3bc0c09b_30_of_130___sorted_by__review___review
[0] checkbox [#] position [cover] cover [title] title Green Metropolis: What the City Can Teach the Country About True Sustainability [author] author Owen, David * [isbn] isbn 1594488827 [isbn13] isbn13 9781594488825 [asin] asin [num pages] num pages 368 pp [avg rating] avg rating 3.68 [num ratings] num ratings 805 [date pub] date pub 2009 [date pub (ed.)] date pub edition Sep 24, 2009 [rating] Lucas's rating 3 of 5 stars [my rating] my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves [notes] notes Notes are private! [recommender] recommender none [comments] comments 0 [votes] votes 0 [read count] # times read 1 [date started] date started May 20, 2014 [date read] date read Jun 02, 2014 [date added] date added May 20, 2014 [date purchased] date purchased [owned] owned [purchase location] purchase location [condition] condition [format] format Hardcover [29] actions view [review] 
review There are a lot of things that I didn't like about this book but overall many of points raised were really interesting. It also seems like anyone coul There are a lot of things that I didn't like about this book but overall many of points raised were really interesting. It also seems like anyone could have written it having first read a dozen or so other contemporary books and magazine articles on the same topic, read some research papers, added in some personal life experiences and idle speculation- voilà. Or maybe I've just read too many of these books and they are all starting to sound the same. A small two-person car that takes up half or a quarter of the area of a conventional vehicle and has several times the mpg is said to be bad for Manhattan because it would convert many pedestrians, bicyclists, or transit users to car users. And any existing car owner who switches to a smaller car will use it more often or live further from their destinations so to cancel out any fuel savings. I think it may be true in some cases but not others. The net effect may be that the user of one of these micro-cars has an expanded ability to use less fuel when gas costs go up, and conversely they also will use more fuel if gas costs go down unless congestion or other limited resources prevents them. And the car ought to cost less up-front, so they will perhaps convert more income to other more productive uses. There are similar arguments against toll roads and parking priced high enough so that a few spots are always available to someone willing to pay. If toll roads make driving fast and reliable, and there is always available parking, then dependence on driving is increased, supposedly. The author doesn't say it but I can see the argument that a road or parking spot that generates enough money to pay for itself is going to make a strong incentive to make more like it, though of course the high profitable price will fall if supply is too great. And in many cities there is very little danger of knocking down housing in favor of parking garages (though that might not be true in the developing world). The other main effect would be one of sorting- wealthier people get to drive and park without having to share the common burden of congestion and others will bemoan the inequity, which perhaps makes them to seek a government remedy via subsidized parking and highways and so on. But there would also be a countervailing set of car users who can increasingly not afford it regardless of parking or roads and who will want more tax dollars devoted to more cost-effective transportation modes. The autobiographical portions were among the weakest, mostly because the author is too defensive about his own current non-urban lifestyle, and too dependent the personal experience of his former life in New York City- there is very little to say about other cities except for some in the developing world, it's just the one example versus generic sprawl or the author's own current residence. Many sections also felt like a grab bag of anecdotal journalism, many of them only weakly connected to the main thesis. There is a long section on how people are camping less than they did post-WWII and have a lot of screen time, instead, which sounds just like a random article that you would have found in Newsweek. (I think the author is actually a New Yorker writer) The author claims that each person moving into a denser environment is matched by another who must have moved out to a less dense community to provide the vacancy, therefore he cannot advocate moving to a city. There may not be much new construction in NYC, but I'm confident many other metropolitan areas are accommodating a higher density of residents. Seattle, for instance- in certain areas for the time being at least. Some deeper analysis is really needed here, or at least a mention of the much higher housing prices as a significant hurdle. Again the wealth sorting effect pops up again, which here could be more beneficial than not- if the life styles of the rich and famous are mostly urban then it may create a powerful model for emulation even if immigration is prohibitively expensive. ...more
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