Intricate Minglings Of Different Uses In Cities

Americans Have Got It So Dinged Into Them That They Are The Most Fortunate People On Earth, And That The Rest Of The World - The Sooner It Copies What America Is Like, The Better.

Reformers Have Long Observed City People Loitering On Busy Corners, Hanging Around In Candy Stores And Bars And Drinking Soda Popon Stoops, And Have Passed A Judgment, The Gist Of Which Is: "this Is Deplorable! If These People Had Decent Homes And A More Private Or Bosky Outdoor Place, They Wouldn't Be On The Street!" That Judgment Represents A Profound Misunderstanding Of Cities. It Makes No More Sense Than To Drop In At A Testimonial Banquet In A Hotel And Conclude That If These People Had Wives Who Could Cook, They Would Give Their Parties At Home.

There Are Dangers In Sentimentalizing Nature. Most Sentimental Ideas Imply, At Bottom, A Deep If Unacknowledged Disrespect. It Is No Accident That We Americans, Probably The World's Champion Sentimentalizers About Nature, Are At One And The Same Time Probably The World's Most Voracious And Disrespectful Destroyers Of Wild And Rural Countryside.

Observation Of Realities Has Never, To Put It Mildly, Been One Of The Strengths Of Economic Development Theory.

I Don't Think That You Can Dispose Of The Constructive And Inventive Things That America Is Doing - And Say, "oh We Aren't Doing Anything Anymore And We Are Living Off Of What The Poor Chinese Do." It Is More Complicated Than That. There Is The Example Of Detroit Which Was Once A Very Prosperous And Diverse City. And Look What Happened When It Just Specialized On Automobiles. Look At Manchester When It Specialized In Those Dark Satanic Mills, When It Specialized In Textiles. It Was Supposed To Be The City Of The Future.