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SUCKING_VORTEX

                                              January  14, 2007
                                              February 15, 2007

I made a stray remark -- once again --
about the sucking vortex of Long Island...

My sister, the Sun Fish, argues                      SUN_FISH
against my usual New Urbanism
"cities good"/"suburbs bad" line
with the example of one of our          The Sun Fish put a lot of
Long Island dwelling sisters.           emphasis on how this was
                                        "the life she choose", which
She also brings up the example          I think misses the point:
of the romantic poets, who she
says would frequently retreat                          Our choices are
to the wilderness, and yet                             constrained by a
maintained a community with                            landscape warped by
each other.                                            many strange
                                                       policy decisions.
   She tries to        I would make the point
   use these           that the Romantics would
   counter             not have had that
   examples to         community, were it not
   disprove my         for the civilization of       And something similar
   general rule.       cities that they were         could be said for our
                       retreating (vacationing?)     sister, who I agree
   Her claim is        from...                       is doing okay...
   that there                                        for someone stuck
   is "nothing            And similarly the          on Long Island.
   inherent" in           Beats would not have
   the suburbs            met without cities,
   or cities that         though the group
   makes one              included wilderness
   better than            freaks like Synder.
   the other.


I'm pretty sure that she
doesn't quite get it...      Suburbs can really be festering
                             pits of stupidity and misery,
  But just for the hell      even if there are a few
  of it, consider the        exceptions of people thriving.
  possibility that my
  "general rule" is
  sloppier than I think.

  Are there enough exceptions
  to amount to something?

     Possibly: a study of the
     exceptions, looking for         Is there a way for
     additional principles...        civilization to thrive,
                                     in spite of countervailing
                                     forces?


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