In the editorial for Case 18, Trevor Cairney summarises some of the major themes across all articles in this issue and discusses the importance of architecture and planning in the city.

When police broke into an apartment in Sydney in January 2008 and found the decomposed body of 61-year-old Jorge Coloma, there was much community discussion of how his absence could have gone unnoticed for over a year. He had died from natural causes. No one noticed his absence; not his family, not his neighbours, not government authorities. Even 12 months’ worth of mail and unpaid bills falling out of the mailbox did not lead anyone to check his apartment or call the police. It took a year before neighbours felt that something was wrong. Questions were asked: why had authorities not done something? Wasn’t there one family member that had missed him? Neighbours asked themselves why they hadn’t spoken up sooner. Jorge’s story and many others like it are the dark side of city life. But there is another side.

(See PDF for the full article)

File: God in the City