Comment 51160

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted November 04, 2010 at 21:37:04

The real problem with "suburbia" is that it's an environment of enforced sterility. Single use (housing) with huge tracts of nearly identical single family homes, and a huge number of rules and regulations preventing anything "abnormal" from going on. The worse the fuel situation gets, the more we're going to see suburbs in crisis, and the natural response (especially with all those empty garages) will be to diversify. Apartments, small businesses, workshops, farms, restaurants - if suburbs are going to be a place worth living, we must be allowed to do so there.

Suburbs are actually quite a common historical phenomena. What's not so common is the North American trend where the wealthiest live there. In most other conditions (Europe, Asia, South America, Africa etc) suburbs often blend with slums. But the reason so many historical suburbs become thriving and famous neighbourhoods (ie: Monmartre in Paris) is because the people who lived there were allowed the freedom to do things not allowed in the wealthier urban centres (like the Moulin Rouge).

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

Permalink | Context

Events Calendar

There are no upcoming events right now.
Why not post one?

Recent Articles

Article Archives

Blog Archives

Site Tools

Feeds