I was just reading a blog called Strong Towns. Like everybody else, they were trying desperately to come up with a formula that would make modern towns look like towns used to look like: places full of people, full of local stores. The blog was realistic. It admitted to that we have many benefits now -- computers, cheap consumer goods -- that we did not have then. The wish for the past was not a stupid wish to be transported to a golden time. We are better off now, but our cities are soulless.
Is there a single solution to our soulless downtowns? Is there a silver bullet, a way of making the downtowns of all cities more vibrant, more alive? In short is there a way of making a social life exist inside cities?
“Our urban life does not throw people into the street. It rakes them up, shuts them into office buildings and houses….instead of squares & fields, modern cities devise means to keep crowds moving rather than gathering. Streets work as thoroughfares, channels…social circulation, ventilation, not congregation…Architectural means to disperse, direct crowds.”
That says it all. I have always known that architecture creates the environment we live in, but I never fully realized that our streets are the architecture of our lives. Wide streets, streets devoted to cars, not people, create the life we live. We are dispersed, herded, moved through. Loitering is not encouraged. Stand still or walk slowly & dreamily & you will be dead.
Or, to sum it up, “The way we get around determines how we live.” How we live means how we shop, who we befriend, what we eat. The list is endless. A car culture is radically different than a subway culture. Think of cities that have subways & trolleys. What you see is people on the street, in subway cars. You see crowds, you encounter people -- some of whom are bound to become your friends -- or at the very least acquaintances. One way or another you will get to know them, recognize them.
Think of a car oriented city. People hurtle buy in closed containers. Life on the street is zilch, zero. Life on the street is dangerous, non-existent.
If you want to bring back vibrant downtowns, local shops, street life, you must change the way people get around. “The way you get around determines how you live.”
There is only one way to go back to what we love about the past, towns that are full of people & local stores. Change the way we get around -- and instead of focusing on banning cars -- and we must eventually ban cars -- we must first focus on alternative means to get around -- busses & trolleys, bicycle pathways & pedestrian paths. If, and only if, there are efficient public ways to get around, can we begin to do what must be done, is already beginning to be done. Just today I read that Paris (& many other French cities) are considering banning SUVs. As the article says, “SUVs are not compatible with city life.” Truthfully, cars are not compatible with city life.
We all want city life. We really do. We are sick of our current landscape: deserted city streets because city streets because, nowadays, are pieces of the highway. We want towns that are full of people & shops & cinemas & our friends & our neighbors.
What can we focus on to make such cities live again? “The way we get around determines how we live.”

BIG NEWS!! BIG NEWS!! Jacqui, my techie wife, has made it possible for you to hear some of my radio talks. Yes, hear them!

Here is the link: http://henryandjacqui.com/Radio/index.htm

Only one is there now. More will be posted in the next few days.

By now, all of you know I’ve become addicted to crime fiction. I’ve defended my passion for these novels in a variety of ways, but perhaps the best defense is that these books give us an insight into the daily life of people in other countries. Great novels sometimes do that, but great novels aim at fiction on a higher scale. Crime novels present the nitty gritty of daily life.
I’ve just read the first book in a series. The writer is Matt Rees, who began his career writing a factual book about the Arab Israeli situation, but he knows that few people read dull fact filled books, so he began a detective series. Omar Youseff is his detective -- and unlike American detectives who are strong & invincible, he is meek, mild, 56 year old school teacher who is afraid of guns & all things violent
The setting is Bethlehem, Palestine -- occupied territories. Here are some of their daily greetings: “Morning of Joy” May Allah lengthen your life,” “all the year may you be well,” “May allah accept from us & from you” “consider yourself with your family and at home,” “God Bless your hands.” You truly get a sense of their daily rituals, their small talk.
In the book, the Israeli army is only periodically visible. The books are not about Israeli oppression, it is about the fabric of daily life for these Arabs in occupied territories, the gangsters -- no, not mafia, but Hamas, and the Martyrs Brigade.
And the names: Jihad Adwe, Habib Saba, Mahmoud Zubheida, Dima Abdel Rahman. They greet each other by Abu -- which means father of -- and then the name of the oldest son. Omar Youseff, the detective is greeted as Abu Ramiz, the mother is Umm Ramiz. There is Abu Walid & Abu Adel.
How very interesting. People greet you by saying, hello father of so & so. For a long time in Traverse City people asked my son if he was Henry Morgenstein’s son -- but soon, very soon, people asked me if I was Ethan Morgenstein’s father or Ben Morgenstein’s father.
I could go on & on about how this books takes you into the daily lives of these people -- there is no better way to know their daily lives than through great foreign crime fiction writers -- and Matt Rees is one of the very best at given you a sense of their lives.
In addition the book, the Bethlehem Murders, is not like many murder mysteries you will read. There is very little sleuthing, and the falsely accused murderer is killed brutally, even after the detective tries, all book long, to save his life. In some sense this isn’t fiction, it is real life in this hellish place, Bethlehem Israel.
I always loved International folk dancing because you heard Greek music, moved in the way Greek people moved. You heard Bulgarian music, heard the Bulgarian language, were in a strange way steeped in that culture.
All of you should read Italian crime fiction and Scandinavian crime fiction -- and the crime fiction books of Matt Rees. Terrific reading -- and truly educational.