Erosion Of Cities Or Attrition

Advanced Cultures Are Usually Sophisticated Enough, Or Have Been Sophisticated Enough At Some Point In Their Pasts, To Realize That Foxes Shouldn't Be Relied On To Guard Henhouses.

To Approach A City, Or Even A City Neighborhood, As If It Were A Larger Architectural Problem, Capable Of Being Given Order By Converting It Into A Disciplined Work Of Art, Is To Make The Mistake Of Attempting To Substitute Art For Life. The Results Of Such Profound Confusion Between Art And Life Are Neither Life Nor Art. They Are Taxidermy.

In Wretched Outcomes, The Devil Is In The Details.

It May Be That We Have Become So Feckless As A People That We No Longer Care How Things Do Work, But Only What Kind Of Quick, Easy Outer Impression They Give. If So, There Is Little Hope For Our Cities Or Probably For Much Else In Our Society. But I Do Not Think This Is So.

A Border--the Perimeter Of A Single Massive Or Stretched-out Use Of Territory--forms The Edge Of An Area Of 'ordinary' City. Often Borders Are Thought Of As Passive Objects, Or Matter-of-factly Just As Edges. However, A Border Exerts An Active Influence.