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Understanding How Places Betray Us
Or Maybe Our Memories Run the Show
After some days in Tangier, Gibraltar, and London, and watching (on Facebook) a Detroit friend traipse around Edinburgh on one of his architecture firm’s “global urban study” missions, I’m forever wondering why some are disappointed in where they live.
We cross streets, and squares, and spontaneously dart into alleys that seem hidden at first. Such navigation is a key element of the relationships we form with urban places. We bond with static things and assume we will have static memories.But can a place betray us? Can this expected urban fabric revolt, change, and thereby fail our expectations?
In my 2021 book, Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character: Principles and Best Practices, I flirted with this existential query. That book, said one reviewer, was about context.
The idea of urban betrayal depends on the context of urban change — and urban continuity — not just on the idea of, say, buildings lost to progress.
And urban betrayal isn’t final; it is a basis for renewal.
On the plane yesterday, I started outlining some themes regarding urban betrayal — with some takeaways intended for participants in city-making: politicians, city staff, developers, and progressive urbanists.
