But seek the welfare of the City and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
-Jeremiah 29:7
Even the Christian bibles endorses the importance of cities in the lives of people everywhere. This passage says to me that it is only together – working, living and mixing together – that we will thrive. Living in isolated places with privacy and security (the suburbs) being more important than connecting to other humans is not how it’s supposed to be. If anyone can prove to me that the suburbs are not about isolation and keeping away from people not like you, then please share your thoughts.
(picture: the prophet Jeremiah) (quote found at http://www.dpz.com/research.aspx)
2 responses so far ↓
Heather // December 23, 2008 at 5:42 pm |
Do you live next to the “diverse” folks in the city? I doubt it. Just because you are closer in proximity to recent immigrants does not mean you are any more tolerant than your suburban mom. Seems to me most suburb-haters live within inches of each other (aka, not diverse) in the city & frequent “ethnic” restaurants run by ex-suburbanites. I’m just not sure why this is such an issue? You CHOOSE to live in the city. People CHOOSE to live in the burbs. Why the heck do you care so much about someone else’s choice? They don’t care about yours… and I think you should be happy that people have left your precious city, leaving more space for YOU at the Indian restaurants, high-end boutiques, and homeless parks. Grow up.
Ciudadana // December 24, 2008 at 4:21 am |
Awesome … This is exactly the kind of conversation I want this blog to generate (even though I haven’t updated it in a ridiculously long time). Your points are interesting ones to ponder.
Skipping the assumptions you made about me, which I won’t get into, I would like to address your point about ‘why do you care so much about someone else’s choice?’
I care because their choices, everyones’ choices, affect everyone else. My view is that suburbia is generally an environmentally irresponsible pattern of settlement and has not rated very high on other tests …
The way suburbs are built do not make us better people or a better society. They do not provide any better place to raise children than anywhere else. They have actually contributed to eroding political participation and sense of civic duty.
And finally, they have been the place where our economic woes have most stridently played out – disinvestment in social welfare programs, the rise of housing as a commodity to be traded, huge corporations who thrive on obscuring the unique nature of each city and our dependence on using an insane amount of petroleum.
How does that affect me … Where to start?!
The sadly ironic thing is that most of the immigrants and low income people who live around me WANT to live in the suburbs, they are in love with the illusion it provides.