Popular Science - USA (2020 - Spring)

24

SOME CITIES FORM BY ACCIDENT: INDUSTRIOUS
people set up shop near water and tillable soil, build
a modest financial hub that draws in a steady stream
of citizens, and eventually end up with a nice little me-
tropolis. But as times and economic models change,
why wouldn’t an incidental burg disappear just as
quickly? We asked three experts what the world’s
most resilient communities have in common.

Serving a balance of functions makes a place more stable.
Cholula in central Mexico has been continually occupied
since the first millennium BCE, in part because it had one of
the ancient world’s most revered pyramids. It served as an
important market as well as a site for spiritual pilgrimage.
Other Aztec cities—Teotihuacan and Tula, for example—
rose and fell in the meantime because their overarching
functions were solely political. Their fortunes were always
tied to the dynasty or administration in charge.
—David M. Carballo,
Associate Professor of Archaeology, Anthropology,
and Latin American Studies at Boston University

Keeping residents safe is crucial, but so is fostering their
growth as a community. Walled cities like Rome, Jerusa-
lem, and Cartagena provided security, but they also had
public spaces for interaction, recreation, and culture.
—Robin King,
Director of Knowledge Capture and Collaboration
at the Ross Center for Sustainable Cities

Looking back at American cities during the 1970s, you see
a loss of social cohesion from neglecting the public realm
—not just parks, but also sidewalks, trees, streetlights,
benches. Little moments that make you feel welcome. The
most resilient cities never forget the importance of this.
—Alissa Walker,
Urbanism Editor at Curbed

WHAT

M A K E S

A CITY

LAST?

JUST 3 MILES OUTSIDE

Chicago lies Riverside,

Illinois, a quiet 1,600-acre

village that looks like a tidy

Stepford suburb. Few peo-

ple, however, know that

it helped set the mold for

many more ‘burbs to come.

In the 1860s, a group of

local investors wanted to

lure homebuyers to their

land, so they commis-

sioned landscape architect

Frederick Law Olmsted to

design the antidote for

crowded urban life. He

drew inspiration from his

tours of England’s public

gardens, and dotted his

blueprints with large parks

and green plazas. He also

wanted to create natu-

ral spaces that residents

could see and reach from

their front doors. To do this,

he sat all houses 30 feet

back from the road, behind

close-cut lawns and two

well-spaced trees.

Decades later, Olmsted’s

vision of one of America’s

founding suburbs came to

fruition. Riverside filled up

with winding streets, a golf

course, and grass-hemmed

homes. By the mid-1900s,

almost every parcel had

been developed.

The concept of a semi-

private patch where families

could relax, romp, and reap

the benefits of the outdoors,

meanwhile, spread beyond

the town’s borders.

The lawn is now a cor-

nerstone of bedroom

communities across the

country, but it’s had some

damning environmental

impacts. US homeowners

spend up to 50 gallons of

water a day ensuring that

their verdant carpets hold

up to local ordinances

and neighbors’ scru-

tiny. What’s more, runoff

from fertilizers and pesti-

cides contaminates water

sources and kills off bedrock

species in the food chain.

That’s led to a rival move-

ment in recent years, where

people replant their yards

with overgrown shrubs and

billowing sedges to foster

real, thriving ecosystems.

The individuality might stray

wildly from Olmsted’s proto-

type, but it still brings nature

to Americans’ front steps.

AS TOLD TO POPSCI STAFF

SPRING 2020 / POPSCI.COM

BIG QS

POSTCARD

WHERE DOES THE

CLASSIC AMERICAN

LAWN

COME FROM?

BY GRACE WADE

SOUND BITES