Why do we choose to live cities? \u00a0What are they for?<\/p>\n
Well, for\u00a0many\u00a0of us they are ‘Where the jobs are’. \u00a0We don’t choose to live in or near them. \u00a0We do so\u00a0because\u00a0that is how our economy is configured. \u00a0We are drawn into they city and ‘enslaved’ by it and the economy is exists to serve. \u00a0But many of us are, on the whole, happy slaves as the city fathers and their investor friends ensure we are\u00a0regularly\u00a0supplied with both \u00a0‘bread and\u00a0circuses’<\/a>,\u00a0superficial\u00a0means of appeasement, from which they too can often make a handsome profit.<\/p>\n And, on one level, this is a purpose of the city.<\/p>\n To organise a modern population effectively and efficiently for the benefit of employers and those who bankroll and tax them. \u00a0They are above all else economic entities, where ‘culture’ and ‘community’ play secondary roles as part of the mechanisms for appeasement while the primary narrative is about the economy, productivity, profitability and gross domestic product.<\/p>\n As Margaret Thatcher put it\u00a0“Economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul.”<\/p>\n But, we can look at a city differently.<\/p>\n We could choose to\u00a0believe\u00a0that “Head, heart and soul are the method; the object is to change the economy”<\/p>\n We can choose to see the city as a collection of people who have converged on a specific location because it offers them opportunities to do the\u00a0things\u00a0that they\u00a0want\u00a0to do, to be the person that they\u00a0want\u00a0to be and fulfil their potential. \u00a0In such a city the primary relationship would not be one of ‘enslavement’ to an economy but as a collaboration of powerful citizens in a participative democracy. \u00a0A city where citizens primary\u00a0responsibility\u00a0is to each other and to the future. \u00a0Where an economy is produced that serves people, both now and into the future.<\/p>\n Such a city would almost certainly not depend primarily on the development of its physical infrastructure, (Supercasino anyone? Or perhaps a high-speed train or station entrance to inspire the\u00a0business\u00a0folk?) but on psychological infrastructure. \u00a0A network of relationships, support and encouragement that valued people, regardless of wealth or education, ethnicity, gender, sexuality or age. \u00a0A psychological infrastructure in which help could be asked for and offered. A city in which collaboration, association and innovation in the pursuit of progress was everyone\u2019s business.<\/p>\n Now THAT would be a city I would\u00a0want\u00a0to live in.<\/p>\n