Relevant to this study is the characterization of

Relevant to this study is the characterization of urban livability as a human behavioral function that denotes the interaction between individuals and the environment (Pacione, 1990). In this sense, urban livability is a unique case of livability at large and has strong ties to the notion of urbanity. Historians, urban analysts, and planners have used the terms “urbanity” and “urbanism” interchangeably to denote the culture or way of life of city dwellers. Culture is defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as “the totality of socially transmitted behavioral patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.” Culture provides individuals with a shared identity. Members of different cultural groups take pride in their institutions, behavioral patterns, and beliefs. The city is the ultimate socioeconomic and cultural product of world urbanity. The medieval sentiment, “City air makes one free” (Ellin, 1995) was manifested in creating social, political, and physical configurations that affect the urban structure of modern cities. Medieval cities adapted themselves freely to geographic, economic, and social circumstances that shaped the development of their physical forms. Weber singled out two elements that separated cities from villages, namely, oikos (house) and market (Zijderveld, 1998). He referred to the Renaissance City in Europe as the first true manifestation of urbanity. The Renaissance City, according to Weber, was characterized by a sense of beta lactamase that was not based upon the solidarity of familial, clannish, and religious ties; the bonds of estate, race, or caste; or the possession of land. This solidarity was borne by the city itself as a socioeconomic and political entity. Therefore, the Renaissance City was first and foremost a rational community of interests (Henderson and Talcott, 2012; Zijderveld, 1998). Mumford indicated that the subsequent Baroque planning shifted the emphasis from building walkable fine-grained architectural enclosures, which were characteristic of medieval cities, to creating engineered urban environments with wider avenues for wheeled traffic and power display. Baroque rulers depended on heavy military to guard their interests as well as devised city plans and elaborate financial and taxing systems that ensured their control and monopoly of urban resources (Mumford, 1961). Therefore, rational economic interests coupled with equally rational political interests in autonomy from feudal forces laid the foundation for an urban economic and civic culture. Urbanity was a creative force that promoted and helped institutionalize the sciences and the arts, which consequently created a multitude of crafts and professions that shaped the civic identity of the city. Among the most important contributions of urbanity was the creation of an urban class. Unlike the caste or status group, into which an individual was born and out of which would eventually die, such urban class was a relatively open configuration (Henderson and Talcott, 2012; Zijderveld, 1998). In principle, the individual socioeconomic position in the urban class structure was not ascribed, but achieved. A city dweller who successfully engaged in trade and craftsmanship and later in manufacturing and industry would be classified as a member of this urban class, which would then be differentiated into lower-, middle-, and upper–middle classes. The city became the social foundation of culture formation. Private and public spheres were effectively coordinated through intermediary structures, such as professional guilds, vocational associations, and schools, which constituted a concrete societal foundation for the values, norms, and meaning of urbanity (Zijderveld, 1998). The city public places had vital roles in the social dynamics of the urban community by serving as catalysts for the economic and civic culture that emanated from and contributed to urbanity (Benevolo, 1980, 308; 1993; Mumford, 1961).