To what extent, then, does the value created by urban amenities influence the shape of cities? Approaching this question requires reconciling narratives of the way cities work. To do so, we must take a broader view of amenities than might be initially apparent. Beyond schools for education, utilities for consumption, and parks for recreation, amenities may include less-defined and even less-tangible features of a city, such as sidewalks, daylight, and population density. In this way, we can begin by considering amenities by a definition close to that of the Oxford English Dictionary: “a desirable or useful feature of a building or place.”
Furthermore, amenities may have different values in different contexts. Sidewalks, for example, can be seen as a tool for public safety, putting a barrier between automo- bile roadways and pedestrian walkways. Yet in a different light, sidewalks are a point of contact between members of a community and a catalyst for public life and social interaction. This type of interaction may run the gamut from passing exchanges to neighborhood block parties. But because they have different values activated by dif- ferent contexts, sidewalks can be seen as a composite amenity, whose separate values are activated by the different contexts in which they are useful.
Even if form does follow function, therefore, neither exists in the singular. Amenities’ multiple values are activated by the different contexts in which they appear. To be valuable and useful features of a place, it is not necessary that they have a constant function, or even a constant form.
Focus Question: To what extent has Portland’s urban forest played a role in the development of city shape?