Snafu City

Urban Fantasy: A lovely walk in the park, New York

Beautiful buildings. Pleasant city streets. Jaunts in the park and lovely open spaces. However we spend our time, and wherever we spend it, we all would like our cityscapes to be something to admire and inspire.

Yet all too often, our urban habitats make us feel kind of yuck. Glass boxes erupt in plain sight, like giant glistening pimples that depress our spirits and sadden our souls. If you had a date you’d lock yourself indoors until those pimples cleared up.

Blemishes on the face are unpleasant, but eventually they go away. Blemishes on our cities and towns, on the other hand, are here to stay.

Me, I’ve been fortunate. I’ve had the luxury of avoiding the ugliest of the ugly and the nastiest of the nasty. I’ve had fresh air and pretty views, human-scale town centers, easy access to nature, and amenities to suit my needs and tastes.

But not always. Even folks like me in our Cinderella make-believe worlds eventually get slapped out of Smugtown with a big visual bummer. For example:

Snafu Reality: A stunning view forever obscured by "art", San Francisco

“I know, why not take a priceless asset and mask it with a giant Warner Brothers-style arrow and bow?” Perhaps the conversation between the planners and artist went something like that. One can only imagine.

It would be almost comical if it weren’t so gnarly-ful. And if the weird, non-intuitive thinking that seems to inform the look and feel, and the management of our built environment wasn’t so … blackjacket jumblescotch bad.

But why limit ourselves to the world outside? Inside can be just as scary. How many of us have entered that long awaited new mall only to find it’s either impossible to navigate, or hid-e-ous. You know, dressed in a threatening assault of peach and tawny-toned synthetic marble no sighted person could possibly escape from without feeling unpunished.

We don’t have to live this way. We can fight back.

The first step (if you are so similiarly distressed) is to admit we have a problem. Who is this “we”? It’s not the preservations: they’re commendably vocal. It’s not the developers: they’re having a grand ol’ time. It’s certainly not the politicians: they bring in the dollars and we all could use more of that.

The “we” is You and Me.

… Yes! It’s your average, everyday, gotta-make-it-to-the-supermarket-before-it-closes types.

We don’t attend the city planning sessions. (Who has the time? Plus they’re all weirdos and the food, if there is any, will suck.) We drive by the bleeding sprawl and wince, and then turn up the radio. Often, we avert our gaze. And when the final brick is laid, when there’s no longer any possibility of denying the monstrosity before us, we suck it up and suffer in silence.

But if we get all loud and proud and admit there’s a real problem here … only then can we begin to break free from Snafu City, wherever yours happens to be. So, without further ado, let’s get started…