Damek.

Via Starts and Fits, we discover futurebird, who is writing an “urban naturalist” series. Interesting stuff, particularly the post Starts and Fits highlighted about the integration of public space into urban living:

Urban living cannot be understood without seeing each urban dwelling as larger than the private spaces of apartments. The urban living space is integrated with the public realm in the same way that rural living is (ideally) integrated harmoniously with green nature. The city is like a palace with many rooms, but in this palace the rooms are shared with other people.

I’ve been thinking along these lines for a while now. To me, a well-designed city is sort of like a generational spaceship: many shared resources throughout, with ways for dealing with waste and obtaining resources. New York City is far from well-designed, and the Upper East Side is not set up for integrated urban living. It’s set up as quite the opposite: “suburbia in towers.” Wealthy families can afford to have large apartments with the rooms futurebird finds outside of hers. So they don’t care about finding those spaces elsewhere, so they don’t exist.

I’m hoping that changing demographics changes this a bit, because this style of living is unsustainable and untenable.