The future of suburbia

The New York Times asks a group of “future-thinkers” what they believe tomorrow holds for the American suburbs. The writers generally take today’s rising fuel and living costs as symptomatic of a larger on-going malaise, and the results are almost post-apocolyptic when compared to Western lifestyle for the last century or so. When you say goodbye to long-distance food imports (”petro-agriculture”) and cheap city commutes, suddenly the suburbs aren’t so sustainable anymore. Here’s an excerpt by author James Kunstler:

“The suburbs have three destinies, none of them exclusive: as materials salvage, as slums, and as ruins. In any case, the suburbs will lose value dramatically, both in terms of usefulness and financial investment. Most of the fabric of suburbia will not be “fixed” or retrofitted, in particular the residential subdivisions. They were built badly in the wrong places. We will have to return to traditional modes of inhabiting the landscape — villages, towns, and cities, composed of walkable neighborhoods and business districts — and the successful ones will have to exist in relation to a productive agricultural hinterland, because petro-agriculture (as represented by the infamous 3000-mile Caesar salad) is also now coming to an end. Fortunately, we have many under-activated small towns and small cities in favorable locations near waterways. This will be increasingly important as transport of goods by water regains importance.”

Link to the NYT article. (via PSFK)

Photo © William Ward.

Posted in News

Tags: cities, suburbs, sustainability, trends

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