Strada Republicii - Brasov, Romania
Municipal officers take note: what makes a city should not be defined by either population density or sprawl. Have minimum thresholds in these measures, but the first criterion of a city is its modes of circulation. Public transport should be a given, because in urbanity we sacrifice lesser luxuries, such as the personal vehicle and reduced risk of sudden nuclear attack, for the greater joys of city living, such as walking. A city is no city if its people do not walk.
Country folk have long understood that walking drives a connection with environment that can only be achieved on foot. This holds true everywhere. The point isn’t pace (decidedly, walking in Manhattan is never slowed), but space—spatial understandings of community as they are manifest in the greatest of humankind’s creations, the goddamn metropolis.
This is best evident in the survival of the pedestrian thoroughfare. In streets and plazas reserved for foot traffic there are opportunities to sublimate the individual and the community in ways otherwise unachievable. Without the nostalgia for the countryside inherent in many civic parks, pedestrian thoroughfares create space for the body among other bodies, while making no apology for the city itself. Even otherwise banal cities like Milan have piazzas where people make la passeggiata and flourish.
Yet American city makeovers are failing to understand. Near mega-convention centers and corporate hotels you’ll find a paltry block lined with TGI Fridays and manky Irish pubs. The allure is meant to be a stem in vehicular traffic, as if we would marvel at canned country music and open asphalt. No, we know the real novelty here. Even if our ancestors stood back for passing chariots or sedan chairs, common men and women walked in the streets first. Their hands built the buildings; their feet touched the ground.
[...] use them, and what they tell us about our society. As such, I’ve written a review of “The Pedestrian Thoroughfare” that I hope you’ll find the time to [...]
True. I will forever be grateful for my city’s various means of getting home, taking a trail by the side of the mountain to get home will always be my favorite. Great pic of my favorite street in town by the way.