In praise of glorious messes..........

     This, by now, should be a familiar story:  the people who make the rules find themselves hypnotized by a tidy aesthetic that looks good on a map, graph, or screen - but which is a disaster for the people who have to live and work in a world defined by those tidy rules.  Successful cities are a glorious mess of old and new, of houses and shops and workplaces, and where the richer residents and the poorer ones mingle together.  Ad it is that diverse mess that makes them safe, innovative - and perhaps above all, resilient.

-Tim Harford,  Messy:   The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives