Over a decade ago, when we started writing our book, "Suburban Nation," we had no idea how quickly the conversation was about to change. The New Urban critique of sprawl, initiated by my co-authors in the late seventies, was at first an aesthetic discussion -- by God, this stuff is ugly. But then, when they discovered that it was possible to build real towns again, it became a social discussion -- we shouldn't have to live our lives stuck in traffic between the soulless subdivision and the plastic shopping mall.
But now, a preference has become a mandate, as sprawl has quietly been identified as a central cause behind a growing list of mounting national crises including foreign oil dependency, climate change, and the obesity epidemic. With economists, environmentalists, and epidemiologists all bemoaning suburbia, it is a good time to step back and remind ourselves what we're still up against.
Eva Talmadge and Justin Taylor: 15 Amazing Literary Tattoos From Diehard Bookworms (PHOTOS)
Catherine Lutz and Anne Lutz Fernandez: The Financial Burden of Being Mobile
Al Norman: Is It Wal-Mart, Or Small-Mart?
PRINT EXCLUSIVE: Longtime sprawl, new sprawl, problematic
Anti-sprawl group Futurewise appeals Whatcom County growth area addition
|
Post a Comment
The average family who commutes to the city has two cars in the garage or in a parking lot, a driveway, big highways and traffic, then another garage or a high-rise parking lot on the other side, then a big high-rise office building to park themselves in a cubicle. It's a lot of energy and infrastructure for a loss of up to four or more hours a day that could be spent with the family or on personal health and happiness. Renovate those now vacant commercial properties and office buildings in the cites with quality affordable homes and keep people close to work. Tear out some parking lots and plant gardens and parks. At the same time renovate those decaying communities in the country and put people in touch with work and training from where they live. Save the quality of life and the planet while we're at it.
mon thru fri
all the surburban dwellers speed through
my close to the center of the city quiet neighborhood
rushing home in their suv's
after a half hour they are gone
then we all have fun
walk to the parks
bike to the empty downtown
enjoy the sidewalk sculptures
the sun goes down
it cools off outside
we miss y'all status seekers
speeding down the street
well
not really
but have a nice day
Here, from my front door, and accessed via pleasant, safe, mostly pedestrian streets, I can find within a 1000 foot radius: five or six grocers, two green grocers, two small hardware stores, a hundred clothes shops, a movie theater, a proper theater, about two hundred restaurants and bars, several doctors, dentists and five or six opthamologists, four antique stores, a couple of hotels, two hostels, a mosque, a synagogue, several churches, a ton of banks, four or five book stores, plus a huge mall (on the outskirts of the old town) with everything that entails. I mean, you name it, I can walk to it in ten minutes or less. And in between all of this, above it, around it, are peoples' houses and apartments. The only time I drive is when I get out of town to go traveling, and even that's on a motorbike, and unnecessary; the train and bus systems, I'm sure you know, are comprehensive.
I'm headed back to the states in a few weeks for a long visit. Each time I go back, the culture shock of sitting in a car for significant amounts of time to do the smallest task or errand is, well, pretty shocking.
If I only had learned about what suburbia has wrought, I would have never moved up here.
However, in Indy and other cities this size, it's more complicated than that. You can't just say, "I'm gonna move to an urban area" without having enough money to send your kids to private schools. Because of the decades of subsidizing white flight and carving up neighborhoods into little chunks, many schools in urban settings are struggling more than ever.
The question is - What fight do you want to fight? Do you risk having to work twice as hard to ensure your student (if you have one) is in the "right" school? Or do you go with the more established "safe" route of suburban sprawl because, "It's such a GREAT place to raise children!" Many are living in this world because that's just the way it is, and the way it always has been for four generations now and people don't want to change, are afraid to change or just are worn out by the communte down I-69 every morning from Fishers. Were they to have the extra time and energy, they might realize that suburbia is not the end all-be all existence we've been conditioned to believe.
see ever increasing prices for oil. As China and India continue to expand their use of oil
demand will soon exceed the worlds ability to supply it raising prices for all.
The last time oil went to $147 / barrel people were parking their pickup trucks and SUV's
and were tripping over each other looking for high mileage vehicles. That extra $200 or $300
a month in fuel costs stretched family budgets and contributed to our economic collapse by
reducing the amount of money families had to spend on everything else including their
mortgage.
We need to transition to alternative energy for a whole host of reasons. While our
"friends" on the right do not believe in global warming and are big supporters of the
oil and coal industries they still need to think about our nations economic security and
national security.
Our dependence on oil for our transportation fuel has been predicated on cheap and
available oil. Those commutes from the suburbs will get pretty expensive at $4 or $5
a gallon.
The US military now sees that our reliance on oil is unsustainable for economic
and national security reasons.
We all need to support a transition to alternative fuels. Wind, solar, geothermal and
biofuels all need our support. The sooner we make meaningful progress on the transition
the better and less painful for our economy it will be when PEAK OIL finally
I always have this debate with friends of mine who are not as informed on urban issues (my friends are highly intelligent, but unfortubately lack the enthusiasm and interest that I have in architecture and urban planning issues, so naturally, they don't follow urban planning developments).
The problem that you raise can be addressed through denser urban transit networks and more afforable housing. In Chicago, where I live, large swathes of the city proper -not the suburbs, but the city proper itself- are relegated to low-density development only. There are several desirable locations in the North and Northwest sides, for example, within very short distance to the city's core, and with decent access to rapid transit or commuter rail, but the low-density zoning laws limit the amount of people that can live in these desirable areas. The result? Higher housing prices. In fact, a growing number of urban advocates are calling for a loosening of zoning laws that would allow more density in desirable areas, side by side with larger higher-costing units...hence higher-income and lower-income residents living side-by-side in walkable areas well-served by public transport. Ironically, however, it's right-leaning voters that oppose loosening regulations, because they perceive the current status quo benefits them.
Americans need to look at the bigger picture here, beyond the scope of "me".
houses. Big yards. Close to public trans, art, libraries, shops and restaurants.
I have lived in the heart of many cities. In Europe and Japan cities are great. Boston and New York are fine. But in the south USA, the cities are not yet there. The burbs have what is needed.
It was only with the postwar sprawl, epitomized by Levittowns and two car families that one started seeing the sprawl that HuffPo laments. The zoning regulations, as skye eg mentions, also exacerbated the sprawl by enforcing income segregation and the use segregation. Figuring out how to modify this zoning would help get rid of a lot of this problem.
We live in a village that dates back to about WWI. We can walk to the library, schools, railroad station, and shopping. We do, though, also have McMansions because teardowns are not restricted.
I've lived in downtown dallas, east dallas and suburbs throughout (garland, lewisville, plano, now own in the colony) and by far living in the colony is better for me. Within a 5 min drive i have everything i need. I go to parks weekly, i attend community and city functions, there are school and police/fire stations 3 miles away, the crime rate is extremely low. I would never go back to living downtown. My bills are less here (due to better building standards on newer homes), my payments are less, my social lifestyle has changed as i know my neighbors better than i did in downtown where no one cared about community.
Before I moved out of Dallas I swore id never live in the burbs again (transplant from garland in my youth) but the further I got away, the better my life became.
Maybe its just that dallas sucks, who knows, but its definitely the right fit for me and a lot of others.
Sub-divided is no way to live - divided against what? Against each other and against a fully-lived life.
Yeah I'm jealous....lol.
Subdivisions encourage fear and hatred. When people are afraid, they are easy to lead.