David Byrne, whom we all know and love as the founder of the Talking Heads, muses on the perfect city in the Wall Street Journal and makes this point: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. A city isn't a strip of hotels and restaurants on a glorious beach; it's a place where there are restaurants and hotels, but also little stores, fashion boutiques, schools, houses, offices, temples and banks. The healthy neighborhood doesn't empty out at 6 p.m., as most of downtown L.A. does. In my perfect city there would always be something going on nearby.This kind of mixed-use arrangement makes it easier to do all your errands without driving too far, of course, but it also has a benefit that's harder to quantify: It puts you in regular contact with a broader cross-section of humanity.Related: The excellent Talking Heads number "This Must Be The Place" is as good a song for this subject as you could ask for.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGa52pQ-z4EHere's a (mediocre) cover by MGMT, and here's a (pretty good) cover by Arcade Fire.
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