David B (welcome back!) and group:
>
> I wonder if our non-American friends would be bored by a discussion of New
> York City.
> For those who follow American politics, the present race between Hillary
and
> Rudy has been pretty damn interesting. (The wife of the President is
running
> for the US Senate, which is an historical first, and she's running against
> the current Mayor of New York City.)
Thanks for your description of the politic situation in NYC. A lot of
things you said are well known here, as our media pay a great attention to
USA. But it's nice to see that as we say here "All the world is like my
town".
IMO, one of the problems in our democracies is that people are called to
elect someone to be the leader, but the most evaluate the candidates on the
basis
of social qualities (good look, solid family, celebrity, success, no
biologic problems) rather than on the basis of the intellectual message they
could carry. So often the candidates are engaged to improve their social
qualities, and their political purpose is reduced to mere slogans.
> What about the Giants in Europe? Can we compare NYC to Rome, Paris, or
> London. How about Jerusalem or Moscow? I've heard that Berlin is the NYC
of
> Europe. Any truth to that anymore?
>
As I told, I live in a small town, and I've been to Rome just twice in my
life. Here in Italy rather than Rome it's Milan the huge Giant. It's the
site of a lot of companies, our financial capital, and it's the natural
destination of many people immigrated both from southern Italy and from East
Europe and Africa. If you want to be rich and unhappy you must go there.
Italy is also known as the land of 100 cities. I was born and lived long
time in Bologna, that
is quite big and famous. I didn't like to live there a lot. In small
towns life is simple, it's easier to have contacts with people... in few
words, the "quality of life" seems higher. But, as I wrote in my last post,
the hugeness of the Giant is not measured in miles. Sometimes we are more
free living in the city rather than in a small town. Actually, it's not
depending on the physical place where we live, rather than on our individual
attitude to face our (necessary) social life.
------------------
Yesterday my social self has been invited to attend to a conference about
the so called "new economy". The company where I work is very interested to
the evolution of the Giant, and wants to be prepared for new challenges. By
chance, my intellectual self has the good habit to stay with me every time
it's possible. And, well remembering the MF month's theme, was very
interested by a topic about "The evolution of cities and social life in the
Internet era".
You know, the scenario they present is a future in which the most people can
work, buy, play, study ... staying at home. So maybe it will be necessary to
rebuild the cities on the basis of this different life style. Our cities
risen and developed around some typical business or traffic. But if will
ever come a time in which you can make your business independently by your
physical position, the role itself of the city risks to be surpassed (hard
times for giants...).
As humans will always need social activities, in the opinion of the man
presenting this scenario, a great chance is for ancient cities (like Venice)
or for Mediterranean small islands (like Capri). Up to this days it has been
difficult an economic expansion of such areas, especially for the difficulty
to have enough space dedicated to factories (my intellectual self at this
point added a "Thanks God!"), or for the difficulty of quick traffics. But
undoubtedly this kind of places can offer a different pleasure to
inhabitants. In few words, it's possible an evolution of cities from space
for business - where pleasure is optional -, to space for pleasure - where
optional is business -.
>From this point, many cities could become specialized in a particular
"theme": for example we will have cities mostly dedicated to music, or
sports, or arts, or technology, or nature, or whatever else can attract
inhabitants. The result will be that people will spend their working time at
home, and will spend free time for hobbies outside, that is exactly the
opposite of our "classical" idea of social life.
I don't know if this is mere fiction. Maybe the process will be too slow and
we will never see it completed. Meanwhile, I send now this brief post and
leave my home to go to my job.
tks
Marco.
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
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