Book Review: Suburban Nation
Currently, there is a growing movement in America to return to the traditional style of neighborhood planning, replacing our current system of automobile dependent sprawl. Founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck are at the forefront of this anti-sprawl movement. In the authors' own words, Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream is a "call to arms" to redesign American Communities. In their book, they analyze the differences between traditional, livable neighborhoods, and the new suburban sprawl. Furthermore, the components of sprawl, ranging from governmental regulations to automobile dependency are examined in detail. They also take a look at the negative consequences of sprawl, including kids who are trapped in their dead-end streets and cities who find that the cost of supporting their suburbs is far greater than the tax revenue generated by them. The authors reference existing traditional neighborhoods that work and list a number of new communities that are being built from the ground up with smart growth as the basis for development. Finally, Suburban Nation offers solutions enabling America to return to the development of tr
It is represented by mixed-use housing, pedestrian-friendly communities, and higher density development based upon history, aesthetics, and culture. They explain that sprawl is actually very seductive and often goes unnoticed at first because its components are segregated and act independently. However, despite the fact that this book is very well written, the authors overlooked one very important key concept: suburbs exist because millions of individuals have examined their options and have still chosen to live there. There are also many pictures to illustrate most of the points they stress. After the Second World War, town planning "became a technical profession based upon numbers. First, they recommend the formation of a "regional-scale agency" that could address problems through a "comprehensive Regional Plan" (Duany 228). The pictures are relatively small and refrain from distracting the reader from the authors' main arguments. These shopping malls are almost always positioned in locations that people are unlikely to walk; thus, they promote further automobile dependency. These buildings usually serve as neighborhood focal points in traditional neighborhoods, but "in suburbia they take an altered form: large and infrequent, generally unadorned owing to limited funding, surrounded by parking, and located nowhere in particular" (Duany 6). These plans must be created through a public process in the presence of the residents and leaders of the surrounding communities" (Duany 228). Thus, the effects of sprawl are vast and affect everyone. Moreover, sprawl also results in the elderly becoming nonviable members of society once they lose their driver's licenses. The contemporary office park usually consists of isolated buildings surrounding by parking lots. Suburban Nation begins by explaining the inherent differences between traditional neighborhood planning and suburban sprawl. The authors of Suburban Nation go into great detail.
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