david byrne is a genius.

Man, I wish I had this kind of shit running around my brain, rather than the mundane stuff I do have in there. Like making pizza for lunch. :)

David's Journal: March – May 2005:

David Says,
"I was reminded of a discovery that Jane Jacobs made about urban parks and the quality of urban life. She determined that the size of parks was not so important a factor in how successful they are. Sheer amount of greenery, she claims, is irrelevant, which seems at first glance counter intuitive — don’t we all think that more parks and bigger ones will make for a more habitable and pleasant urban life? What was more important, she discovered, was only partly a result of the quality of the park itself. In a way what is more important to the success of a park is what surrounds it. What is outside the boundaries of the park does more than what is inside to determine what it is and what if can become.

It is more important, for example, that the surrounding community have mixtures of residential, business and leisure activities. And that these activities take turns using the park. That secretaries and assistants take their lunches there in the middle of the day, that moms take kids there in the mornings and that couples and the elderly might stroll there in the evenings. Then the park isn’t ever empty at certain hours of the day, a condition that often leads to its eventual decay. She also states that the multiple uses and activities in the surrounding communities must lead people to walk through the park in order to get to work, to school, home, or to a movie or restaurant that lies on the other side. The park has to be something you need to pass through, not go to, and definitely not go around. If it is placed on the side or edge of a community, for example, it runs the risk of becoming a scary unused place. It needs to be more than someplace to make special trip to. (Except if there is a destination on the far side like a lakefront or riverside to draw people into and through the park.)"