Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: freeway sounds [FWD]

[Fred H Olson WB0YQM (fholson]

TOMP [at] TVO.ORG Tom Ponessa is the author of this message but due
to a listserv problem it was posted by the COHOUSING-L sysop (Fred).
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Albert Harum-Alvarez writes:

>Beware of the nature/ human split: despising things urban can be a form of
>self-hatred. You can move out of the city but you can't move out of
yourself!

Highways are in fact anti-urban. They are single purpose conduits for moving
traffic. Streets are urban. Life takes place on streets (multi-purpose) with
buildings, public spaces, cars and pedestrians. Urban life does not take
place
on the interstate. Seattle built a park over a freeway. Boston dismantled an
elevated freeway. Toronto is in a perennial quandry over its own elevated
expressway because it cuts off downtown from the lake. In other words it
is anti-urban.

Despising urban mistakes made by planners and engineers who did not
understand the integrated nature of cities and our environment is very
healthy. The Modern movement and its Cartesian view of the world is
finally getting the denigration it deserves. Human/nature split? As in
promoting sprawl/fertile land destruction/pollution/ozone depletion/
eco-system disruption/NOISE/stress? Beware acceptance of the
second-rate. Beware ignorance of the warning signs. Beware of not
striving for improvement. Beware of not admitting mistakes. Beware
of accepting all "things urban" as inherently good.

The ultimate in self-hatred is accepting the poison.