This Is Something Everyone Knows: A Well-used

While Politicians, Clergy, Creators Of Advertisements, And Other Worthies Assert Stoutly That The Family Is The Foundation Of Society, The Nuclear Family, As An Institution, Is Currently In Grave Trouble.

It May Be That We Have Become So Feckless As A People That We No Longer Care How Things Do Work, But Only What Kind Of Quick, Easy Outer Impression They Give. If So, There Is Little Hope For Our Cities Or Probably For Much Else In Our Society. But I Do Not Think This Is So.

To Approach A City, Or Even A City Neighborhood, As If It Were A Larger Architectural Problem, Capable Of Being Given Order By Converting It Into A Disciplined Work Of Art, Is To Make The Mistake Of Attempting To Substitute Art For Life. The Results Of Such Profound Confusion Between Art And Life Are Neither Life Nor Art. They Are Taxidermy.

Neighborhoods Built Up All At Once Change Little Physically Over The Years As A Rule...[residents] Regret That The Neighborhood Has Changed. Yet The Fact Is, Physically It Has Changed Remarkably Little. People's Feelings About It, Rather, Have Changed. The Neighborhood Shows A Strange Inability To Update Itself, Enliven Itself, Repair Itself, Or To Be Sought After, Out Of Choice, By A New Generation. It Is Dead. Actually It Was Dead From Birth, But Nobody Noticed This Much Until The Corpse Began To Smell.

I Still Have A Lot Of Family In America. I Still Have A Lot Of Friends There. There Is A Lot That I Admire There Very Much. When I Find America Getting Too Much Criticized Outside America, I Want To Tell Them How Many Things Are Good About It.