On Wednsday I watched Sprawling from Grace on CNBC. It really drove home the various points we made in class and the points in the readings about how we have developed our cities and how this has hurt our ability to maintain this way of living and sustain ourselves at the same time. the key point that the experts, including Kunstler, kept stating was that we as a society needed to become less reliant on the automoblie and find ways to reintroduce mass transit and pedestrian communities. i never considered how living in suburbs could be seen as a detriment long term to our economy and the community. One issue that i feel did not get quite enough attention on the program that we discussed in class was the emergence of suburban ghettos. it is important, as the documentary states to make our communities sustainable for everybody and not just a select few. we already see this trend occuring in the form of gentrification and white flight. segregation and discriminatory practices already isolated poorer communities from the more affluent ones. The question I have is does going to mass transit and building communities that favor pedestrianism fix the entire problem? There has to be a way to make these communities all inclusive while not eliminating the freedom the automobile provides. the biggest fix to this problem is to realize that it will not be fixed overnight. as the saying goes, those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Bryan Jones Jr.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPS1y81b1Bw&ob=av3e
Thanks Bryon and you are right--we need to be dealing with the decline of our cities great and small--and address toxic waste in poor neighborhoods. tax base drains of wealth flight, the hyper-privatization of communities--gated communities, etc... maybe you'll consider taking on such a challenge for your final paper!
ReplyDeletePossibly the assigned podcast will help you consider how to design our communities in such ways that even include the car!
Will watch this video this weekend.
I think the way we developed our neighborhoods, especially in our urban areas is very intersting. This reminds me of pictures of Detroit that are "ghost towns" that are abandoned and run down. The ironic part is, is that at one point these used to be wealthy cities with tons of promise. We need to build our cities, both urban and rural, to be sustainable. They need to fit our needs today while still leaving hope for those living there in the future.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that this problem can't be solved overnight. The fact of the matter is we overuse everything that we find to be convenient or useful. I have lived in the northwest suburbs my entire life and yes, driving my car to places pretty much the only option for me to get places. I could walk, but would that be what I want to do from the months of November-February? No. Would that be time-efficient for me? No. Because of factors such as those, I choose to take my car. I'm no different from everyone else in my community. I find it to be nearly impossible to make a change about that, but we can change other ways. If I go to chicago for a day, I could take the train instead of driving my car. But all in all, our main issue is that areas are just not sustainable. We need to reconsider our organization and use of resources or we'll be seeing some negative consequences in the near future.
ReplyDeleteMy main issue with the 'suburban sprawl' is that this is the goal of so many American families. Some how the 'American Dream' has become starting a family, moving out to the suburbs, buying an SUV, dropping the kids off at soccer practice, etc. I don't know how the American Dream developed during the 1940s and 50s has morphed into this. As previous entries have mentioned, this is damaging to our environment and does not promote sustainability.
ReplyDeleteWhy does the idea of raising a family in the middle of a big city seem so foreign to American's? In the past half century or so we have become obsessed with suburbia and the things it has (or doesn't) have to offer. In my opinion this is a general move towards solidarity as a society. Yes, people in 'burbs see their friends and such at Jewel, or PTA meetings, but that is far different from the city lifestyle where you see dozens of your neighbors on a daily basis. This move towards solidarity is accompanied by our non-economical lifestyle in which everyone needs to drive everywhere and buy one of everything for themselves. This lifestyle can't continue for everyone, as we're seeing now. Perhaps the popularity of suburban living is something that will only appeal to the baby booming generation.
Bryan,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post. One comment you made stuck out to me. You said that the automobile provides a lot of freedom. This is extremely true. WIth your own automobile, you are free to travel anywhere, on your own schedule. You don't need to rely on a bus route. However, as you said, this comes at a cost. If everyone uses automobiles like we do today, we are not only emitting tons of pollution into the environment, but we are also using up a lot of oil, which is a non-renewable resource. Something must be done to sustain the communities we live in, because at current consumption rates with the private automobiles and oil usage, sustainability cannot happen.
I do agree that we need to making communities sustainable and we should try to make them sustainable for everyone, but the fact of the matter is that it would be an almost impossible task. Retrofitting a community to be less wasteful and more sustainable takes a lot of money which some communities do not have. It is not an issue of race, but instead an issue of money. However, something needs to be done in order to make all communities more sustainable, regardless of race, ethnicity, or even cost because if we keep producing so much waste, the environment will start to become inhabitable for future generations.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading and hearing about Suburban Sprawl, I was shocked to hear about the amount of waste generated by our current way of suburban life. Clearly, the US government needs to have a national housing and development plan which promotes sustainability. Instead of focusing on suburbs, it should focus and promote urban living and a return of family farms to the country-side. The days of suburbia need to end!
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