By Christopher Hume
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One also can’t help but notice that the devastation wrought by Louisianans upon Louisiana far outweighs anything a hurricane can do. The mighty Mississippi, invisible behind vast levees, is lined with trailer parks and oil refineries. The bayous are degraded, the cypress swamps compromised beyond recovery. It is a landscape of desolation, broken only by the exquisite remnants of 19th-century plantation culture, as refined as it was corrupt.
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And despite the vast differences between New Orleans and Toronto, the automobile has brought a startling degree of sameness, similarity, even homogeneity, to the two centres. Notwithstanding the modernist architecture that turned cities around the world into copies of one another, it is the car that reduces even the most idiosyncratic urban form to a monotony of asphalt and empty spaces, not to mention congested highways and traffic reports.
And despite the vast differences between New Orleans and Toronto, the automobile has brought a startling degree of sameness, similarity, even homogeneity, to the two centres. Notwithstanding the modernist architecture that turned cities around the world into copies of one another, it is the car that reduces even the most idiosyncratic urban form to a monotony of asphalt and empty spaces, not to mention congested highways and traffic reports.
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Not until one leaves the isolation of the automobile does the rest of the landscape reveal itself — the palm trees, the heat, the smells, the architecture … . Not until one steps out of the car does one cease to be an observer and become part of the landscape.
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https://www.thestar.com/news/article/960192–hume-on-the-road-with-drive-thru-culture
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