I'll be honest - as accurate as this piece probably is, it doesn't really speak to me simply because I don't live in London. I always get this empathy gap on the subject of urbanism - like, I guess I intellectually agree with most of the arguments and their conclusions but at the same time there's a viscerally angry tone that always leav…
I'll be honest - as accurate as this piece probably is, it doesn't really speak to me simply because I don't live in London. I always get this empathy gap on the subject of urbanism - like, I guess I intellectually agree with most of the arguments and their conclusions but at the same time there's a viscerally angry tone that always leaves me cold.
And it's not simply a "not my problem" thing, a lot of issues that make me feel emotional really aren't my problem in a transactional sense (eg I will never be a recipient of UK foreign aid, but I was still spitting feathers when it was cut a couple of years ago). Maybe it's because various algorithms for whatever reason assume I'm a hardcore urbanist and push this stuff in my face, so I feel overexposed to it.
This is not a criticism of your piece specifically, nor with urbanism as a worldview, more the specific culture that has built up around the urbanist community, the rhetoric makes it sound like they believe the presence of cars in city centres is the most pressing problem in the world; and they rarely give the impression of giving mind to anyone who lives elsewhere (beyond saying something like "we want everyone to live in city centres, so then you wouldn't want a car either"). It's just... not very engaging to people like myself, and weird though I am I can't be the only one like me.
I guess this is the reason for the conclusion. I just simply don’t believe car-culture is good or healthy, and that it’s proponents and defendants actually want it beyond reflexive instinct.
I'll be honest - as accurate as this piece probably is, it doesn't really speak to me simply because I don't live in London. I always get this empathy gap on the subject of urbanism - like, I guess I intellectually agree with most of the arguments and their conclusions but at the same time there's a viscerally angry tone that always leaves me cold.
And it's not simply a "not my problem" thing, a lot of issues that make me feel emotional really aren't my problem in a transactional sense (eg I will never be a recipient of UK foreign aid, but I was still spitting feathers when it was cut a couple of years ago). Maybe it's because various algorithms for whatever reason assume I'm a hardcore urbanist and push this stuff in my face, so I feel overexposed to it.
This is not a criticism of your piece specifically, nor with urbanism as a worldview, more the specific culture that has built up around the urbanist community, the rhetoric makes it sound like they believe the presence of cars in city centres is the most pressing problem in the world; and they rarely give the impression of giving mind to anyone who lives elsewhere (beyond saying something like "we want everyone to live in city centres, so then you wouldn't want a car either"). It's just... not very engaging to people like myself, and weird though I am I can't be the only one like me.
I guess this is the reason for the conclusion. I just simply don’t believe car-culture is good or healthy, and that it’s proponents and defendants actually want it beyond reflexive instinct.