"The street plan is engineered to empower the pedestrain and restrain
the car, with narrow roads laid out on a grid instead of in swooping
suburban curves and cul-de-sac. Garages are hidden behind the homes
and reached by alleyways, and houses are set closely enough together
to make walking distances manageable. There would even be things
worth walking to: a downtown with markets and cafes and a town hall
and post office, and a school placed centrally enough to have a
ceremonial role in the community, instead of being shunted off, as
schools are in many towns, to cheaper land on some industrial
fringe."
The author asks whether communities can be created by corporate
control and physical planning in the absence of democracy and a real
sense of shared purpose.
"What Celebration celebrates, oddly, is an American community that
existed precisely in that time before corporations made it their
buisness to build communities--an era before neighborhoods became
subdivisions and business districts became malls and culture in all
its sources and manifestations became supplanted by the cathode-ray
tube and the theme park. In that bygone America, businesses served a
community built by citizens who were enveloped in a society.
Celebration wants to see if the chain can be reversed--if a true
society can be fostered among people living in a community built by a
business."
You can find Harper's in the local libraries on on the newsstand.
They have a Web page, but you can't access the articles.
Ron Force rforce@belle.lib.uidaho.edu
Dean of Library Services (208)885-6534
University Of Idaho fax: (208) 885-6817
Moscow, ID 83844-2371
"In America, anyone can become president. That's one of
the risks you take."--Adlai Stevenson