The Chaotic, Fractal and Complex City

(This image is the harbor road leading from the port to other land uses in the ancient Greek/Roman city of Ephesus , located   near Selçuk, Turkey. .   It was lined with shops which were selling goods that would be interested to those going to and from the port.   It is not by accident that Ephesus became a major center key in the spread of Christianity as it was a major cultural center in the Roman Empire.  When the port filled in with silt, the city declined rapidly.  This underscores the importance of key transportation nodes to the very survival of an urban areas.The image is located at : http://www.ephesus.us/ephesus/arcadianstreet.htm . This site also has a further description of the street and Ephesus.) I am still in the process of reading two books: Aerotropolis: The Way We'll Live Next (Kasarda and Lindsay) and Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis (Binelli.)   Both speak of an evolving metropolis wh...

(This image is located at: http://locationreservoir.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/when-hollywood-takes-over-a-small-new-england-village-pt-2/ .   I selected this image to represent a small village or city as referred in the narrative below.) As a trickster and provocateur, I am proposing the juxtaposition of two hypothetical cities: one which prohibits guns and another that requires guns to be carried by all people.   In light of the current gun control debate brought about by the tragedy of Newtown, Connecticut, a discussion as the one below is warranted. The metaphors of utopia (or dis-utopia) is useful when discussing issues.   The most concrete way to discuss utopias is within the context of a city, which has been used by urbanists for centuries (i.e., Plato, Sir Thomas Moore. )   I will discuss this within a fictional situation of the two hypothetical cities. At the beginning of 2013, the city council of one city in the U.S. decided that the ulti...

2012 Volume XIII (Click on above image for commentary) 2012 Volume XI II (on-line first)* Richard Hartwig and John Bailey JOURNALISM & ORGANIZED CRIME IN COLOMBIA AND MEXICO Regina Laisner THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL CITY NETWORKS IN THE SUPPORT OF LOCAL PARTICIPATORY GOVERNANCE IN LATIN AMERICA Ivani Vassoler-Froelich CITY GIFTS: A BOOK REVIEW OF TRIUMPH OF THE CITY: HOW OUR GREATEST INVENTION MAKES US RICHER, SMARTER, GREENER, HEALTHIER AND HAPPIER .  EDWARD GLEASER, PENGUIN PRESS, 2011 Michael A. McAdams IS JUSTICE IN THE CITY A QUIXOTIC DREAM?:   A BOOK REVIEW OF PLANNING AS IF PEOPLE MATTER : GOVERNING FOR SOCIAL EQUITY.  MARC BRENMAN,AND THOMAS W. SANCHEZ, . ISLAND PRESS, 2012. *Articles will be published  first on-line and later selected articles will be published in printed form.  **If using Mozilla Foxfire as a browser, it may be easier to download documents by pointing on the link for the article and rig...

(Pot hole in New Orleans: found at : http://librarychronicles.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html .) At the present moment, in Washington all talk is focused on the “fiscal cliff. “   However, something bigger is looming; our crumbling infrastructure and insufficient Federal funding.   Well-maintained infrastructure is essential for the economic health of the nation and particularly for urban areas.   Bridges, roads, transit systems, airports, water/sewer systems, and electrical grids are in grave need of repair and expansion.   The problem with our highways and bridges has been known for a significant amount of time, perhaps more than 30 years. This is not a complicated issue.   When you build things, you must maintain them or eventually see their deterioration. This is very evident in the aging Interstate and Defense Highway System, of which many miles are located in urbanized areas, leaking sanitary and water systems; numerous deteriorating b...