Neighbor Guy

City People. Urban Living. Other Stuff.

Urban Transformers: Playing in a City Near You

The dawn of a new year often sets people to thinking about notions of transformation. We vow to shed 20 pounds, read War and Peace cover to cover and advance another rung up the proverbial corporate ladder - all of it by Memorial Day, if you please.

City dwellers know a thing or two about transformation. Neighbor Guy would argue that cities are second only to actors when it comes to reinventing themselves. Vacant lots are converted into pocket parks and community gardens. Old homes are partitioned into apartments, old factories into lofts, old warehouses into retail.

Historically speaking, urban transformation is nothing new. When Napoleon decided he wanted his beloved Paris to have more Haussmanian appeal, he simply began dismantling the City of Light block by block. Eyewitness accounts suggest that not a single baguette was spared.

Eminent domain? Mais oui!

Clearly, some cities are in need of significantly more transformation than others. Whereas certain urban enclaves may require a mere nip and tuck to improve their general lots, others would solidly benefit from a complete and total makeover.

If transformation strikes you as a hopelessly idealistic enterprise, urban transformation is that much more so. But then, cities are themselves virtual paragons of idealism. Conventional wisdom would surely suggest that if you throw millions of people with different backgrounds, jobs, temperaments and modes of transport into a single hyper-crowded space, the result would be pure chaos.

In reality, the result is New York, London, or Tokyo. 

And yet, at the end of the day it takes more than good intentions to transform anything. You don't drop 20 pounds simply because the thought occurs to you. Diets must be embarked upon. Will power must be evinced. The brownie police must be dispatched.

Once the will to change is set into motion, however, the sky is the limit. Heck, isn't it precisely because millions of people are thrown into the same hyper-crowded space that profound urban transformation is possible in the first place? If you can persuade enough people - 1 million, 5 million, 10 million - to pull in the same direction, anything can happen.

Now, if you could only get all of those people to help out with the rest of your list.