Suburban Tragedy

James Howard Kunstler, The Tragedy of Suburbia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1ZeXnmDZMQ

If you hate suburbs and the ugliness of certain public spaces, you'll enjoy this guy. Kunstler claims that suburbs are places that are not worth caring about. To a certain extent, I do agree. The suburbs in Chicago look the same as the ones in Indianapolis and Dallas and Des Moines. The only difference seems to be the kind of trees you might find lining the streets. Targets look the same in every state, and so do all the Paneras and McDonald's and Best Buys. But, they are places to care about if you live in the suburbs (which I do). I feel I must defend my decision to live in a burb, like most things I need - grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, even waterfront and recreation - are within ten minutes from my apartment. It's cheap, convenient, and practical. What Kunstler wants us to do is create spaces that are not degrading to humanity, places that are worth defending.

What he fails to mention, from my perspective, is that many people can't afford to create these kinds of places. In the current economy, people are worried about keeping the homes they have, in the city or burbs, and they worry about keeping their jobs. I believe they are worrying less about whether their neighborhood is architecturally beautiful and practical and just focusing on whether they can pay their bills every month. While it would be nice to create neighborhoods (and towns and cities, for that matter) that utilize space efficiently and effectively, it's not the crisis that Kunstler is making it out to be. People like Target because they can find things cheap; if the same items were available to me at a non-chain store close by, I'd certainly go there, but that's not the most feasible option for people living in a city where chain stores have a monopoly on the market.

More thoughts on this later, for sure...