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URB

                            November 10, 2001
what is a city? 

A definition solely in terms of 
population density is shallow, 
because no one really cares about 
that directly. 

Better would be to think
about what people like             (and dislike?) 
about cities, and the talk
about why those properties
have traditionally 
gone along with the high
densities.
   
Jane Jacobs focuses on        
the way in which it                
allows multiple             Specifically: the                  
different kinds of          use of shared spaces                  
people to interact.         in different ways          MONOCULTURE
                            at different times.                

                                                      
If the point then is not        
how tightly packed people                        
are, but how many                                
different kinds of people                        
you're in contact with,        "How big is your town?"               
then you could have a            is really                           
relatively small town          "How many people can you reach easily"
that functions in a very         or more likely                      
city-like way, provided        "How many different kinds of people". 
the population was                               
diverse enough.                                  
                                                 
Conversely, you could have a huge                
mono-cultural mass that would be                 
little better than a small town.                 
                                                 
                                                 
                                                 
And note: as the highways               
were built, and the US car              
culture ramped up, the                  
same territory could go                 
from isolated to connected              
and back to relative                    
isolation again: connected
by new highways, then
choked off by rising
traffic.


Changes in
communications
technology can be
relatively connecting
or isolating:


   Connecting connections: 

      "party"-line telephone.         
      shortwave/citizen's band radio. 
      usenet newsgroups. email mailing lists.                    
                                                    
   Isolating connections:                           
                                                    
      caller-to-caller telephone.                   
      "mass media" broadcast.                       
      livejournal 


And maximized connectivity itself
is not an unalloyed good:                      CONTROL      

      
   A certain amount of serendipity
   in who you talk to while on the
   street or waiting on line at the
   local cafe, that's all to the
   good.
                                          
   A constant parade of babbling              
   strangers through your office
   would not be so good.        
        


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