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Lewis Mumford on YouTube, talking about the city in history

Lewis Mumford appeared on the cover of TIME on 18 April 1938 (click here to view), after the publication of his first book on the city, The Culture of Cities. Read the review here. He published a second, The City in History, in 1961, reviewed in TIME with the title "Books: Necropolis Revisited" (read here). I spent many afternoons in the Mumfords' country house and got to know Lewis through long conversations with his widow, Sophia, and I've read his books and gone through many of his letters and photographs. [...]

June 27th, 2011|Categories: Oddments|Tags: , , , |

Sprawl and the Decline of Social Capital – and Health

Hardly a surprise that commuting leads to a decline in physical and social health, but the important point is that commutes are the result of how we design cities, site industry, and create new housing. Major political will is needed to make changes, and that requires a better understanding of community on the part of policy makers and citizens, too. The Gallup polling organization reports that the "well being" of metropolitan Americans is apparently "lower among workers with long commutes." The study, released this month, finds that "lengthy commuters are [...]

August 25th, 2010|Categories: Oddments|Tags: , |

SE5 Forum for Camberwell

I'm finding terrific websites for my old, and former, neighborhood, including SE5 Forum for Camberwell. Odd, isn't it that Great Barrington has nothing like this? Maybe not: Great Barrington has a year-round population of only 7,700, where Camberwell has 37,000. Demographics matter. Density creates new possibilities and provides what we used to talk about a lot, in the days when I was part of the leadership team of a Berkshire technology business network--critical mass. A rural area like this hasn't got the critical mass, the human or intellectual capital, of [...]

August 19th, 2010|Categories: Oddments|Tags: , , |