Posted on 08/26/2006 1:08:23 PM PDT by Cvengr
Want your road to riches to remain paved with gold? Then you'd better pave your sidewalks with granite.
Beverly Hills...City Manager Roderick Wood wants to start jack-hammering the dull concrete sidewalks along Rodeo Drive, ..home to ...Prada, Gucci, Cartier and Tiffany — and replace them with glimmering Kenoran Sage granite pavers.
Never mind that the city just wrapped up a $16-million, two-year streetscape makeover that included new concrete sidewalks.
...."The greatest peril in today's luxury market is for one to rely on history only to become history." ... Wood said. .. But ...a rocky reception...there is the price. The city wants merchants to pay the $850-per-linear-foot cost of the granite.
Property owners would be required to install granite sidewalks for projects over $250,000.
That means sidewalks could have a patchwork look to them for years — ...
... the sidewalk pavers would have a rough surface less likely to cause pedestrians to slip and fall in wet weather.
"To be the elite of the elite does not mean flat, white concrete and ho-hum green bushes for landscaping with no focus on a unique and exceptional quality of experience," Wood wrote in a memo this week to the City Council.
On Rodeo Drive, however, pedestrians were puzzled Thursday over why anyone would want to change the look — or feel — of the palm-shaded street.
...."In Boston they'd spiff things up by putting a few little rows of bricks in the sidewalk ...".
The sidewalk controversy ultimately will be decided by the City Council, which so far has not taken a formal position.
For now they're stonewalling on granite.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The spray can street art provides more stylish local color than mandated luxury codes which merely drive up costs and remove the true artistic talent from a possible venue. IMHO, what a great way to kill an upper end environment.
There was an article recently about ground up tires being used to make sidewalk pavers out of.
They don't crack as easily and if someone falls on them they are much safer. That sounds like a better way to go than granite.
Where your money is, thereto is where your heart is....
I choose to put my money (and my heart) on Higher things.... than granite sidewalks...
Amen!
Wonder who's providing the granite?
Downtown San Jose, CA, thanks to it's being the capital of Silicon Valley, looks like an empty, granite museum. Too much money chasing too few ideas.
"Pavin' in Beverly Hills....."
That's gotta nice tune to it.
That granite in S.J. was paid for with misappropriated funds!
They stole the flood control money, as well as other set aside's.
Then denied all responsibility when the Alviso district north of town was inundated TWO YEARS IN A ROW!
Guess where I lived at the time?
I would like to find a granite eating acid, and flood S.J. with it.
...and don't let's get started on their 'rapid transit'. Heh.
Boston (downtown) use to have mostly granite cobblestone streets. They were paved over in time, then torn up. These cobblestones are now spread all over the northeast, showing up in driveways and walkways in high end homes and estates. Granite cobblestone, now very expensive, is making a resurgence that's been underway for at least 25 years.
Agreed.
That was my first thought. It's interesting how many granite and tile businesses have sprung up in the last 8 years. You would think terrazzo would have more interest.
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