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| Cities Are Good for You: The Genius of the Metropolis by Leo Hollis – review | Cities Are Good for You: The Genius of the Metropolis by Leo Hollis – review |
| (5 months later) | |
| It was a strange couple of days. When the 2011 riots made certain areas of London, Manchester and Birmingham no-go zones – unless, of course, you were intent on a free pair of trainers from JD Sports – there was a sudden realisation that, actually, the city functions solely on a collective trust that enough people are prepared to be law-abiding. | It was a strange couple of days. When the 2011 riots made certain areas of London, Manchester and Birmingham no-go zones – unless, of course, you were intent on a free pair of trainers from JD Sports – there was a sudden realisation that, actually, the city functions solely on a collective trust that enough people are prepared to be law-abiding. |
| Leo Hollis refers to the summer riots early on in his celebration of the city. But he takes an interesting standpoint. "If the city is as chaotic and lawless as we assume," he argues, "why are there so few riots?" From this intriguing point, the book spirals out across the world as Hollis investigates what makes the city tick, and how living there can make us more intelligent, creative and even happier. He covers similar ground to PD Smith's City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age and Rowan Moore's Why We Build, but Hollis is more interested in people than buildings. Everywhere from the slums of Dharavi, Mumbai, to the streets of famous urban thinker Jane Jacobs's Greenwich Village, says Hollis, it's the city's inhabitants and complexity that encourage healthy street life, not its politicians. | Leo Hollis refers to the summer riots early on in his celebration of the city. But he takes an interesting standpoint. "If the city is as chaotic and lawless as we assume," he argues, "why are there so few riots?" From this intriguing point, the book spirals out across the world as Hollis investigates what makes the city tick, and how living there can make us more intelligent, creative and even happier. He covers similar ground to PD Smith's City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age and Rowan Moore's Why We Build, but Hollis is more interested in people than buildings. Everywhere from the slums of Dharavi, Mumbai, to the streets of famous urban thinker Jane Jacobs's Greenwich Village, says Hollis, it's the city's inhabitants and complexity that encourage healthy street life, not its politicians. |
| A lovely thought, but the book becomes more and more one-sided as Hollis warms to his argument. So not only are riots a reminder that usually the city is largely peaceful, but Dharavi is a place of opportunity and ingenuity, and the metropolis's teeming mass of humanity is a place for connection rather than alienation. All of these things are truths to some extent, but they could do with coming from someone – like Jacobs – who had made an actual impact on the city, rather than simply writing about how good it can be. | A lovely thought, but the book becomes more and more one-sided as Hollis warms to his argument. So not only are riots a reminder that usually the city is largely peaceful, but Dharavi is a place of opportunity and ingenuity, and the metropolis's teeming mass of humanity is a place for connection rather than alienation. All of these things are truths to some extent, but they could do with coming from someone – like Jacobs – who had made an actual impact on the city, rather than simply writing about how good it can be. |
| Maybe that will come; in the meantime, this is a useful counterpoint to those who would argue that the big bad city is to be escaped at all costs. | Maybe that will come; in the meantime, this is a useful counterpoint to those who would argue that the big bad city is to be escaped at all costs. |
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