urban-life

You're telling me a shape-shifting demon just walked out onto Fifth Avenue and blended in with the crowd?" I asked. "Hailed a fucking cab after tearing everyone to pieces down here?

In the twenty-first century, the visions of J.C. Nichols and Walt Disney have come full circle and joined. __eighborhoods_ are increasingly __evelopments,_ corporate theme parks. But corporations aren__ interested in the messy ebb and flow of humanity. They want stability and predictable rates of return. And although racial discrimination is no longer a stated policy for real estate brokers and developers, racial and social homogeneity are still firmly embedded in America__ collective idea of stability; that__ what our new landlords are thinking even if they are not saying it. (138)

By far the greatest and most admirable form of wisdom is that needed to plan and beautify cities and human communities.

The secret parts of this city never ceased to amaze me.

Imagine having a city full of things that no other city had.

He should make you smile...always...and when he makes you cry it should be out of passion! _

Well-lit streets discourage sin, but don't overdo it.

I waited in vain for someone like me to stand up and say that the only thing those of us who don't believe in god have to believe is in other people and that New York City is the best place there ever was for a godless person to practice her moral code. I think it has to do with the crowded sidewalks and subways. Walking to and from the hardware store requires the push and pull of selfishness and selflessness, taking turns between getting out of someone's way and them getting out of yours, waiting for a dog to move, helping a stroller up steps, protecting the eyes from runaway umbrellas. Walking in New York is a battle of the wills, a balance of aggression and kindness. I'm not saying it's always easy. The occasional "Watch where you're going, bitch" can, I admit, put a crimp in one's day. But I believe all that choreography has made me a better person. The other day, in the subway at 5:30, I was crammed into my sweaty, crabby fellow citizens, and I kept whispering under my breath "we the people, we the people" over and over again, reminding myself we're all in this together and they had as much right - exactly as much right - as I to be in the muggy underground on their way to wherever they were on their way to.

Street culture is a culture of containment. Most young people do not realize that it all too often leads to a __ead end_. __treet culture,_ as I am using the term, is a counterforce to movement culture. Street culture in contemporary urban reality is synonymous with survival at all costs. This world view is mostly negative, because it demands constant adjustment to circumstances that are often far beyond young people__ control or understanding, such as economics, education, housing, employment, nutrition, law, and so forth.