Covenents and Themes in CDS

A lot of hubbub is going on in CDS surrounding themes and covenents and basically how the sims look. The arguments that ensue are said to be in the defense of the "look " of the sims.  The problem really is that because votes and the voting list is tied to land ownership and that opens up a whole other can of worms that in my opinion needs to be unraveled quickly before it unravels our community. 

CDS is a mix of people from all over the world and certainly the people are a wide range of age, socio economic status. I can't imagine where one would find a more diverse mix of people. Maybe the closest example I can think of in America is Manhattan, NYC,  the big apple. This morning I was thinking of the issue of themes and our demographics in CDS and thought of New York and how I love the diverse mix there too. And the city's architecture reflects that diversity, and history, just as I believe CDS should do.

Have you ever traveled down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan without noticing the thing that looks as if someone was playing with prims, made a big spiral, and painted it white. Gosh I am glad they didn't have strict covenents or an elected official or nitpicky neighbors who thought the artist might not vote his way in the next election. I wonder if some people didn't want this "unusual" building in their neighborhood? I also think of another Frank Lloyd Write masterpiece, the seemingly "physically implausible" Falling Water.  

I know we don't want CDS to look like mainland. But I think it would be sad to stifle the creative efforts of the people who live there. One man's art is another man's graffiti. As we have tolerance for others cultures and backgrounds and beliefs where do we draw the line in their expression of such?

I would hate to see what a sl world designed by draftsmen doing exact realistic replicas of houses would look like. We know of great examples of Secondlife being used to make replicas of things. But and that's okay. But honestly, for me, if SL was just a bunch of replicas of real life .. visually or in any other way, I doubt it would have held my interest as long as it has. 

Should CDS be a dynamic visual representation of our history as a community and the population and its extreme diversity? I think so.     

Let's spend our energy making the place a fabulous place to live, a friendly loving and accepting community so we can buy more sims and build enough places that there is something for everyone.