The thesis is simple – cars are the enemy of strong cities.  Despite a tremendous amount of writing on this topic, people’s opinions on the matter have rarely changed – they either agree with this idea or they don’t.  There isn’t a lot of middle ground.  But as we come to understand networks more intuitively, the principle that the conveyance isn’t the key but how its used will be much more obvious.  The intuitive understanding can come from how networks, generally, work to make life more fun and more efficient.

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On a cold, rainy day there’s nothing like a stolen moment waiting for a prospective client and a thick book to fill it.  What makes it even more profound is when I have a small fixation rattling around in my head and the book is the tome that ties together all the little pieces of thought I’ve been trying to crystallize.  The fixation is human networks of connections that define who we are and where we’re going socially, politically, and technologically.  The book is “A Pattern Language” by the Center for Environmental Structure – Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, and a few more.

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Canton, Ohio, is a brick and proper kind of town that most people know for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  I was there to visit a customer who was kind enough to give one of the new products I was developing a real-world trial.  That went well enough, but Canton itself was a bit of a mystery.  Why is it there?  What did people do that gave them the scratch to create a decent town that was aging poorly?  One night I had to ask my favorite authority on these kinds of questions, which is a random person in a bar – color is always more important to me than accuracy.  But in Canton, Ohio, there is only one answer to the question as to why they exist:

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The kids are home from school and the first thing they want to do is veg.  In front of the teevee powervegging, too.  But in a divorced family, it’s Dad’s job to watch the clock and know just how long before their Mom comes to get them.  Dad has to watch carefully to make sure there’s enough time to practice piano.

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