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Read this article, A city is not a tree, from Christopher Alexander yesterday. It describes his view that a city should not be a mathematical tree, in that each unit should not only adopt roles of it’s greater physical space that it lies in. For example dedicating an area of a city to only performance arts. It’s unlikely that any given person would attend multiple of these venues in any given day, whereas in a city like New York the theaters are surrounded by schools, restaurants, businesses and probably much more. The difference being that a city like New York that wasn’t strictly planned had these organic formations that led to most spaces being multi-use. Zoning is largely to blame in other US cities for this as it literally restricts the overall use for a physical space for a certain thing. The intentions were nice in reaction to poor conditions with workers and factories in the early 20th century, but we’ve maby been too strict and done things that have led to a death of culture and life in our cities. I’d like to read a critique of this essay to get a better perspective, but my experiences in various cities make it ring pretty true.

Daily Listening

Found this EP randomly and have been enjoying it! It’s like its the soundtrack to a fictional early 2000’s late 90’s game and I’m a big fan of that.

Daily Reading

The mystery of The Mysterious Island was revealed! Still a bit more in the book so I’m wondering how much information we will be getting.