Agree. But I cannot help reproaching the comfortable, self-focused, suburbanites. They allowed themselves to be lulled and dumbed down by the allure of a little green space and some fresh air. This soothed them and made them TV people. The city was a place where you had access to more materials to think and create. Ideally there should have been the joys and virtues of both places, interacting with each other.

I have posted sometimes about raising children in a city, smart happy children.

To me that was what was lost, although it still goes on.

A suburban child has grass and quiet and loves that, until he becomes a bored teenager and goes to the city for the wrong reasons, unless his parents took him there for the right things. But they didn't, because of the TV. They didn't think enough.

In a parallel way, suburbs make a happy woman at first, but not later. She has her flowers, she has sunshine, she has room. But there is not one thing to do or think about, when the kids are big enough for school, and her husband is too far away. And above all, she had too few children. She too became bored. Boredom is bad. Cities help cure boredom. Just taking a walk shows you a thousand things. In the suburb there are just trees. The mall is not a city. It's just about stuff, a few shirts and sunglasses, and the boredom remains.

To me, raising children in a city was made impossible; there is "vasectomy zoning" where it is illegal for an apartment to have three bedrooms. You have a kid, you can stay, but if your second kid is the opposite sex from your first, you have a boy and girl in the same bedroom. and that is not good. So, no children.

The cities were emptied of ordinary non-rich people in the Sixties.

That was bad. and that was part of the problem.

Today's cities have big problems because of all of the above, but they are still bastions of Western Civ and where a lot of dynamic things can happen in a small place.

To me, one should find a way to have a pleasant life in a city, with a large, large, number of kids playing tag around the monuments, familiar with the museums and what the things in them mean now and meant when they were made. This kind of kid is confident, thoughtful, never bored, resilient, resourceful, and considerate. He will be considerate because he lives crowded. He will be aware and thoughtful because he has to be.

Duke Ellington said, "Fresh air can kill you." Well there is a place for fresh air, certainly, but he had a point.

I want to see the cultural stuff survive. And I think the crowding of a city can be positive. If there is law.

Our wonderful president rode down the escalator right in the middle of a city, and there is a reason for that. He has plenty of other properties in the countryside but he didn't choose them for that.

Then he moved to Mar A Lago in Florida.

Well I am hoping New York State and City can be reclaimed.

Agree. But I cannot help reproaching the comfortable, self-focused, suburbanites. They allowed themselves to be lulled and dumbed down by the allure of a little green space and some fresh air. This soothed them and made them TV people. The city was a place where you had access to more materials to think and create. Ideally there should have been the joys and virtues of both places, interacting with each other.

I have posted sometimes about raising children in a city, smart happy children.

To me that was what was lost, although it still goes on.

A suburban child has grass and quiet and loves that until he becomes a bored teenager and goes to the city for the wrong reasons, unless his parents took him there for the right things. But they didn't because of the TV. They didn't think enough.

In a parallel way, suburbs make a happy woman at first, but not later. She has her flowers, she has sunshine, she has room. But there is not one thing to do or think about when the kids are big enough for school and her husband is too far away. And above all she had too few children. She too became bored. Boredom is bad. Cities help with boredom. Just taking a walk shows you a thousand things. In the suburb there are just trees. The mall is not a city. It's just about stuff, a few shirts and sunglasses, and the boredom remains.

To me, raising children in a city was made impossible; there is "vasectomy zoning" where it is illegal for an apartment to have three bedrooms. You have a kid, you can stay, but if your second kid is the opposite sex from your first, you have a boy and girl in the same bedroom and that is not good. So, no children.

The cities were emptied of ordinary non-rich people in the Sixties.

That was bad and that was part of the problem.

Today's cities have big problems because of all of the above but they are still bastions and where a lot of dynamic things can happen in a small place.

To me, one should find a way to have a pleasant life in a city, with a large, large, number of kids playing tag around the monuments, familiar with the museums and what the things in them mean now and meant when they were made. This kind of kid is confident, thoughtful, never bored, resilient, resourceful, and considerate. He will be considerate because he lives crowded. He will be aware and thoughtful because he has to be.

Duke Ellington said, "Fresh air can kill you." Well there is a place for fresh air, certainly, but he had a point.

I want to see the cultural stuff survive. And I think the crowding of a city can be positive. If there is law. Our wonderful president rode down the escalator right in the middle of a city, and there is a reason for that. He has plenty of other properties in the countryside but he didn't choose them for that.

Then he moved to Mar A Lago in Florida.

Well I am hoping New York State and City can be reclaimed.