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Quote by James Howard Kunstler

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The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition

This book delves into the multifaceted nature of cities, examining their social, cultural, and environmental aspects. more

Author

James Howard Kunstler
James Howard Kunstler

James Howard Kunstler is an American author known for his critical analysis of American culture in the post-industrial age. His work often focuses on urban planning and environmental issues, particularly his criticism of suburbanization and car culture. more

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“Community is not something you have, like pizza. Now is it something you can buy. It's a living organism based on a web of interdependencies- which is to say, a local economy. It expresses itself physically as connectedness, as buildings actively relating to each other, and to whatever public space exists, be it the street, or the courthouse or the village green.”

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Author:James Howard Kunstler
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“The American house has been TV-centered for three generations. It is the focus of family life, and the life of the house correspondingly turns inward, away from whatever corresponds beyond its four walls.At the same time, the television is the families chief connection to the world. The physical envelope of the house itself no longer connects their lives to the outside in any active way; rather it seals them from it.The outside world has become an abstraction filtered through television, just as the weather is an abstraction filtered through air conditioning.”

WorldWayHas BeensTurnsThreeHouseFocusFourGenerationsAirTelevisionTvsWallConnectionsActiveWeatherChiefsInwardAbstractionFamily LifeConditioningSealsOutside WorldEnvelopesAir ConditioningFour WallsThree Generations
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“The public realm in America has two roles: it is the dwelling place of our civilization and our civic life, and it is the physical manifestation of the common good. When you degrade the public realm, you will automatically degrade the quality of your civic life and the character of all the enactments of your public life and communal life that take place there.”

TwoCharacterAmericaCommonQualityRolesCivilizationManifestationRealmsDwellingPublic LifeCivicsCommon GoodDegradeDwelling Place
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“Americans threw away their communities in order to save a few dollars on hair dryers and plastic food storage tubs, never stopping to reflect on what they were destroying.”

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Book:The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Cent
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