The urban planner Kevin Lynch spent half of the 1950s asking Americans to draw their cities. What stood out in the mental maps they made for him wasn’t their home or workplace or favorite landmark, Lynch reported in his famous book
paths. Take the Jersey City resident who described, in terms that just beg for a Clarence Clemons solo, the approach to the Holland Tunnel: “I always look to the right to see if I can see the … Statue of Liberty. … Then I always look up to see the Empire State Building, see how the weather is. … I have a real feeling of happiness because I’m going someplace, and I love to go places.”