Brandon (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jolinn) wrote,@ 2006-01-06 01:44:00 |
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Updated
Biked for 35 minutes
Biked for 35 minutes
Biked for 30 minutes
I guess I should post since my topmost post isn't all mopey and despairing. Interestingly, I just read it, and thought I would write a post about cities.
My home is in Mountain View, a small little city which is right in the epicenter of Silicon Valley. Netscape was here when they were big. Silicon Graphics boomed and busted here. NASA is here, Microsoft, Lycos, and, of course, Google.
At the same time, it's a pretty small town -- about 50-70k people, depending on how you count. But because the town is sort of a tech hub, I get the impression that it's hyper-concentrated with educated people. Case in point -- last November, I had occasion to attend a city council meeting, and I was floored. Not only were the minutes of the city council (and a transcript) online, they videotaped and played every meeting on local TV. The city council and the mayor all seemed pretty clueful about the issues they were addressing -- even when they didn't understand something, they knew enough to say they *didn't* understand it, and they had technical staff on hand from the city to help answer questions.
As far as representative democracy goes, it pretty much kicked ass.
And yet... I'm subscribed to a mailing list for the people who live in Old Mountain View, where the city used to lie back when it was a farming community. [Silicon Valley was actually 'The Valley of the Heart's Delight' because it used to be all orchards... no foreshadowing of Apple intended or implied]. They're a good bunch of people, and certainly have what they consider to be the best interests of the city at heart, but neighborhood associations frighten me. In their own way, their goal is to completely shape and control the growth of a city, and in a very real sense define what the city is. ["Too many bars downtown! If they're a club, they have to be quiet, since they'd be right next to a loud one! The architecture has to match the neighborhood!]. Too often, though, this leads to a kind of stagnation -- where everything is historic, and any _change_ is something that has to be measured and approved over and over.
Ironically, these sorts of controlling neighborhood associations are very, very strong in Silicon Valley, which is not known for throwing up barriers to change in other places. People who disagree with this view are constantly pointed to the horror of the mega-sprawl in SoCal, and reminded of how important it is to support and develop culture. And yet.. I don't think culture is something you can force. The great cities didn't have urban planners, and they didn't have neighborhood associations. New York, London, San Francisco, New Orleans... all of these places had a character which was all their own before people began arguing what color you could paint your house downtown. Attempts to legislate this character, or to codify it, always seem like building a museum, and not cities.
Maybe there's a middle ground, but I guess I would rather have the place where I live grow than be planned.
****
Other interesting things I've found or been up to:
Cool sites:
http://www.hamachi.cc -- peer to peer vpn client which is really nifty.
http://www.memeorandum.com -- follow news and the conversations around news
http://persistent.info/archives/200
http://www.doxpara.com.nyud.net:8090/pl
Cool things I've been up to:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/1
Google is providing a free, city-wide wi-fi network in Mountain View -- free as in beer, and I've been helping out with it.
Lately, I visited San Diego for the first time for LISA, and Key West for Christmas (my sister is in the coast guard there).
Verdict: If you're going to Key West, expect sunny beaches and touristy things. Don't go expecting anything else, and you'll be happy on Duval Street, which is like Bourbon Street but not quite as smelly, and not nearly as cool.
Biked for 35 minutes
Biked for 35 minutes
Biked for 30 minutes
I guess I should post since my topmost post isn't all mopey and despairing. Interestingly, I just read it, and thought I would write a post about cities.
My home is in Mountain View, a small little city which is right in the epicenter of Silicon Valley. Netscape was here when they were big. Silicon Graphics boomed and busted here. NASA is here, Microsoft, Lycos, and, of course, Google.
At the same time, it's a pretty small town -- about 50-70k people, depending on how you count. But because the town is sort of a tech hub, I get the impression that it's hyper-concentrated with educated people. Case in point -- last November, I had occasion to attend a city council meeting, and I was floored. Not only were the minutes of the city council (and a transcript) online, they videotaped and played every meeting on local TV. The city council and the mayor all seemed pretty clueful about the issues they were addressing -- even when they didn't understand something, they knew enough to say they *didn't* understand it, and they had technical staff on hand from the city to help answer questions.
As far as representative democracy goes, it pretty much kicked ass.
And yet... I'm subscribed to a mailing list for the people who live in Old Mountain View, where the city used to lie back when it was a farming community. [Silicon Valley was actually 'The Valley of the Heart's Delight' because it used to be all orchards... no foreshadowing of Apple intended or implied]. They're a good bunch of people, and certainly have what they consider to be the best interests of the city at heart, but neighborhood associations frighten me. In their own way, their goal is to completely shape and control the growth of a city, and in a very real sense define what the city is. ["Too many bars downtown! If they're a club, they have to be quiet, since they'd be right next to a loud one! The architecture has to match the neighborhood!]. Too often, though, this leads to a kind of stagnation -- where everything is historic, and any _change_ is something that has to be measured and approved over and over.
Ironically, these sorts of controlling neighborhood associations are very, very strong in Silicon Valley, which is not known for throwing up barriers to change in other places. People who disagree with this view are constantly pointed to the horror of the mega-sprawl in SoCal, and reminded of how important it is to support and develop culture. And yet.. I don't think culture is something you can force. The great cities didn't have urban planners, and they didn't have neighborhood associations. New York, London, San Francisco, New Orleans... all of these places had a character which was all their own before people began arguing what color you could paint your house downtown. Attempts to legislate this character, or to codify it, always seem like building a museum, and not cities.
Maybe there's a middle ground, but I guess I would rather have the place where I live grow than be planned.
****
Other interesting things I've found or been up to:
Cool sites:
http://www.hamachi.cc -- peer to peer vpn client which is really nifty.
http://www.memeorandum.com -- follow news and the conversations around news
http://persistent.info/archives/200
http://www.doxpara.com.nyud.net:8090/pl
Cool things I've been up to:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/1
Google is providing a free, city-wide wi-fi network in Mountain View -- free as in beer, and I've been helping out with it.
Lately, I visited San Diego for the first time for LISA, and Key West for Christmas (my sister is in the coast guard there).
Verdict: If you're going to Key West, expect sunny beaches and touristy things. Don't go expecting anything else, and you'll be happy on Duval Street, which is like Bourbon Street but not quite as smelly, and not nearly as cool.
