Happy City

Got an e-mail today that sent chills up my spine:

Dear Mr. Fuller,

 

I have been told by another candidate who came to my door that the attachment I sent a few days ago was not included in my email.  In case that is what happened with the one I sent to you, I have typed the content and include it below so that there is no problem with attachments.  I would be very interested in your response to the quote.

 

Sincerely,

 

Beth Skala

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Excerpt from Happy City:  Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery (page 43):

"I propose a basic recipe for urban happiness drawn from the insights of philosophers, psychologists, brain scientists, and happiness economists.  What should a city accomplish after it meets our basic needs of food, shelter, and security?

 

*The city should strive to maximize joy and minimize hardship.

 

*It should lead us toward health rather than sickness.

 

*It should offer us real freedom to live, move, and build our lives as we wish.

 

*It should build resilience against economic or environmental shocks.

 

*it should be fair in the way it apportions space, services, mobility, joys, hardships, and costs.

 

*Most of all, it should enable us to build and strengthen the bonds between friends, families, and strangers that give life meaning, bonds that represent the city's greatest achievement and opportunity.

 

*The city that acknowledges and celebrates our common fate, that opens doors to empathy and cooperation, will help us tackle the great challenges of this century.

 

None of these goals are radical.  The challenge now is to see just how the shapes and systems of our cities contribute to meeting them.  How are today's cities performing?  How would we build differently, and live differently, if we could chart the connection between the designs of our cities and the map of happiness?  What would we change if we could?

 

It is audacious to believe that the city might build happiness just by changing its shape.

 

But it is foolish not to chase the thought, because around the world, and especially amid the sprawlscapes of modern North America, the evidence shows that cities do indeed design our lives."

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My reply to Beth:

 

Beth; Thank you for this; it literally sent chills up and down my spine as it so eloquently espouses what I believe and have worked for over the years. I am going to post it on my Facebook Group; Gord Fuller Municipally (A)MUSING.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/112340092206683/  

 

I draw your attention to my BIO thingy on the Daily News website Profile: Gordon Fuller  http://www.nanaimodailynews.com/news/profile-gordon-fuller-1.1433478  and ask if you might agree that in not so eloquent words I am trying to reach the same goal.

 

Huge THANX and all the best.