Comments on: Cities of Signs

By: Tor

Tor — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 17:34:51 +0000

I brought along a small library of books that I had been eagerly anticipating reading on my honeymoon. A man’s gotta have choices. We were on the beach, so it wasn’t too surprising, but my wife understands that I read an enourmous amount. That being said, I didn’t get much reading done…

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 12:25:52 +0000

Shame to go to Venice and stay in the hotel reading books. There are some nice churches there, you know? More seriously, I enjoyed immensly getting lost in the winding small streets of the town. Far from the beaten tourist track…

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 07:49:03 +0000

In Henry’s defense, different chris, the key word is “belated.” (And the Calvino, for all its inventive variations, is a quickie.)

By: a different chris

a different chris — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 23:04:07 +0000

You. Brought. Books. Along. On. Your. Honeymoon. Shudder. That gives me a vision of my bloated body floating down a canal.

By: Harley Peyton

Harley Peyton — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 22:36:06 +0000

Don’t know if you’re still there, but if so, seek out Paul Morand’s memoir, ‘Venices’. Great reading for the trip.

By: David Sucher

David Sucher — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 20:36:53 +0000

The phenomenon even has a name: “agglomerative economies.” Businesses of a similar type gain by proximity to each other and cluster for a variety of reasons: access to suppliers, customers, labor force etc etc.

By: Zizka

Zizka — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 18:09:49 +0000

Venice is sort of the example of how spectatorship, sentimantality, and tourism falsify things. By the XIX C. Venice was moribund and had become a quaint place for people with money to recreate and have love affairs impossible back home. During the great age which made Venice interesting, it was a predatory military entity which dominated much of the Mediterranean and Black Sea area. (Fredrick Lane, Venice and History). It also had a notoriously conservative / traditionalist political establishment and wasn’t lax and funloving the way the tourists thought. I had a Welsh-American friend who had a sentimental book about the Castles of Wales. My little knowledge of British history told me that all these castles were built by the Norman English who were squelching Welsh freedom for good. Castles as such are brutal places built to withstand seige, and not really pretty at all when operative. I mean, if I travel I’ll do the same as everyone else. I’m just saying.

By: Breaker

Breaker — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 17:58:53 +0000

I have not been to Italy, so I can’t comment about Italian cities. But you find the same kind of organization elsewhere – in fact it is almost universal. For example, clustering of similar industries and store outlets in Hanoi, Vietnam or clustering of home improvement supply stores in Anaheim, California – clusters of carpet, furniture and tile stores – or clusters of antique stores in Orange, California and New Orleans, Louisiana or clusters of outlet stores along freeway entry points to urban areas such as Cabazon, California, or the clusters of theme parks around Orlando, Florida. This kind of organization is all too obvious. It even accounts for the success of the American regional mall or now, Walmart – they have everything. Urban planners here in California have been aware of this effect for at least 50 years, maybe longer. There is nothing new here.