Courteous Reader,
I am tempted to win your favor by declaring I wrote this Almanac for Planners solely for the public good. However, this is insincere and you are too wise for the deception of this pretense. The fact is I am excessively poor and, unfortunately, excessively wifeless. To address both problems, I must begin to make some profit since every potential wife always asks, “What kind of car do you drive?” I always have to reply, “I walk”, and the potential wife thinks I am a deviant.
Indeed, this motive would have been enough to write this Almanac many years ago except for the overwhelming desire of the public and professionals to only hear what they want to hear and my overwhelming desire to secure a salary. I am now of sufficient age to no longer care about telling people what they want to hear but only about what they need to know. This has freed me to write this Almanac for Planners in increments of ten cause it worked for Moses and the Almighty. Hopefully, my Almanac gains your likes and retweets as a means of demonstrating the usefulness of my efforts but also your charity to this poor Friend and Servant,
Richard
On Cities
11. Cities are vibrant because its residents are alive. Cemeteries are tranquil because its residents are dead. Do not ever confuse the two.
12. People are alive, cars are not. Always build your cities for the living and never for those things that are not.
13. Nothing about cities is ideal, that is what makes them so fascinating.
On Planners
14. A planner who leads never worries about being loved. A planner who worries about being loved never leads.
15. 19th century land speculators were a lot smarter than you think and 20th century urban planners were lot dumber than they pretend.
16. Life is fast enough without urban planners trying to speed things up.
On NIMBYism
17. NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) is polite terminology for “I’ve got mine, Jack, so screw you.”
18. Environmentalism is often the wolf of NIMBYism masquerading in sheep’s clothing.
19. Highly praise altruistic motives but have the courage to condemn selfish ones for what they really are.
On Urban Space
20. Space flows, never congests.
The Issue 3 cometh soon!
