1. the gridiron subject

THE GRIDIRON SUBJECT. The first pattern is that of the urban gridiron. Up until the 1950s, the gridiron street structured a century and a half of American and European urbanism. Through its many variations, the gridiron form supported multiple subjectivities, both individual and collective. In this regard, its negotiation of the social is extremely clear, especially in the case of the early 20th-century metropolis. The first diagram shows, in basic geometry, how collective subjectivities are supported by the gridiron infrastructure. The large circles suggest social groupings of various sorts and sizes. What is unique about the gridiron infrastructure is that the social groupings can be moved and sized independent of the forms that support them. The circles can indicate ethnic enclaves such as a Chinatown or a Little Italy, or indicate a district identified with a distinctive urban feature such as Marquette Park, a district in Chicago, or the Flatiron district in Manhattan. They can also indicate areas of development distinguished by density, such as Midtown Manhattan or the Mid-Wiltshire district of Los Angeles, or be a direct reflection of class such as the colloquial expression ‘uptown’. The circles can also recognise fluid political constituencies such as the old ward system or the today’s narrowly focused special interest groups. With the gridiron, all of these subjectivities are negotiated and renegotiated unhindered by an open and continuous urban matrix. It is important to note that in the gridiron city, as in the mass society, there is no hierarchy, or there is only a simple two-level hierarchy of STREET/DESTINATION.