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Theoretical cities

If post-modern cities are defined by their decentralization, privatization, and generalized atomization of community, then where are we now? Is the paradigm on the cusp of shifting?

The now-hip focus on “the local,” a focus on community-building and engagement, a reassertion of centralization (downtown revival and investment,) and a push toward public-private partnerships to accomplish development all point to a new mode of thought that is not necessarily at odds with postmodernism but rather a remix of it, the ideals of modernity, and something else entirely different.

New York in the 1970’s. Inspired by the new book “Love Goes To Buildings On Fire: Five Years In New York That Changed Music Forever”

These are public spaces. Spaces for gathering, leisure, meeting and interacting – these spaces should be the reason we live in cities. Where the state and the interests of owners have made them inaccessible, exclusive or dangerous, it is up to us to make sure that they are safe, inclusive and just.

To the Occupy movement – the occupiers of Tahrir Square are with you | Comrades from Cairo via The Guardian

There is no difference between me and these streets, save they being streets and I a soul, which perhaps is irrelevant when we consider the essence of things. Fernando Pessoa

All cities are mad: but the madness is gallant. All cities are beautiful: but the beauty is grim. Christopher Morley, Where the Blue Begins

Cities are about getting stuff done and, more importantly, generating the ideas that get stuff done…The…most lasting kind of happiness…comes from pursuing not happiness itself, but something bigger and more strenuous. This is what cities are good at.

Be happy, be more interesting, be dense

If you’re into cities and art, my friend makes beautiful prints of post-industrial cities and sells them on her Etsy store. Buy a print, support New Orleans art, and get down with some urban aesthetics.

This is how cities make me feel on the best days

Kodachrome New York, 1940’s. What a city.