The Future of Subdivisions
The sprawl of American cities today is transferring our landscapes into identical eyesores. Dropped on the edge of city, amidst the Olive Gardens, Home Depots, and Super Wal*Marts, it's tough to tell Eugene, Oregon from Paducah, Kentucky. To worsen the matter, sprawl creates an almost entire reliance on the automobile. Except in large cities, there is usually little or no mass transit to the sprawl. Bike paths or decent sidewalks? If you're lucky. Even then, if one plans on buying a shopping cart worth of junk from a big box store, a bicycle basket is of little value.Subdivisions go hand in hand with sprawl. Many of the subdivisions being built today contain wastefully large homes that are not located near any type of store, which once again causes reliance on the automobile even for a bottle of milk. Even if they are near a mall located in the sprawl, one would have to climb fences, walk through drainage ditches, and risk crossing four lanes of traffic to get there. Newer subdivisions also tend to consist mostly of the upper-middle class population, often because zoning prohibits apartments. This creates more resentment among the lower-class and a disconnection from reality for the upper-class.
Well, it doesn't have to be like this. In Freiburg, Germany a wonderful example of planning has emerged. The Vauban development contains 2000 new homes, free tramway passes for all residents, a 10 minute bike ride to the center of Freiburg, and a ratio of 150 cars for every 1000 residents (the US has 640 per 1000). In addition, instead of being energy guzzling homes, all homes are built with improved low energy standards, and many are passive solar or contain solar panels on the roof. There is even a highly efficient co-generation plant that burns wood-chips connected to the heating grid. The development also strives for a balance of social groups. This is a great example of communities that we should be striving to create. We need to replace the American dream of a McMansion on circle drive with two SUV's in the three car garage with a model of living that is more sustainable.A Couple of Related Links:
The Christian Science Monitor published a story on Vauban.
National Geographic has an interesting post on New Urbanism against Sprawl.
Labels: Environmental, Our Fat Society
posted by BurdockBoy @ 6:47 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Sounds like the perfect home for me and my OCD. Does each house also have 10 deadbolts I can lock in succession?
But seriously, all neuroses aside, I wish the burb I lived in was a lot more like that. Leave it up to those uber-efficient Germans to outdo us again.
You touch on a very important subject...restructuring and recovering "community" and "the commons." There is so much going on in Europe right now. There is a lot of innovation happening with countries trying to meet the Kyota agreement's provisions. People are working together and an integrated notion of "community" is being revitalized. It's too bad that the U.S. & Australia have so far refused to get on board. Thanks for the info.
bp: The Germans definitely have some green on us even after electing a conservative.
tf: What amazes me is about these gigantic awfully planned subdivisions are they are "new". These people have money to do better, but choose not to because they believe bigger is better-We need small homes to become attractive or sexy. It worked with ipods and cell phones.
It still sounds like the haves and the haves not.
Both Boundary and Bonner county is building this huge homes for people like my family couldn't even afford on our wages.
One time I was at a barb que on lake pend' Orellie and one person was doing constitution on this big home I guess it was over 10,000 square feet and only two people lived in it.
I have no desire for anything like that as a waste space.
The End of Suburbia is a great documentary on this topic. One thing it mentions is that these subdivisions are often built on farmland, which will make it near impossible for local communities to provide for themselves agriculturally once the oil supply dwindles and the cost of shipping skyrockets.
The German development sounds great.
peppylady: Yeah I did the septic inspection for many of those new homes on the lake or up baldy-the real sad thing is some of those 10,000 sq ft homes are second homes.
cheryl: I have yet to see that movie, but hopefully soon I will get back to watching dvd's. Almost all new subdivisions are on farmland or nice woodlands or deserts. They don't seem to build them on old industrial sites. The German development even was built on an old army base so no new land was used up.
Great read tthanks
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