NY State of MInd

Eric Torbenson provides a humorous dose of urbanism in in the New York Post:

Defibrillate the suburbs - if you can. The tenets of suburban life are the oxygen in the economic bloodstream, and the nation is suffering hypoxia. The reason a lot of folks think we're just getting warmed up on an economic swoon is that the global economy has neatly garroted all the drivers that make suburbs flourish.

For New York and other cities with respectable public transportation, it's still relatively good times; maybe too good. But have you found a seat on the subway recently?  New York City, already projected to expand to 10 million people over the next 15 years, will grow even more rapidly if these trends continue ... Is it any wonder that the greatest number of new housing construction starts last month - that's nationwide - were apartment buildings in New York City? ...

Wall Street's losing jobs, but with enough other urban industries, people can afford to buy - or at least rent - an apartment; sell that car and take the subway; cut up that CostCo card for groceries at the bodega. No more gas grills on the redwood deck. But hey, a kitchenette! Welcome to the new urban renaissance ...

Something tells me, though, as those huddled masses pour into the city by the thousands, yearning to breath free of filling up the Silverado, New Yorkers will have a political awakening. Nothing will be more important to city dwellers than hybrid or electric cars. Get these people green lightbulbs and energy-efficient vent systems. Send them back where they came from, to their Best Buy parking lots and Applebee's riblets.

Long live the suburbs! It's our only hope.

 

 

Comments

[hayden fisher]

Great piece!