Empires Want [cities] Only To

One Of Our Troubles Is That We Try To Make Municipalities That Are Totally Different From Each Other All Act As If They Were The Same Kind Of Creature, With The Same Kinds Of Possibilities.

Subsidiarity Is The Principle That Government Works Best Most Responsibly And Responsively When It Is Closest To The People It Serves And The Needs It Addresses. Fiscal Accountability Is The Principle That Institutions Collecting And Disbursing Taxes Work Most Responsibly When They Are Transparent To Those Providing The Money.

Cities Need Old Buildings So Badly It Is Probably Impossible For Vigorous Streets And Districts To Grow Without Them.... For Really New Ideas Of Any Kind--no Matter How Ultimately Profitable Or Otherwise Successful Some Of Them Might Prove To Be--there Is No Leeway For Such Chancy Trial, Error And Experimentation In The High-overhead Economy Of New Construction. Old Ideas Can Sometimes Use New Buildings. New Ideas Must Use Old Buildings.

When We Deal With Cities We Are Dealing With Life At Its Most Complex And Intense. Because This Is So, There Is A Basic Esthetic Limitation On What Can Be Done With Cities: A City Cannot Be A Work Of Art.

While You Are Looking, You Might As Well Also Listen, Linger And Think About What You See.