I’ve been feeling blue hearing so many suggestions that coronavirus is “the end of cities”.
So today I spent time with a favourite artwork to cheer myself up, and which has a message for us all.
A thread...

“Along the River During the Qingming Festival”, is an enormous scroll painted by five Qing dynasty court artists in the 1730s, itself based on a famous 11th century artwork.

It depicts a journey, through the country along a river to a thriving city.
It’s 11metres, or 37 feet, long and features more than 4,000 people - including this guy who just fell off his horse.

We start in the country, where a small path broadens into a lane which joins with the city road. As we get closer to the city, activity increases until we reach a great market...

On the way there are people loading cargoes onto boats, shops, a theatre, a tax office, and even what looks suspiciously like a pub - complete with napping drinkers sleeping off the worst effects!
All the hallmarks of a great city.

People from all walks of life are here: jugglers, actors, beggars, monks asking for alms, fortune tellers, doctors, innkeepers, teachers, millers, metalworkers, carpenters, masons, scholars, soldiers - and of course children.

The great river market!

It’s a delight to look at, like an enormous 18th century “Where’s Wally” picture.
When I first saw it in person, in Taipei’s National Palace Museum, I spent hours absorbed by it.

It shows us cities have always been where it is at, from Ancient Greece, to Asia to today.
Even when we were much more used to living with awful diseases, co-proximity to other people and other people’s ideas were the pathway to innovation, time saving and success.

The benefits cities bring always outweighed the risks, and when we are at our best we work together to find ways to manage those risks. Cities have been around a long time, and will be around a long time yet. It will take more than this bloody virus to dim their appeal.

The Nobel prize winning economist Paul Romer said it better than me: “The intense interaction cities allow is immensely productive. What we are going to learn from this is that there are a variety of ways to continue to interact frequently while minimising the risk...

...of transmitting viruses. I doubt this is going to slow down cities. There is tremendous economic value in interacting with people and sharing ideas. There’s still a lot to be gained from interaction in close physical proximity because it is a large part of how we establish...

...trust. So I think that, for the rest of my life, cities are going to continue to be where the action is.”

I felt much better after all that. I hope you’re okay, too.

Cities are great!
(Thread ends.)

^ Following this thread on why cities will always be where it’s at, here’s an awesome article from @TheAtlantic
Catastrophes change cities for the better: get ready for the great urban comeback! https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/10/how-disaster-shaped-the-modern-city/615484/