David Byrne’s Perfect City - WSJ.com

This link has been bookmarked by 6 people . It was first bookmarked on 15 Sep 2009, by Yule Heibel.

08 Oct 09

Jose Luis Pajares
city public_space urbanism
29 Sep 09

beth gourley
David Byrnes asks the question what makes a perfect city under the following categories: size, density, attitude, security, human scale, transportation, mixed use, public spaces.

cities public_space
- a city's qualities cannot thrive out of context. A place's cuisine and architecture and language are all somehow interwoven.
- A "livable city" means vastly different things for many people.
- 11 more annotations...
- - Here are some things that make a city livable for me:
  - Size
    A city can't be too small. Size guarantees anonymity
  - Density
    
    If a city doesn't have sufficient density, as in L.A., then strange things happen.
  - Sensibility and attitude
  - Security
  - Chaos and danger
    To some, security means rigid order and strict rules. I do believe we do need some laws and rules to guide and reign us in a bit, and I don't just mean traffic lights and pooper scooper mandate
  - Human scale
    Scale is important.
  - Boulevards
    If boulevards aren't too wide, like 9 de Julio in Buenos Aires, they can serve to break the monotonous pattern of streets and blocks, let sunlight in, and function as a landmark
  - Mixed use
    This is a Jane Jacobs phrase. A perfect city is where different things are going on, relatively close to each other, at different times of the day.
  - Public spaces
    In my perfect city there are ample public spaces—parks (not just vacant land, but common areas that people pass through and use), plazas (not just slabs in front of corporate towers) and, if possible, public access to the waterfront (if there is one).
  - The perfect city isn't static. It's evolving and ever changing, and its laws and structure allow that to happen.
17 Sep 09

cabendixen
16 Sep 09

Eubin Kim
Talking Heads frontman David Byrne dreams up a metropolis based on his favorite spots around the world. A look at what makes a city livable for him, from Tokyo's robo-parking lots and Berlin's boulevards to the lakefront paths in Minneapolis.

city best david byrne
Hernan Iglsias
- The perfect city isn't static. It's evolving and ever changing, and its laws and structure allow that to happen. Neighborhoods change, clubs close and others open, yuppies move in and move out—as long as there is a mix of some sort, then business districts and neighborhoods stay healthy even if they're not what they once were. My perfect city isn't fixed, it doesn't actually exist, and I like it that way.
15 Sep 09

Yule Heibel
I love David Byrne's music, but in this essay for the Wall Street Journal I think he somewhat over-reaches himself. Why? The essay is muddled. He includes too many contradictory pronouncements. For example, that big and dense is good, but that you need the "village" thing for safety & security; or that LA isn't dense (I believe it is, actually); or that lack of density creates narcissistic attention-getting ploys; or that "human scale" needs to be achieved through some process of "compromise" (left undefined), and so on. Furthermore, his closing sentence really confuses me: "My perfect city isn't fixed, it doesn't actually exist, and I like it that way." He likes that it doesn't exist? What does that mean?

wsj.com david_byrne cities urbanism jjacobs