Comments on: Guest post by green mormon architect: 8.3 Million

By: green mormon architect

green mormon architect — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:51:58 +0000

I appreciate your comments Lora. I agree that the concentration of resources (and people) can lead to both positives and negatives. And I am excited to have brought a little bit of life to cities for you despite your dislike for them.

Patricia, thanks for allowing me to guest post here. It was an enjoyable challenge for me to articulate my experience from years ago.

By: Sunday in Outer Blogness: Double Edition! | Main Street Plaza

Sunday in Outer Blogness: Double Edition! | Main Street Plaza — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:47:00 +0000

[...] have been a number of beautiful images posted this past fortnight. Green Mormon Architect gives a poetic description of the city, and wren took some poetic photos of another city in the rain. Tom is sharing with us the top [...]

By: Patricia

Patricia — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 01:50:43 +0000

BTW, this line: My love is already here, all 8.3 million of them.

… makes me think of a line from a Brothers Gibb song: “How deep is your love?”

Jonathan provides a nice measurement of his: 8.3 mil deep. :)

By: Lora

Lora — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:58:04 +0000

I don’t like cities, but your writing helped me appreciate them better.
I have been reading about sustainability and city development with interest over the last couple years. I like some of the ideas, like having the garage in the back of neighborhood houses, planning in more green areas around schools, and making sure there are sidewalks.
I live in suburbs, which is a pain. It takes the entire day to drive on errands because no two destinations are terribly close to one another. There are also no sidewalks and children on bikes must navigate between cars. In our talks around the kitchen table I have said that I wouldn’t mind a more developed place if it were small and as long as it had sidewalks and I could walk to a library and/or store.
I had that once; and I miss it.
Big cities, hm. They feel so utterly concentrated to me. But they do have a concentration of resources as a result as well. And your writing brings them to life for me. That takes real spirit.

By: Patricia

Patricia — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:51:11 +0000

Ah yes, I get it now. Your answer, punctuated with actual experiences, would make an intriguing post by itself.

I am acquainted with “unintended consequences,” not just as the downstream beneficiary of ripples but as one whose actions have produced swamping bow waves.

Meaningful to consider how the city environment differs from the “wild” environment mostly by nature of its population and their constructions. Out in the canyon today, I encountered several wild turkeys. I wouldn’t expect to find turkeys roaming the streets of Pittsburgh or SLC (except maybe in cages in their zoos), but I do find I wonder about turkeys about the same as I do any Other.

I’ll try to be more open toward cities now, let the wonder out more when I’m in one. Thanks for this post.

By: green mormon architect

green mormon architect — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:57:27 +0000

Ha – I should have known you would ask about this! :) Here’s an attempt to hopefully clarify what I was getting at. In thinking about filth, my thoughts centered on the city as a living organism. Looking at it now, another word for this could have also been waste. An organism needs to create and dispose of filth/waste as a natural by-product of the digestive system. Just as my body needs this creation and removal of filth in its struggle to survive, so does a city when we think of it in terms of an organism.

As for crime, in one way, a crime is committed anytime someone does something foolish or unwise that has unintended consequences. This crime could harm the person, benefit the person, harm others, or benefit others. In writing this, I was not as much interested in the legal definition of a crime being an act against the law, but just in how making mistakes or acting in a foolish way is something everyone does, often with devastating consequences. Since this is apart of what it means to be human, we have to learn to navigate through these crimes on a daily basis – especially in a city filled with millions of people.

By: Patricia

Patricia — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:30:15 +0000

Many things here I recognize, though I’ve never lived in a big city and the biggest cities I’ve visited, in only the most superficial ways, are SLC and Pittsburgh.

Your statements about NY providing you with everything that you need resonate right now because reading them I have to admit that where I live doesn’t provide everything my family needs. I live in an isolated community with one grocery store that, facing no competition, can allow its shelves to go slack while it maintains continuous tension on its prices. In order to procure many common household items, we drive approximately 160 mi. over to the next state or 150 to the next small-ish in-state town worth the trip.

But this sentence fascinates me for other reasons:

This vast landscape is layered with people, surfaces, textures, and materials that combine infinitely to provide me the community, music, crime, art, filth, food, and beauty that I need.

It’s the city’s “filth” and “crime” that many people flee. How do these elements satisfy something in you?