Does Suburbia Deserve A Warning Label?

Is the smart growth movement confusing the cultural impacts of convenience with the impacts of sprawl, wonders columnist John King.

1 minute read

October 3, 2003, 7:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen

"The notion that suburbia deserves a warning label is a staple among such fevered opponents as author James Howard Kunstler, who seized on the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 to dismiss the home of 55 percent of the nation's residents as 'a vast and evil setting for American life to take place in.'... The real problem with suburbia is that it makes things seem easy. It lets people think they can painlessly connect the dots -- the newest house, the greatest perception of safety, the widest range of consumer choices and the ideal set of educational alternatives for our children. Is this an environmentally wasteful mass of contradictions? Sure. But again, so is our culture. Sprawl is a result, not a cause."

Thanks to Art Weber

FULL STORY: What's sprawling is our worship of comfort

Thursday, October 2, 2003 in The San Francisco Chronicle

Social / Demographics California

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