Manchester "encouraging" granite curbs

[citizen_142002]

I obiviously don't agree with zoning period.

I do think there are some merits to using granite curbing. It does hold up better against snow plows. I never did realize that the priceof granite curbing was so much more than asphalt.

I wonder if concrete wouldn't be a good compromise between price and durability.

I always figured that the reason some cities and towns push for granite curbing, isn't so much that this is the "granite state", but rather because it's a way to say "Our town is affluent enough to make the curbs look nice".

[error]

Around here they don't scrape the plow blades against the curbs.

[burnthebeautiful]

It's probably some 'preserving our culture' crap. Groups of people in a given location, without any involvement from the government, create their own traditions and ways of life, which inevitably evolve and change as the years ago. But as I said, ways of life change over time, but the government doesn't realize whatever 'culture' a group of people have is a result of voluntary interaction and change. When change begins to become evident, the government runs in and says "No, we can't change, we have to preserve our culture!", and they pass laws mandating that buildings keep being built the way they used to be, that people be taught in schools to speak the way they used to and crap like that. The government doesn't want to let 'society' change and evolve in it's own pace, they think 'culture' is synonomous with 'the way it used to be' and try to slow the change down.

So anyway yeah, rant aside, the reasoning is probably something like "New Hampshire is the granite state, we need to preserve our culture by making people put granite everywhere".

I have to say: That is one of the best arguments I've ever seen against planning, zoning, and other regulations.

I think I made some unnecessary repetitions, but thanks

[anthonybpugh]

Something I would be curious is to know the qualifications of the people on these zoning boards.  I would personally like to see the resumes of these people.  Not one of them has any experience in the building trades I bet.  I think most of their decisions are more about aesthetics than safety or nuissance concerns.     

these bastards have a 213 page master plan done up in 1993.  I might have to look over it sometime.   
http://www.manchesternh.gov/CityGov/PLN/files/0FB465A67424472588EBA1BD61F32D2E.pdf

[Recumbent ReCycler]

Anyone else ever hit a vertical granite curb?  I lost a tire because of one when I took a turn while driving a bus, and the rear tire rubbed up against the curb and the sidewall got sliced open.  Hitting a vertical granite curb with a bicycle is also much more painful than hitting a sloped curb.  I got my share of cuts and bruises when I was a kid from running into or off vertical granite or marble curbs.  (The town that I lived in as a kid had a marble quarry, and a few of the curbs were made of marble.)