Quote of the Day: Richard Florida on The New Spatial Fix
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.14.08
Andreas Feininger
Richard Florida writes about the decline of the sprawling exurb toward urban neighbourhoods and inner suburbs, suggesting it isn't just about the price of gas.
"But what's happening here goes a lot deeper than the end of cheap oil. We are now passing through the early development of a wholly new geographic order – what geographers call “the spatial fix” – of which the move back toward the city is just one part.
Suburbanization was the spatial fix for the industrial age – the geographic expression of mass production. Low-cost mortgages, massive highway systems and suburban infrastructure projects fuelled the industrial engine of postwar capitalism, propelling demand for cars, appliances and all sorts of industrial goods.
The creative economy is giving rise to a new spatial fix and a very different geography – the contours of which are only now emerging.
Rising fuel costs are one thing, but in today's idea-driven economy, it's time costs that really matter. With the constant pressure to be more efficient and to innovate, it makes little sense to waste countless collective hours commuting. So the most efficient and productive regions are the ones in which people are thinking and working – not sitting in traffic."
More at ::The Creative Class
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...I am trying to remember the last time I bought an idea...groceries, alcohol, bike chain oil, socks and underwear, cabbage seeds--can't think of any recently purchased ideas.
You may not think you bought and idea, but you paid for it.
Someone had the ideas to produce & brand those groceries, develop a recipe for the alcohol, design the socks and so forth, so even physical goods have a large "idea" component. And are you saying you never read books, go to movies, watch TV, use software, ride a bike/car/public transport, etc, etc?
A lot of suburbanites are just BORED. There's a limited number of neighbors, who often are either doing something noisy and bothersome, or complaining that you are, and you simply get starved for human contact. In the city, if you choose,there's always someone new to talk to, even if its just to gripe about the ugly new Yankee Stadium.
Of course, the internet may alleviate the feeling of suburban isolation. I left the burbs long before it became a factor.