EcoDensity

As an urbanist concerned about global warming and a whole host of other issues that face our country I think about how decisions at the city planning level play a role in either mitigating or exacerbating these problems.

I believe that densifying our city neighborhoods that are currently zoned single-family is the planning challenge of the next century. The reason this will be so challenging is because it confronts what has become considered a tenet of the American dream: single-family home ownership.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the issue of sustainability and ecological footprint calls into question whether single-family housing is a way of living which the planet can handle in the long run. On the other hand I'm not a big fan of skyscraper living either. I think the future of the world lies in mid-level high rise. Getting middle America to see mid-rise condominium living as the new American dream may seem like a pipe dream now, but with the resurgence of city living I don't think it's an impossibility. Post-war Federal legislation helped create the single-family living as an integral part of the American dream and I think that if a progressive Congress is elected with a Progressive president in the next election cycle it's possible for Congress to make higher density living a part of the future American dream within a comprehensive global warming legislation package.

Vancouver, BC's Mayor Sam Sullivan calls this Ecodensity.

In the end maybe I should just move to Vancouver and forget all the pretty talk.