Suburbs are unsustainable?

[ghettopalmetto]

Remember, the suburbs, like skyscrapers, are possibly unsustainable for not any one reason, but rather because of a mix of reasons culminating at a breaking flash point all in a relatively short amount of time. One of those reasons is that we [[USA) are currently fighting this new reality.

I would argue that automobile-oriented suburbs were *never* sustainable--until recently, though, the United States has been one of the few nations able to afford the massive investments in roads and loss of taxable revenue [[by using land for parking lots), spatial inefficiencies, massive consumption of land, and decaying cities. In other words, we've used money to paper over the shortcomings of automobile-oriented development.

Now that oil demand is skyrocketing [[while supplies are plummeting), the economy is in the crapper, population is growing, and real wage growth is virtually nil, we simply are no longer able to afford it. The bill's coming due, and the sooner we can acknowledge this and adapt, the better off we'll be in the long-term.