Culture in the City

In 1938, Lewis Mumford wrote: "The city... is the point of maximum concentration for the power and culture of a community." I previously wrote about how the seat of government is found in the city. But how many of us think of it as the seat of culture?

Even if a metropolitan library has many branches, its main library will be downtown. The major newspapers usually operate out of the city. Concerts, ballets, plays, operas and musicals, they are all performed at theaters and halls in the city, or as close to it as possible. That is not to say that there are no cultural events in the suburbs, but they still tend to be concentrated in the city. Anyone living in or near the downtown area has a front row seat, so to speak, on any cultural events that come to or originate in town.

Now, being able to afford tickets to such events is another matter altogether. For the poor and working poor, even often for the middle class, these cultural activities are out of reach. So what good does it do to live near them? It's scary to think that generations of children are not ever exposed to cultural events such as those outlined above. Every performance should have a certain number of deeply discounted tickets for people who can't afford the full price. Schools should be able to buy up batches of affordable tickets so that they can take their students to the events.

Another negative aspect of cultural events taking place in the sity is that a lot of people won't go there because they perceive it as unsafe. The irony is that the more activities that take place in a city, the safer it is. I can't say what the experience is like in my city, because I haven't been able to afford to go to any cultural events there. But I don't think Columbus has a reputation for having a vibrant downtown. It was on its way a few years ago when a major indoor mall was built there with inexpensive parking. Suddenly, downtown was the place to go. But then one of our major developers opened a huge mall in a suburban area, and it became the all the rage to go there and to other outlying malls that imitated it. The downtown mall is all but closed now, and fewer people go downtown as a result.

No one activity can guarantee a city's success. It needs to be a muli-use area for it to truly come alive. Cultural events, workplaces, government offices, worship services, sports, educational experiences, shopping and living spaces, all need to be there for a city to be alive and healthy. A city with narrow prospects and perspectives is a city that is doomed to die.