WEBVTT Kind: captions; Language: en 00:00:20.001 --> 00:00:29.001 [...] 00:00:34.001 --> 00:00:41.001 The city or near it, any city, anywhere, one size or another. 00:00:42.001 --> 00:00:48.001 We flee from it and are drawn to it. Oppressed, excited, frustrated, 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:51.001 enthralled, appalled by it. 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:15.000 The city or near it. 00:01:17.001 --> 00:01:23.000 This incredible collection of things, people, pathways, habits, 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:29.001 history, problems and possibilities. 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:46.001 What do we want in a city? Everything we have ever wanted to fill our needs and 00:01:46.001 --> 00:01:52.000 meet our wishes. Out of our needs and wishes, we make our cities and the 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:53.001 lives we lead in them. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:02:00.000 How have we managed? All you have to do is wake up in 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:01.001 the morning and look around. 00:02:23.001 --> 00:02:53.001 [...] we have to do is wake up in the [...] 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:00.001 Somehow it happened. By accident perhaps. 00:03:03.001 --> 00:03:07.001 By compromise surely. By things done and undone. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:12.000 Disorder and disproportion. 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:23.001 Eterioration. Monotony. Ugliness amid affluence. 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:33.000 Who did it? Who does it still? All these did it or failed to stop it. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:51.000 In the end, all the people who didn't see or have learned not to see. 00:03:52.001 --> 00:03:59.001 We all share the consequences. But there are 00:03:59.001 --> 00:04:06.000 opportunities to share as well. What can we do? Any number of things. 00:04:06.001 --> 00:04:11.000 The planning of a tree. The design and construction of a 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.000 building that graces its surroundings. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:21.001 The redevelopment of a great downtown area. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:38.000 The center of the city revived and embellished. Whatever the act, whatever its 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:44.000 scope, the common element is design and always an urgent will to make things 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:46.000 better than they are now. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:55.000 Where do you start? Just look around. It could be here as you approach the 00:04:55.000 --> 00:05:00.001 city. From what you see along the way, what kind of city would you expect to find 00:05:00.001 --> 00:05:03.001 when you arrive? Urban sprawl. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:12.000 The careless misuse of land, unregulated and unrestrained. The big loud 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:14.001 sell on the march. Cutter. 00:05:23.001 --> 00:05:28.000 As you move toward the city, what visions of it are raised by this? 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:37.000 As much as anything else, the city is an experience 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:41.000 and the approach foretells what it will be like. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:53.000 The landscape suddenly opens up, allows the city to be discovered. The capital of 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:57.000 the nation and the far end of a road that respects the beauty of nature. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:13.000 Surrounded by possibilities, often we seem determined to kill them off. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:20.001 The waterfront, potentially a proud to land bound imaginations, 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:22.001 a place for people to enjoy. 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:28.001 Yet here in Detroit and in other cities, the river becomes a magnet for 00:06:28.001 --> 00:06:35.000 industrial debris. In 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:38.000 Washington, the Potomac lies unfulfilled. 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:47.001 Half hidden, vulnerable to the leavings of litter bugs, 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:50.001 unpledged to lively human use. 00:06:53.001 --> 00:06:58.000 And yet, the alternatives are there, loud and clear. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:05.001 Why not bring river and people together? 00:07:08.001 --> 00:07:12.001 Let the river grace the city and the lives of its people. 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:33.000 San Antonio, Texas did this with the stream that winds through its very center. 00:07:52.001 --> 00:08:26.000 A wandering walk, Paseo del Rio, for the pleasure of citizens 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.000 in the heart of the city. 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:53.001 But what happens when downtown runs down? It's hard to believe that this 00:08:53.001 --> 00:08:55.000 part of Hartford, Connecticut did. 00:08:55.001 --> 00:09:01.001 Today, the eye scans the center of commerce built to human scale. Constitution 00:09:01.001 --> 00:09:07.001 Plaza, where the eye meets the variety it demands, the surprises it savors, 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:15.000 the gentle piece of growing things. There is a place for automobiles and a place 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:18.000 for people. They are not the same place. 00:09:18.001 --> 00:09:25.000 Traffic goes under and around the plaza. Cars park underground. People go about 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:30.001 their business safely in an area designed for people. It is pleasant to discover 00:09:30.001 --> 00:09:35.000 places to get lost in, yet reassuring to find landmarks to go by. 00:09:48.001 --> 00:09:54.000 What you see around you is important, whether the view is from the office, from 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:55.001 the home, anywhere. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:06.001 Public and private resources will combine 00:10:06.001 --> 00:10:08.001 to renew much of downtown America.