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March 17, 2012
I'm a big believer in "New Urbanism",
but like everything I'm a big believer
in there are things about it that give
me pause...
NOWHERE_PUNK
The great New Urban dream seems to be
to re-create the American small town
of friendly neighbors strolling past
rocking chairs on front porches.
While I have nothing against rocking chairs,
I'm more concerned about rock-n-roll.
Without a nearly-abandoned Bowery it's
hard to imagine a CBGBs, and without And similarly, I suspect
a CBGBs, it's hard to imagine Punk Rock. that Washington Square
Park was central for
Where are the cracks in the New Urban development of the 60s
dream where a new Punk Rock might Folk Scene.
take hold and grow?
The opportunity to
create a CBGBs scene
required a decline,
it required a slum
where no one cared
much what happened.
The Washington Square
folk scene required
precisely the opposite,
it took a preservation
movement by people
who really did care
about their
neighborhood and
refused to let it
be planned away.
The low road and the
high road?
BUILDINGS_LEARN
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