Urban Optimum

For each in the city there is a hum and a beat
To wich routine and transitions freely repeat.
The flow and ebb with less take and more give
Is the meter of living for work and working to live.

A calm, easy cadence connects home with labors.
No sour note commute nor dead malls for neighbors.
Uses mixed local and small, supply points of life.
To them walk, pedal, or twitter - modal options are rife.

Among the other urban livability measures
Are ample green features and amenity pleasures
And a multi-cultural chorus, the polyrthmic part
with civility and inclusion to give place a heart.

- Cliff Portman
(Principal Land Use Planner for the City of Seattle - Published in the Puget Sound Daily Journal of Commerce)