This city has, apparently, nothing strange about it ; it has streets, squares, gardens, new houses and old; it is in fact a city like any other. The only thing is that it has been governed by the same mayor for forty-five years, The reason for his long stay in office is simple; he had an exceptionally good idea. Instead of trying to suit the city to its inhabitants, like everyone else, he thought of suiting the inhabitants to their city.

Now, 45 years later , things are starting to go really well; the citizens that jump the lights, damage city property, complain about the unpunctuality of the buses or the lack of water at the times it is most needed , etc. . . . are ever fewer. Actually, as soon as a citizen commits some infraction, or complains about something to the public authorities, he is not punished or reassured that his complaints will he taken into account - instead, he is sent to the town hall where he will be a guest for a week, and convinced.

When this citizen returns home he is much changed: precise, loyal to the regulations, calm, always smiling, he does his duty conscientiously. In 45 years, nearly all the citizens have visited the town hall and so now they are nearly all model citizens.

Every so often, there is a serious accident. One may see then that the model citizens have a complex miniaturized mechanism in their heads and lots of litlle expanded polystyrol balls instead of their insides, under the bands of muscles in their chest and abdomen.

No-one knows much about this because everyone who has seen such an accident is kindly accompanied to the town hall to recover from the shock.

The town councillors, who were old , have all died during these 45 years; the mayor has immortalized them in splended plastic statues, life-size and in natural colours, which show them sitting round the Council table in characteristic poses.

The mayor is very pleased with the way things are going: he is now beginning to have great ambitions for his city; he is sure everyone will agree. Unfortunately. yesterday he had a fall, burst open and lost all his little balls. They're putting them back.


Twelve Cautionary Tales for Christmas: Premonitions of the Mystical Rebirth of Urbanism , (12 Ideal Cities), by Piero Frassinelli (Superstudio) in AD #12 1971