Cities obey the laws of living things
Who would disagree with Dickens that London’s green spaces are the city’s “lungs?” A city is an animal that sleeps, although some never do, like New York City or Hong Kong. All cities are creatures of a sort. Some have multiple “faces” they present to the world, most have a “beating heart” where the action unfolds, and it is a rare city that lacks a dark “underbelly.” The analogy of city as living organism is so established, in fact, that it has crossed over into the realm of scientific inquiry