String City
Been spending a lot of time playing with google earth, and took a good look up close at the cities I know well. Via highways, our cities are collapsing at the core and spreading out.
Since I spend a lot of time in the car I watch the landscape go by and find that, more and more, while neighborhood character is hard to find, the ability to get what I need has improved. My lifestyle is not really dependant on any city I live in. In fact, I identify more with the these long highway generated neighborhoods. They go where the homes go. As a result, we are no longer crowded in to a center which defines our space, but actually live in a "string city" spread out as far as 20 miles in each direction from where I live.
Whoever (Yeats?) said "the center cannot hold" could have been talking about our cities today. But the city isn't dying - it's turning into threads - a type of suburban string city. Via infrastructure, car culture, convenience, what have you, its more than just "the mall" now. It's everything you need within 3 exits.
Since I spend a lot of time in the car I watch the landscape go by and find that, more and more, while neighborhood character is hard to find, the ability to get what I need has improved. My lifestyle is not really dependant on any city I live in. In fact, I identify more with the these long highway generated neighborhoods. They go where the homes go. As a result, we are no longer crowded in to a center which defines our space, but actually live in a "string city" spread out as far as 20 miles in each direction from where I live.
Whoever (Yeats?) said "the center cannot hold" could have been talking about our cities today. But the city isn't dying - it's turning into threads - a type of suburban string city. Via infrastructure, car culture, convenience, what have you, its more than just "the mall" now. It's everything you need within 3 exits.
posted by Ed C:\> at 11:41 PM
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