James Lileks discusses urban design this morning, especially those types of designers who make huge mistakes that ruin a city for half a century and then come back to tell us what went wrong. Durham has certainly had its share of those (the impassable downtown loop, various hideous “urban renewal” attempts). But here’s the real problem with these “experts”:
Beware people who regard the distinctions between public and private as a mere legality, and one based on subjective viewpoint at that. In the end, they can define anything private as public, which gives them the right to take it away. And if you lose something you own, well, “loss†is a subjective concept as well that does not match real life.
