December 31, 2016 (Saturday)

Just a short, banal observation, prompted by the stark, leafless, and sun-seared view out my window this morning: When B. looks pretty, it’s because a balance between nature and the man-made is achieved. In winter, visible nature dies back, and all the helter-skelter, undesigned or at least ill-placed aspects of the man-made rise to prominence: overhead wires, tilting utility poles, fences in disrepair, a surfeit of plastic and metal (mostly parked, sometimes moving cars), asphalt – and it all looks so unfinished and dumpy. That’s what I prefer about real cities (vs. littler ones like this): almost by default, there’s more design in the man-made.