Deteriorated Sense of Citizenship

I am taking a new class this summer called, Diversity in the City.  It focuses on the depiction of American and global urbanism through one of the most popular forms of media - film and television which portray a variety of urban conditions including diversity, inclusion, equity, and social justice.

It's pretty ironic that I am taking this class because I rarely go to the movies and I haven't watched TV in years.  But so far I really love it. I wrote this post after watching the movies, Citizen Jane (about Jane Jacobs), Pleasantville, and Radiant City.

     I grew up in the suburbs.  And yet, these movies explained so much of the suburb life that I did not know, or at least had never really thought of before.  There were certain things that rang true that I had always noticed, but never consciously acknowledged about that life.  For example, in the movie, Radian City, the children talked about how they didn't know their neighbors even after living there for a year.  The daughter had to take public transportation across a large city with several transfers just to visit her friend.  Even the visual is uninviting - a large garage door and a small front door.  I have never liked this look but I have not equated it for what it is, unfriendly without a space to gather with friends and family.  No one is looking at the street. 

     There is no chance for interaction and human connection.  Marc Boutin called it, Deteriorated Sense of Citizenship.  He states that because we don't spend time together and because we are so isolated, we have gotten to the point that we can't tolerate being around each other any more.  I'm still troubled by this statement because I see that it is true.  I watch the scenes in the movie Citizen Jane of the various boroughs in Manhattan.  Children are playing and the adults are visiting.  I can't deny it - they look happy.  Where has that gone?

     But I don't want the other end of that spectrum either as depicted by the movie, Pleasantville.  I grew up in a family where we had to pretend that everything and everyone was happy - which was far from the truth.  Watching the TV show Ozzie and Harriet makes my skin crawl.  I guess the truth is that humans are messy.  Yet, I had never thought about that being reflected in our cities and living spaces.  

     I am an energy healer and the basic premise is that moving, flowing, balanced energy is healthy energy and leads to a healthy physical state.  As I watched these movies, especially Citizen Jane, I had an epiphany that a city is like an energy body!  It needs to move and flow in a natural, organic way to be healthy.  It can't be forced or arranged on a piece of paper.  It just doesn't work that way.