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An Insight of Coral Gables through Kunstler’s Views of the Neighborhood

As a zealous advocate for the New Urbanism movement, James Howard Kunstler reiterates that the most vital planning unit is the neighborhood. Kunstler’s perception is that once a neighborhood has a well-defined architecture that blends with a mixture of history, heritage, and the present presents a better livability area for its inhabitants by considering the human needs over the aesthetic needs. Coral Gables is such a city that it reaches the heights of Kunstler’s new urbanism. Coral Gables is a functioning city that fits into Kunstler’s views of planning focused on the neighborhood through its construction, parking location, public transportation access, housing set up; therefore, Coral Gables is mindful of the human needs over the aesthetic needs, thereby promoting civic life.

Nicknamed The City Beautiful, Coral Gables is located in the heart of Miami, Florida. Although Florida is known for its high-end properties, Coral Gables stands out as a one-of-a-kind community, seen as a planned community. Coral Gables has a blend of historical and new-age architecture in its infrastructural designs that make the community favorable to promote civic life. According to Kunstler, for a neighborhood to provide livability standards, amenities need to be accessible, with an equal proportion in buildings where human needs are taken up as priority over aesthetic needs. Coral Gables, through its planning, has achieved this with introspective architectural designs, color blends that pin rich histories, and streets, crosswalks, and boulevards filled with perfectly manicured trees to bring about the coastal feel of the community in its location.

Coral Gables fits into the innate new urbanized views of Kunstler through its parking location and amenities. Individuals living or visiting Coral Gables can locate an accessible parking spaces using a city center app location on their smartphones. The application helps one locate, reserve, or opt for valet parking across Coral Gables. The application proves efficient and in line with Kunstler’s neighborhood views as the basic unit of planning. Parking location facilitated by technology in Coral Gables ensures that inhabitants can access parking spaces closest to their routine errands. The government and residents of Coral Gables understand how disruptive and destructive the locomotive industry can be to free interaction. Therefore, as a bike-friendly community, Coral Gables has instituted bike racks for bike parking. With the industrial parking garages a few minutes away from busy streets and access to bike racks, there is a reduced number of automobiles in the busy Coral Gables, promoting more socialization. Therefore, coexistence has been promoted, popularizing civic life. A neighborhood where civic life is developed, social capital is strengthened, simplifying coordination and cooperation amongst dwellers.

Coral Gables supports Kunstler’s walkable neighborhood views through its strategic public transport location. Compared to other cities in the U.S., Coral Gables has suburban and business districts. To access such areas, Coral Gables has a state-of-the-art public transportation system consisting of free trolleys, metro-buses, subway, and airplanes. Access to metro-buses has been easy by allocating bus stops across the city and incorporating bus benches for all types of passengers. In high-public transport concentrated areas, the bus benches have been integrated with shelters that people can rest under as they wait for metro-busses to come around. Also, navigating downtown Miami has been accessible by incorporating biking lanes, pedestrian crosswalks, and sidewalks. Public transportation services’ easy location has fostered cost-efficiency amongst citizens in Coral Gables, therefore promoting inter-community interactions.

The housing set up in Coral Gables fits perfectly with Kunstler’s New Urbanism Movement’s envisioned views. Coral Gables housing development from downtown Miami to the suburban areas offers a blend of mixed housing that fits citizens with different incomes. Laws of interaction integrated into the business and living standards form a part of the mixture between residential and business streets, parks. Therefore, zoning laws in Coral Gables allow the development of buildings that promote business ventures, creating corridors with high walls that define and connect each street. Downtown Miami advocates for business only with an assortment of high-end boutique stores for shopping and restaurants on the streets, while suburban areas hold up different homes for homeowners with different incomes. Such a blend in housing advocates for better living situations for Coral Gables’ inhabitants geared towards the best interest of all.

In light of Kunstler’s views, Coral Gables attends more towards the human needs than the aesthetic needs in its neighborhood planning. Coral Gables is nicknamed The City Beautiful because of the natural designs that it adorns in its planning. With over 40 playgrounds and green spaces spread out in the city, Coral Gables stands as a city detailed towards human and aesthetic needs. The green spaces range from playgrounds to parks to golf courses on resorts in the city. These green spaces are ideal for children’s growth and development, holistic family enjoyment, and socializing. The segregated parks host beautiful sceneries of varieties of trees and properly manicured thickets. The essence behind this is to provide social needs. Safety needs that are a part of human needs are provided through constant surveillance with CCTV cameras incorporated on the streets to ensure all visitors’ and citizens’ safety. Towering palm trees and regularly trimmed trees can be seen in the Miracle Mile busy streets surrounded by concrete slabs that act as enclosures for the trees and thickets and resting spots for citizens walking down the street walks.

Besides the open green spaces that border Miracle Mile, Miracle Mile and Merrick Vintage Park are known for their array of top-end boutique stores and vintage-designed street lamps that add the aesthetic needs for the beautification of Coral Gables. Balancing modern architectural designs like the University of Miami are impeccable landmarks with a rich history that include the Merrick House, the Biltmore Hotel, and the Desoto Fountain, which also integrate with modern architecture beautiful vintage designs like the Venetian Pool. Public institutions like the Coral Gables Museum offer visitors a perspective of the city’s rich history, and the Book of Books store imbued with an array of books that speak on current trends as well as historical perspectives. Ultimately, access to the recreational activities in Coral Gables gives individuals a beautiful scenery of an over 40-mile stretch of waterways. All these attributes planned into Coral Gables’ existence by its founder bring into perspective the essence of planning with the neighborhood as the central focus. Civic life is nurtured through the meticulous planning of Coral Gables, incorporating rich history with urbanization geared towards the best interests of all.

In retrospect, I believe that the Coral Gables neighborhood fits perfectly into Kunstler’s views on New Urbanism. Though in the heart of Miami Coral Gables–The City Beautiful–is worlds apart with its wide variety of housing, recreational, business, and historical options all-around the city. Integrating suburban life with business aesthetics brings focus to the importance of a work-life balance. Coral Gables’ community planning adds in an integral piece of preservation through the advocacy of proper sidewalks, bike lanes, better access to public transportation, access to parking, and limited automobiles in busy town centers like Miracle Mile; therefore, there is an increased approach towards promoting civic life by addressing human needs than aesthetic needs. Although beautification through the integration of historic and modern architecture has brought about the aesthetic needs of Coral Gables, the green spaces offer ample space for rest, freedom to walk without traffic, and natural lighting. In Kunstler’s words, truly, the basic planning unit in the neighborhood, and Coral Gables is a beacon for promoting civic life in its planning.