Slums of the Future

I’m thinking the whole suburban dream is rapidly becoming a nightmare — especially for those who live far from work. Getting from point A to Point B is just going to get more expensive. And, unfortunately, for far too many Americans, there’s only one way to cover that mileage — in a car.

We will, however, hold onto that dream long after it becomes a nightmare. And we’ll deny it’s a nightmare until a crisis occurs, at which point Americans usually, finally, rise to the occasion.

I believe in avoiding a crisis. That’s one reason why a ride a bicycle for basic transportation. That’s why we’re giving up one of our two family cars in less than two weeks (no hardship at all at this point). That’s why I chose to live close to my employer.

And that’s also why I’m a real good candidate to buy into a planned community such as the one profiled in The New York Times today. A place like it here in the U.S. would be very attractive to me.

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Comments 2

  1. robert wrote:

    Actually I’ve heard that America is at her worst when we OVERreact to a problem.

    Look at our current deficit and willingness to completely socialize private businesses? Look at Japanese impoundments during WWII? You could go on and on and on.

    I can only imagine what we would do if gas suddenly became $50.00 per gallon. My guess, the government would take over the energy companies and subsidize gas until it was $4.00 per gallon again.

    The current state of affairs prove that we really do not care about the future or the national debt.

    Hope that was not too political. I just have this doubt that we would suddenly embrace conservation and common sense.

    SOV trips are down 15% in Columbia year over year and bicycling up 2.5 times. So maybe there is hope.

    Posted 12 May 2009 at 8:14 pm
  2. Andy Cline wrote:

    Robert… We have our good moments and bad :-)

    Posted 12 May 2009 at 10:08 pm