Radiohead: A Rock Band With a Firm Grasp of Urban Planning
11:26 AM EST on December 10, 2007
It looks like Radiohead’s Thom Yorke may be reading the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers classic “Theory of Disappearing Traffic” study in his spare time. Here he is talking to the New York Times’ Jon Pareles about the band’s recent digital commerce experiment:
Signing a new major-label contract “would have killed us straight off,” he added. “Money makes you numb, as M.I.A. wrote. I mean, it’s tempting to have someone say to you, ‘You will never have to worry about money ever again,’ but no matter how much money someone gives you — what, you’re not going to spend it? You’re not going to find stupid ways to get rid of it? Of course you are. It’s like building roads and expecting there to be less traffic.”
Aaron Naparstek is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek's journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.
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