American urban culture

Saul Bellow, 1968, коли він працював в університеті Щікаго на дивній посаді a professor at the Committee on Social Though:

'The university is an enclave in one of the worst Negro slum areas in America & things are often very touchy there. There's a great deal of violence on the streets: burglary, muggings, rapes & murders. The University of Chicago maintains a private police force of it's own, which costs about $1M per year …

'American cities are in danger of breaking up. They're becoming mixed between the business centre, the vast Negro slum & a certain working class elements. That means a city is no longer what it used to be. That means that urban culture itself is disappearing. Urban culture is the father & mother of many things that civilized people call dearest.

'What is going to happen to this urban culture if the University which is one of the last centrers of that culture in the city is also has to run for its life?'

(З лекції у Jewish Public Library of Montreal.)