Living in cities is an art, and we need the vocabulary of art, of style, to describe the peculiar relationship between man and material that exists in the continual creative play of urban living. The city as we imagine it, then, soft city of illusion, myth, aspiration, and nightmare, is as real, maybe more real, than the hard city one can locate on maps in statistics, in monographs on urban sociology and demography and architecture.

Summary

This quote emphasizes that living in cities is not just a practical matter, but an immersive and subjective experience. The "art" of urban living suggests that we need artistic language and style to capture the complex and dynamic relationship between people and the urban environment. The quote suggests that the city, with all its abstract notions and individual perceptions, holds a certain reality that transcends the cold, factual information found in maps and statistics. It highlights the importance of recognizing and understanding the symbolic, aspirational, and sometimes distressing aspects of city life.

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