A Potpourri Excerpts of texts posted on the World Wide Web deal with sustainable growth and related environmental issues, from various viewpoints. The Advent of the Megacity Janice Perlman, a leading urban theorist and activist, discusses what the world's largest cities have in common. A Potpourri Following are excerpts from texts posted on the World Wide Web dealing with various aspects of livable communities. When we look at the most beautiful towns and cities of the past, we're always impressed by the feeling that they are somehow organic. Each of these towns grew under its own laws of wholeness, and we can now feel this wholeness.
Time is at a premium.
Time spent with children, the family, with neighbors, and with the community is limited. Sometimes parents have little time for themselves. I think it is the children first and the community next. While many economists and policy makers used to maintain that the environment and quality of life were something to worry about after we all have food, shelter and other basics, more and more communities are finding that the environment, community character and aesthetics are a basic underpinning of a strong economy. Increasingly, quality of life issues such as scenic beauty, environmental quality, crime rates, aesthetics in the built environment, community open space, trees and vegetation, distinctive community character, access to public lands, and so forth, are more important than traditional business factors in business location decisions.