Urban: The Self-Service City

Cities fascinate me. Of all the relationships we manage in our lives, the one we struggle to maintain with our cities is the most fraught with love and hate. Last night, I loved my foggy, warm city where I could get a frozen hot chocolate at 11 pm. This weekend, I will hate my city for its random subway service changes that I can never seem to keep up with. For the last few weeks, a friend and I have been feeling the need to take a break from it all, the life, the pace, the noise, the endlessness of it all. The Earth Mother in me needs to hear the crickets and gaze at the stars as she falls asleep. Eventually the City Chick will takeover and want a a frothy, overpriced latte. We work with cities, and they constantly allow us to keep up with all the changes within us.

As an Urban Studies major, I was rather clueless. My classmates were advocates of community supported agriculture and the bicycle-friendly city, while I explored issues in urban health. My choice of major continues to raise a few eyebrows and questions, and sometimes even I contemplate how in the world I didn't end up a Biology or Psychology major. Over time though, I saw how "urban studies" is really the daily fabric of our lives, whether we live in cities big or small. And so I've decided to start placing what I find relevant about all things urban under a category of its own. I suspect that many will never fully understand Urban Studies (an interdisciplinary field that is so vast to begin with) or find it legitimate - hopefully this will help.

My first contribution is an article from the NYT, The Self-Service City. In often undetectable ways, our cities are evolving away from their traditional definition, and I wonder how this reflects the cultural and political evolution of the city dweller. It remains to be seen - and studied!