Jed Rothwell wrote: > Harry Veeder wrote: > >> dilapidated Mom-and-Pop retail stores >>> thrive. It helps explain why certain run-down neighborhoods in our cities >>> deserve to stay pretty much intact the way they are, as compared >> to being torn >>> down and replaced with another ill thought out housing project, and with >>> disastrous consequences. >> >> I hope you don't mean such neighborhoods deserve to be left run-down. > > It is surprising, but often they do! That is what the famous urban > activist Jane Jacobs said. (She died in April 2006 -- read her obits.)
You are jumping to conclusions. I am not suggesting they be bulldozed. > Japanese cities in the 1970s were dilapidated by U.S. standards, > especially the collegetowns I used to live in. I used to live in a > Meiji-era "nagaya" apartment building with no sanitation and a crowd > of eccentrics who made the "Maison Ikkoku" comic book characters look > normal in comparison. These places have been "cleaned up" since then. > They are now lifeless and soulless. Run-down is okay, as long as > there are many people around who are enjoying themselves doing legal > activities. > > - Jed They probably went over board cleaning up the neighbourhood, but then again not all low income people wish to live like stereotypical bohemians. Harry
