REASON #587 THAT CITY LIVING IS SUPERIOR
I just finished Crabgrass Frontier, an excellent overview of the suburbanization of America. Fascinating chapters on the role of public transportation, cars, and government policy in making America a suburban nation. I could go on and on about this book, but let me summarize by saying that the author, Kenneth Jackson, would argue that the many "causes" of suburbanization are actually "effects," the main cause being America's fascination for wide open spaces and personal autonomy. Call it our frontier mentality.
This might sound stupid, but the book taught me yet another reason city living is superior to suburban living. What most Americans want more than anything else is a stand-alone house. Not connected to any other structure, front and back lawns, and a sense of personal space. In our quest for such a habitation, we'll move further and further away from our urban cores, to land that is cheaper and more plentiful.
And here's where city living is superior. I'm kicking myself that this hadn't occured to me before. A house that is stand-alone has to deal with the elements -- heat during the summer and cold during the winter -- on all four sides, plus the roof. A twin, like the one we live in, shares a side with another house. A rowhouse, like so many on our street and in Philadelphia, shares two sides. An apartment might not have any sides subject to the elements! So a stand-alone house is extremely poor at energy efficiency.
And yet we Americans seem willing to pay this cost. It is analagous to our relationship with oil. I hate when people complain about high prices at the pump. To begin with, we Americans pay so little for petrol, compared to the rest of the world, which taxes the heck out of the pump to fund public transportation. Furthermore, I feel like we already decided we were willing to pay the extra for gas when we all went out and bought SUV's. It seems odd to me that we would complain about a 20% increase in the cost of gas, when 1) we still pay 40% less than the rest of the world, and 2) we drive a car that uses 40% more gas than a more energy-efficient model. Makes no sense to me.
I just finished Crabgrass Frontier, an excellent overview of the suburbanization of America. Fascinating chapters on the role of public transportation, cars, and government policy in making America a suburban nation. I could go on and on about this book, but let me summarize by saying that the author, Kenneth Jackson, would argue that the many "causes" of suburbanization are actually "effects," the main cause being America's fascination for wide open spaces and personal autonomy. Call it our frontier mentality.
This might sound stupid, but the book taught me yet another reason city living is superior to suburban living. What most Americans want more than anything else is a stand-alone house. Not connected to any other structure, front and back lawns, and a sense of personal space. In our quest for such a habitation, we'll move further and further away from our urban cores, to land that is cheaper and more plentiful.
And here's where city living is superior. I'm kicking myself that this hadn't occured to me before. A house that is stand-alone has to deal with the elements -- heat during the summer and cold during the winter -- on all four sides, plus the roof. A twin, like the one we live in, shares a side with another house. A rowhouse, like so many on our street and in Philadelphia, shares two sides. An apartment might not have any sides subject to the elements! So a stand-alone house is extremely poor at energy efficiency.
And yet we Americans seem willing to pay this cost. It is analagous to our relationship with oil. I hate when people complain about high prices at the pump. To begin with, we Americans pay so little for petrol, compared to the rest of the world, which taxes the heck out of the pump to fund public transportation. Furthermore, I feel like we already decided we were willing to pay the extra for gas when we all went out and bought SUV's. It seems odd to me that we would complain about a 20% increase in the cost of gas, when 1) we still pay 40% less than the rest of the world, and 2) we drive a car that uses 40% more gas than a more energy-efficient model. Makes no sense to me.
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