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May 17, 2008

James Howard Kunstler: The tragedy of suburbia

Also by Kunstler: In Memoriam: My Dog, Chloe

Posted by Abbas Raza at 12:31 PM | Permalink

Comments

Did I miss a video link somewhere? Does the title refer to

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/121

or is there some more recent version of this talk?

Posted by: Dave Greene | May 17, 2008 2:55:31 PM

i've been suspecting for some time now that suburbia is killing me...

Thanks for the link.

Posted by: MissVolare | May 18, 2008 10:48:12 AM

Seems it is always those who are not married--often had been married--who write about how awful the suburbs are. If we all moved to the urbs (cities) would life there be so nice for us all thaty there would not be anything to say write about?

Posted by: fred lapides | May 18, 2008 1:51:19 PM

I grew up in the suburbs, live in the city, am married, have a child, and do not miss the cheap-gas, no-traffic suburbs of my youth, much less the verities of today. That said, Kunstler is a crank. There is a middle ground closer to reality, but it makes neither for good copy nor for good comments-thread snark.

Posted by: wcw | May 19, 2008 1:13:32 AM

Suburbia is bad, bad, bad! What a tired idea this is. Most people will never voluntarily give up their trees, azaleas, pools, space, peace and quiet to live on the 22nd floor of some sky-tower. Back to the garden.

Posted by: Jared | May 19, 2008 11:05:59 AM

"Most people will never voluntarily give up their trees, azaleas, pools, space, peace and quiet to live on the 22nd floor of some sky-tower."

That is 100% true. However, what Kunstler laid out in the talk is a rather convincing argument that the process of returning to more community-based living will be not a choice people will make but rather will be the only viable option forced upon them by harsh economic realities.

Posted by: mvonballmo | Jun 8, 2008 2:46:29 PM

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