part 2: applying value

Taking the example of highway further: Perhaps the sky-ways create huge and interesting cathedral-like spaces underneath, the feet of the piles in rivers create habitats for new river life, the new boundary between the cities has given rise to 2 distinct neighborhoods that, like islands of Venice, have a new relationship with one another that a massive long street couldn't do before.

The 2nd problem of Detroit is this: How to get people to "slow down" and actually want to appreciate those experiences below, rather than traveling at 80 to go to a casino and travel back at 80 without fully exercising our sense. We can't build cities any longer for the singular economy of money, but fort the wholistic economies of place-making and human quality. Part of this philosophy is working with what we have, but not in the sense of simply accepting what's given, but accepting that there is always beauty and we need to work to find it (it is not always an outwardly given thing-- you have to work to see it); appreciating it not simply for an abstract value, but for the very real value we can give through the assessment of our real senses.

photo © cggaffer