The Psychological Gestalt that Drives Community Cruelty: What' s It All About?

Health in housing and Maine's new restricted speech laws

Photo by Egor Litvinov on Unsplash

I recently saw an apartment advertised online. The picture shows a long loft with new floors and sheet-rocked walls. There is a single source of natural light coming from a dormer window enclosed between two walls that focus the angle of the light as a narrow beam. There is a stove, refrigerator, sink, and counter space but no kitchen cupboards. The apartment is advertised as a two-bedroom apartment, showing two small rooms, but not completely. The view of the bedrooms is one-sided as if opening a door and looking in but not entering the room. No windows or closets are to be seen, giving the appearance of four walls in windowless rooms. It is 1700.00 a month.

I was raised in an alternate cultural movement influenced by thinkers like Lewis Mumford, who explored community design since Medieval times with great attention to the details of the healthy and functioning aspects of human living, including the importance of exposure to natural sunlight. Mumford…