
It’s time to redefine what a city is.
To take a deep hard look at who the city is for.
“A city isn’t so unlike a person. They both have the marks to show they have many stories to tell. They see many faces. They tear things down and make new again.”
― Rasmenia Massoud
Cities have a history. A moving story. Ever changing paths that so many before us have walked and breathed. They had been imagined. Built by dreams and visions of new opportunities. Of potential. Potential of what a society could be. Of what we could be.
So brick by brick. Building by building. We built these metropolises of beauty that were marveled upon for all to see. From sea to shining sea. People dreamed of calling these cities their home. Of moving to these shining beacons of light upon a hill.
It is where dreams are made and broken. Hustlers rise and fall. Lovers find happiness and heartbreak. Paths are discovered and stories are born. Where we have a chance to live the life that we are destined to live.
But these cities have a deep crack within them.
We got carried away as we built. We were so focused on growth, we lost touch with why we were building in the first place.
It became a continuous cycle. Assembly lines shipped cars upon cars to fill the streets and fuel our desire for more. Road after road was put in place. Expansion after expansion. Highways tearing history and communities apart. Entire neighborhoods being destroyed. We killed our creation just as it was being born. We took a shotgun to its vital organs. Destroying the very essence of a city’s soul.
We forcibly changed what a city was and who it was for. In 1956, 40.7 percent of Chicago was covered by streets and built for the automobile. We built all these roads without thinking of how it would affect the people that live and breath there. Without stopping to think about the impact that these decisions would have.
Urban sprawl and the continuous highways to nowhere. Taking people who were lost with them. Searching for a place to call home, but searching in all the wrong places.
Pretty soon, we had all of these fractionated remnants of a city. All separated. No unified soul that made the city one.
Gone were the days of the city upon the hill that we had all dreamed of. That we had envisioned. The metropolis of opportunity. For everyone.
And what was created is what we have now.
A flawed creation that is sick and cracked to its very core.
A city that doesn’t work for everyone. A city where automobiles fight with pedestrians for the little public space that still exists. A city filled with blood on the streets. A city of depression. Of sorrow and pain. A city of flaws. Of imperfections. Of congestion and people rushing to get to where they are going. So in a hurry, that they forget the very magic of a city. The very miracle that they are alive and present at that very moment. Of all the beauty that could be around them. A city filled with those that are lost. Those that forgot how to dream.
But it doesn’t have to always be like this.
We are in a moment of reckoning. With advances of technology and innovation, we are in a moment of truth. We have the potential to change the city. To recreate it. To redesign it for everyone. Not just for the fortunate.
To build a city of dreams.
A city that is a little more perfect.
A smarter city. A better city. A happier city.
It won’t be easy though. The answers do not lie in one person, one company, or one organization. The answers lie in all of us coming together to take on this task.
Mobility is at the core of this change. How people fluidly move throughout a city. How a community and neighborhood connects throughout the day and night. How a city breathes.
The answer is not one single form of mobility. It’s how they all fit together.
What works for each person at each moment in time. Whether it is public transit, cycling, driving a car, or walking, it’s how it all flows together. How it becomes one with the city, so we all flow seamlessly through the beauty and magic of the city. So we become one with the soul of the city. With the history and the story that is continuously being written.
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
― Jane Jacobs
We have an enormous opportunity within our grasp. An opportunity of potential. To redefine what a city is, and what it can be. To define who we are as a people. And to show what we can be.
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I explore creativity, entrepreneurship, and everything that life has to offer.
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