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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 then 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        And note: as the highways were
little better than a small town.        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
Changes in                              new highways, then choked off
communications                          by rising traffic.
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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