This is one of my book reviews. It was written on 2000-6-18* and is about Suburban Nation*.
Suburban Nation is another in a long string of really good books I've had the pleasure of reading recently. It was so informative, eye-opening and well-written that there is little to find fault with. The authors clearly describe the cause, effects and unintended consequences of suburban sprawl, the regulation-induced terror that has characterized modern development. Yet they are not content to stop there, the writers, all of whom are actual developers committed to ending suburban sprawl, lay out a plan to fix the problem. They back up this plan of action with hard facts and previous successes as well as statistics.
My writing is no where near as good as the authors, so I will not attempt to reformulate their points here. Instead, I will give you a short quote, which I believe exemplifies the book. I found it on page 41, under the heading "Private Realm Versus Public Realm".
In the sparse universe of sprawl, the elementary particle is the single-family house. The current model is the fast-food version of the American dream -- some call it the McMansion. Its roots can be traced back to the manse on the agricultural estate, or the cabin in the woods. Unlike its predecessors, however, the McMansion is located in the center of a small plot of land, surrounded at close quarters by more of the same....
Like its culinary counterpart, the McMansion provides excellent value for its price. American homebuilders are perhaps the best in the world when it comes to providing buyers with the private realm, the insides of the house. Dollar for dollar, no other society approaches the United States in terms of the number of square feet per person, the number of baths per bedroom, the number of appliances in the kitchen, the quality of the climate control, and the convenience of the garage. The American private real is simply a superior product. The problem is that most suburban residents, the minute they leave this refuge, are confronted by a tawdry and stressful environment. They enter their cars and embark on a journey of banality and hostility that lasts until they arrive at the interior of their next destination. Americans may have the finest private realm in the developed world, but our public real is brutal. Confronted by repetitive subdivisions, treeless collector roads, and vast parking lots, the citizen finds few public spaces worth visiting. One's role in this environment is primarily as a motorist competing with asphalt.
I couldn't have said it better myself. Suburban sprawl's effect is so wide-reaching for so many people that we all need to do something about it. The authors make clear that our suburban nation has effects that are farther reaching than one would normally expect. It causes pollution, by requiring that even small errands are done by automobile. It encourages obesity, by making sure that the children stay home and watch television while Dad spend hours commuting to work. It encourages segregation, by making sure that families are clearly separated by how much their house cost. It even causes death, through unsafe development and speeding cars.
Suburban Nation is a must-read for any informed citizen that wants to make a difference in their community. I only hope that more people will pick up and take notice -- and do something about it.
Duany Plater-Zyberk, developers that support new urbanism and authors of the book
Congress for New Urbanism, a group dedicated to promoting new urbanist principles
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