Today I have become the biggest fan of a person I'd never heard of before. Cornelia Dinca (a Calgarian, yet!?!). Her photos of Amsterdam show how quickly a city can change and I believe it's a lesson for all of us in understanding that "inertia" is an over emphasized apathy. Community change is possible in a very small time period. I think that her photos are a compelling lesson in how quickly a city can make some pretty radical changes in a generation. If you've been to Amsterdam recently, these "vintage" photos will look like an extremely foreign concept.
This is an example of how we should be thinking of our roads and communities. "Living communities" are for people and nature. These photos show how communities can change in a very short time.
This last photo (located on the backside of the Rijksmuseum on Museumplein) is a perfect example of a city transformed that only photography/visual recording could have brought to life. Many tourists have been to this location, but probably don't know that it used to be a major route in town, even though the arches suggest as much. It's a remarkable change in land use. A change that we can all learn a lot from when we think that roads "are forever".
