Thread by @ClaireBerlinski

While I'm not persuaded that this is the best plan (or a plan at all) to address climate change, I'm struck by the immense longing we feel for beauty. The world shed tears for Notre Dame; now we're imagining turning our country into a great garden. And why not?

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1118520320653238272

Why not grow magnificent gardens and build sublime buildings? The soul can't be at peace when all around is ugliness. We're obviously longing for beauty, be it natural or architectural.

There is no law that says a modern city must be ugly.

There is no good reason for modern architecture to be arid, barren, soulless, depressing. Of course we'd be happier if our cities were full of gardens and natural light! If they were built to human scale, for walking; if they were lush with parks, and trees heavy with fruit;

if every home had a garden, and every neighborhood, too; if our cities were oases of fragrant flowers, trees, vines, warbling birds; if instead of living in concrete cubes and shopping at strip malls we lived in homes --

old farm-house near the white-wash’d palings,
Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green--

and built things so beautiful, with such care, that 800 years from now, people will still marvel at them.

Of course we want to live in the Garden of Eden, not identikit concrete slabs with dull blank walls. And why can't we build cities of joy, with gardens and public spaces that by their human scale and delightfulness encourage people to walk, sit, meet, talk? Cities with piazzas,

and public spaces that encourage gathering rather than huddling inside, alone. Cities with village greens, courthouse squares, stoops and porches, vividly painted, lovingly ornamented, verdant with blooming, perfumed gardens ....

cities built for pedestrians, not cars; scaled to the size the human mind understands.

We abandoned centuries of urban design tradition when instead of building narrow cobblestone streets and covered markets, we built eight-lane freeways, slab-towers, and strip malls;

we blanketed the modern landscape in this depressing, anti-human mediocrity. But we crave enchanted cities, cities full of trees and flowers and creative ornaments, cities built at a human scale with a cacophony of markets, cafes, and bodegas--all in walking distance.

No law of modern life says we can't have streets full of people, not cars, cities with color and charm and variety--not big, grey, featureless towers and boxes. Gigantic shopping mall complexes are anti-human. So are vast, empty, concrete parking lots.

Why build these endless, windswept, multi-story parking lots, windowless and featureless? We've cut huge surfaces off from the land and agriculture. These places lack the density, the drama, that transforms a city into a civilization;

they lack cathedrals, palaces, artisans, guilds, courts, schools, universities; they lack public squares with fountains and gardens, craftsmen and traders. Instead, they are all the same: the stores are identical. The environment neither ennobles nor educates nor enriches.

There's no reason new cities can't be as beautiful and original as these: thevintagenews.com/2018/01/12/med…. Nothing stops us from building that way. Our cities could be verdant, vivid with life, urban agriculture, parks, botanical gardens, forested enclaves,

heavens of tranquility and peace--with flowers in natural grasslands, arranged for our well-being and pleasure, flowering meadows, geese and ducks, fruit trees and vines from which everyone can pick, ornamental fountains surrounded by tea gardens;

they could be conducive to walking, to conversation, to flirtation, to daily astonishment at the beauty of the city, to companionship and friendship.

Nothing stops us from building this way but lack of confidence,

and a perverse unwillingness to say plainly that beauty matters. You needn't believe that we have but 12 years to save the planet from AGW to agree that we'd be happier if we built cities this way--

with parks, farms, woodlands, verdant tree-lined streets,

green facades, river and bike paths, streets and houses proportionate to our size,

gardens on our rooftops, fresh food and fresh air, greenhouses, orchards, childrens' gardens, all lush with flowers and foliage,

cities with columns and arches, flying buttresses, gargoyles and nymphs, floral carvings on stone ornaments, stained glass, porticoes with frescoes, lakes with rowboats, wide verandahs, crooked alleyways, all on a human scale.

Call it a Green New Deal if you like.