The Cities We Want

[vanshnookenraggen]

This is a long article so I've just posted the first couple paragraphs.

The Cities We Want

Part I: Do we want urban spaces that are big or small? Spread out or compact? New or old?

By Witold Rybczynski

Posted Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010, at 10:08 AM ET
The question is not whether we want to live in cities. Obviously, a growing number of us do?otherwise we would not build so many of them. The real question is: In what kind of cities do we want to live? Compact or spread out? Old or new? Big or small?

Judging from the direction that American urbanism has taken during the second half of the 20th century, one answer is unequivocal?Americans want to live in cities that are spread out. Decentralization and dispersal, the results of a demand for private property, privacy, and detached family homes, have been facilitated by a succession of transportation and communication technologies: first, the railroad and the streetcar; later, the automobile and the airplane; lastly, the telephone, television, and the Internet. In addition, regional shopping malls, FedEx, UPS, the Home Shopping Network, and Amazon.com have helped people to spread out. Even environmental technologies?small sewage treatment facilities and micro power plants?have allowed people to live in more dispersed communities than in the past.

Continued...

 

[Patrick]

Thanks for posting, the author has a number of books out, only one of which I have read ("City Life"). The one I've read is an interesting read, and I recommend it.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

I think that the title of the article should have been "Cities Babyboomers Want" since those are the people who've really shaped this American drosscape. He does catch himself at the end, saying that different people want different things. But I question if this is just a snapshot of today or a prediction that the future will be like how it has been for the last couple generations (which, it won't, it never is). Maybe in the next part he will cover that.