the alley and there is no private property to store them unless I bring them into the house. The cans have been there for years and they are tight against the wall until trash day when we pull them out a few feet so the claw can grab them. I do have a garage but our cans are shared with the neighbor and I'll be damned if that tweaker is getting access to my garage.

Is the city planning that farked up? Around here the plan is

street
alley
street
alley
street
alley

So there's no good reason to walk down an alley because there is an adjacent street.

// driving down alleys OTOH is a good way to avoid traffic ... and get a flat tire.

buckler: If 1970's action movies are to be believed, they were once popular places to park trucks loaded with empty cardboard boxes.

I remember those. My Italian neighbor would park his fruit seller's cart there, right near the window glass delivery place.

ExperianScaresCthulhu: CruJones: My neighborhood has alleys between all the houses, I have no idea why. Currently two coyotes are roaming them. No one drives down them, and you put your trash on the street. It's just ten feet of wasted space between houses, that the city has to keep from becoming overgrown with weeds, bushes, etc.

FromSomewhereElse: An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane found in urban areas, often for pedestrians only, which usually runs between or behind buildings. In older cities and towns in Europe, alleys are often what is left of a medieval street network, or a right of way or ancient footpath in an urban setting. In older urban development, alleys were built to allow for deliveries such as coal to the rear of houses. Alleys may be paved, or simply dirt tracks. A blind alley has no outlet at one end and is thus a cul-de-sac.
Many modern urban developments do not incorporate alleys, but some may provide a service road to allow for waste collection, or rear access for fire engines and parking. Andrés Duany, American architect and urban planner, has long espoused the use of alleys as leading to a better integration of automobile and foot traffic in a neighborhood.[citation needed]

In the United States alleys exist in both older commercial and residential areas, for both service purposes and automobile access. In residential areas, primarily those built before 1950, alleys provide rear access to property where a garage was located, or where waste could be collected by service vehicles. A benefit of this was the location of these activities to the rear, less public side of a dwelling. Such alleys are typically roughly paved, but some may be dirt. By 1950 they had largely disappeared from development plans for new homes.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/alley#ixzz2IYYtGGoM


(should the old alleys be removed from the southwest?)

My neighborhood was built in the fifties, which is why it amuses me. I wouldn't mind the city just giving half to me and half to the house behind me. Or at least keep it navigable year round

And every morning, after getting the Alley's all fixed up, all the merchants will have the added task of ensuring their dumpsters are clean and tidy, polished, but not too polished, and all is beautified.

That city official must like Studio 13 (a bar) thats on the alley they plan to upgrade first...
Its at 13 South Linn Street, Iowa City, IA, which is actually in that alley btwn Debucque(sp?) and Linn

/good friends sis used to go to school there

illannoyin: ekdikeo4: Walk around downtown San Francisco.  Even the alleyways where they keep their dumpsters are clean, lit, and even decorated in places.

Yeah, you gotta go the tenderloin for the real filth...

NSFW Link (scene 3 is my favorite)

/I'm sorry

I'd give that a "full erection" standing

Somacandra: But did they have BIG wheels, Submitter?

Done in ONE!!!

Congratulations, you win the interwebs.

/nearly a good laugh
//almost a joker

ekdikeo4: Walk around downtown San Francisco.  Even the alleyways where they keep their dumpsters are clean, lit, and even decorated in places.

San Francisco is not like that at all. It really quite a dirty place, full of plenty of trash, rats, and bum sh*t. The first week I was there, I was eating at a Subway and a bum pissed on the other side of the window right at table level.

The Castro is (stereotypically) much neater and cleaner (in the residential part).

Part of the problem, I think, is it doesn't ever rain enough to clean everything off and rinse all the trash into the storm sewers. So the streets are full of trash blowing around and everything has a layer of grime on it.

ekdikeo4: Walk around downtown San Francisco.  Even the alleyways where they keep their dumpsters are clean, lit, and even decorated in places.

If you consider urine stains, tags, and homeless camps "decoration".

I live in an older neighborhood (mid '20s to '30s) and none of the houses (except mine) have street garage access. The alley is primarily used for rear garage access, and garbage pickup. Last year our garbage pickup company had been bought out and the new company switched to "street" pickup due to "safety concerns" that weren't laid out. Our streets are brick paved and for this reason, don't allow trucks over a certain weight, which would include garbage trucks that are now using them for street pickup.

Since the new policy our street has had a few defects, including some buckling. I blame them.

It's the ped mall, who the fark uses the alleys there? They have dumpsters and smell like piss and stale beer.

Gyrfalcon: I suppose if these people wanted to cut through the kitchens, they'd be upset at all the food and hot stoves there, and ask that cooking only be done at certain times of day, because of the health hazards?

Well, that's how they make you feel like family.

/at Sam Wo's they really got it for you
//now closed

Alternate Solution: Put signs in alleys that show a pedestrian icon with a circle and a line through it.

nanim: Its at 13 South Linn Street, Iowa City, IA, which is actually in that alley btwn Debucque(sp?) and Linn

You must be from Chicago.

discount sushi: They have dumpsters and smell like piss and stale beer.

Alleys in most college towns are good paths to and from bars. And by that, I mean useful for getting around Draconian open container laws.

Cathrine Champeon is a long time city council member, who is taking a short cut from her parking space to her store. So for her personal convenience all downtown alleys should be renovated? I hope she trips into a pothole and drowns.

CruJones I wouldn't mind the city just giving half to me and half to the house behind me. Or at least keep it navigable year round

You could always, y'know, just go out and mow it yourself for your own benefit, never mind who "owns" it.


t3knomanser : While they don't need to be the prettiest things, they do need to be even and navigable.

Yet another BS liability issue that makes me so, so glad I live in a place where I can't even see my nearest neighbor's house.

I wish people in the US would get off of this "it's old so it needs changed regardless of how or why" trip.

And less rapist please.

Cajnik: nanim: Its at 13 South Linn Street, Iowa City, IA, which is actually in that alley btwn Debucque(sp?) and Linn

You must be from Chicago.

discount sushi: They have dumpsters and smell like piss and stale beer.

Alleys in most college towns are good paths to and from bars. And by that, I mean useful for getting around Draconian open container laws.

Cajnik: nanim: Its at 13 South Linn Street, Iowa City, IA, which is actually in that alley btwn Debucque(sp?) and Linn

You must be from Chicago.

discount sushi: They have dumpsters and smell like piss and stale beer.

Alleys in most college towns are good paths to and from bars. And by that, I mean useful for getting around Draconian open container laws.

I never bothered doing that in Iowa City, and I was going to the bars on the ped mall when I was 18. The only people I knew going into the alleys were idiots trying to avoid PAULA tickets by running out the back when cops would do a sweep.

WordyGrrl: My mom thinks GPSs are crap because they don't guide her to the butcher shop using the alley shortcuts she's always used.

So your mom likes to get meat in alleys?....

lordargent:

// driving down alleys OTOH is a good way to avoid traffic ... and get a flat tire.

Bah. gotta have the right car 1:40 (1973 Trans Am)

/goes under freeways too

dopekitty74: When i lived in edmonton, the service alleys were, paved, maintained and well used. Our garbage was usually an alley pickup, depending on where we lived.

Edmonton alleys = hobo highways.

lordargent: Is the city planning that farked up? Around here the plan is

street
alley
street
alley
street
alley

So there's no good reason to walk down an alley because there is an adjacent street.

// driving down alleys OTOH is a good way to avoid traffic ... and get a flat tire.

I remember that my father loved driving down alleys. Have no idea why, and it made my mother crazy, but he loved it.

Ah, young childhood memories.

/csb: Also, I think he was a mutant. Maybe an alien. He COULD NOT GET LOST. When I was a teenager, a friend of his and his son came over to the house to visit. During the talk, a bet was made that the friend could drive my dad blindfolded somewhere in Southern California, stop, and challenge him to say where he was. This was around 1970. We lived in Mar Vista (South of Santa Monica, northwest of Culver City, east of Venice). My dad worked in Culver City. My dad accepted and the four of us. piled in the friend's car. He drove for three hours, on freeways and city streets, doubling back several times, doing "s"s, squares, rectangles and "8"s. My dad was blindfolded with multiple layers of surgical gauze on top of black eye patches. We eventually ended up in Riverside County, on some godforsaken dirt road near Hemet. NO street signs, NO billboards, NOTHING. My dad's friend took off the gauze and patches, my dad blinked for a few minutes, looked around, pointed, and said: "Hemet's that way about12 miles, and Riverside is that way about 14 miles." He was off by a quarter mile.

/csb. True story.

t3knomanser: Alleys should be as walkable as anything else. Cities should be built around foot traffic. The entire reason people organized into cities is so that everything important is a short walk away. That's what cities are for.

While they don't need to be the prettiest things, they do need to be even and navigable.


Manhattan would like to have a word with you.....

/Fughettaboutit