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Failing to divide its social chromosomes and split up into new cells, each bearing some portion of the original inheritance, the city continues to grow inorganically, indeed cancerously, by a continuous breaking down of old tissues, and an overgrowth of formless new tissue. Here the city has absorbed villages and little towns, reducing them to place names, like Manhattanville and Harlem in New York; there it has, more happily, left the organs of local government and the vestiges of an independent life, even assisted their revival, as in Chelsea and Kensington in London; but it has nevertheless enveloped those areas in its physical organization and built up the open land that once served to ensure their identity and integrity.

Lewis Mumford#27

CommunityPlanningIdentity

About this quote

What does it mean?
Cities that grow without splitting into new communities become unhealthy and absorb local identities, though some areas manage to keep independent life.
In plain terms
Unchecked city growth harms local towns unless they keep some independence.
What can you take from it?
Plan urban growth to preserve local identity.

Where it applies

  • city planning
  • suburban development
  • preservation efforts

Putting it to work

  • zoning laws
  • local governance
  • community activism

Questions to consider

  • Does your town keep its identity?
  • How do cities expand?

Another view

Growth is sometimes necessary for economic survival.

More from Lewis Mumford

  1. The chief function of the city is to convert power into form, energy into culture, dead matter into the living symbols of art, biological reproduction into soc…

    Permalink to quote #26
  2. Unfortunately, once an economy is geared to expansion, the means rapidly turn into an end and 'the going becomes the goal.' Even more unfortunately, the indust…

    Permalink to quote #28
  3. Every new baby is a blind desperate vote for survival: people who find themselves unable to register an effective political protest against extermination do so…

    Permalink to quote #25

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