Tag: cities
If I may editorialise for a minute (because I did write up a news brief on the subject earlier today): there seems to be an element within Dublin City Council that’s obsessed with remaking the city into something it isn’t, rather than capitalising on and improving what it is. More…
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On the dark side of SimCity: “Behind one of the most iconic computer games of all time is a theory of how cities die—one that has proven dangerously influential.” #link
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My first MetaFilter FPP, after 13-plus years as a member, on Dan Hill’s visit to two especially interesting houses in Tokyo. #link
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The contrast between the American and European concepts in the original contest is striking, to say the least. #link
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A few quibbles with this piece: I think Shenzhen, Harbin and Qingdao are as familiar place names as Shanghai and Beijing in the west these days. But I’ve thought about the general notion a lot this year: cities around the world, cities with millions of people, that I’ve never heard of before. You don’t need to think about the cosmos to make yourself feel small. #link
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From last year, about a year after we moved to Dundalk and my commute, whether by rail or bicycle along the canal, no longer took me past the least loved station in the Irish Rail network. I’ve been wondering about the security situation at a stop that had no Leap card readers for months due to vandalism. (Oh, and there was that time some scumbag bricked a train window we were sitting next to. The area itself isn’t that rough, though.) #link
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I have no practical application for this, but find it fascinating nevertheless. #link
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News of the high speed rail crash in China last week (which has raised questions about what some perceive as a cargo-cultish rush into modernity) prompted me to dig up some choice quotes I’d saved back in 2004 from Justin O’Connor’s Shanghai Diary on the City of Sound blog. Seven years may have passed from then to now, and the environment may have changed drastically in the interim – but people don’t change that quickly.
From Shanghai Diary #1:
“The men on the construction site work from 6am I think, definitely before 7am. They wake me up, but gently, the drop of metal and scraping of shovels slowly gathering weight around the dreams and then tugging and pulling and then — you’re awake. They work in the sun but drink tea in the shadows. They work until late. It’s hard to tell when, they’re gradually absorbed into the background. Then the flare of an arc welder reminds you. Last night they were laying concrete at 2am. Nobody opened the window and shouted shut the fuck up you fucking inconsiderate fucking fuckers. I suppose they all lay there, tired, hot, that’s just the way it is.”
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