James Howard Kunstler: The tragedy of suburbia

Riverside, California.

More than unsustainable, the way of life in urban USA is unlivable. The "places" we have created in the usa are among the ugliest on earth.

Great talk...North America can learn from European cities, in terms of City planning, public spaces (Plazas), down sizing (e.g. cars), awareness towards environment (public transport system) and energy (fuel efficient, green energy), supporting local economy, organic food...

omg what a preacher

Nice to see the elite still likes to get their undies in bunch and fabricate reasons for not liking something.... okay, we get it, you don't like suburbia. The other 80% of us do so please bugger off.

Cars require massive parking garages, massive highways, and they erode the street making it unpleasant to be in. They take up too much space.
I don't own a car, never have.Human beings have these great transportation devices built in, theyre called legs! they're great!
eldery people often cant drive because they fail the renewal test after a certain age, so its better for them to live in a ground floor apartment within a couple blocks of dense retail.

As a visitor from the UK I find what has happened to all these towns in the US & Canada so demoralising and depressing as they seem to have no centre and no soul - all these people seem to do is live in their homes & cars with no intention to congregate with other people - even if they wish to there seems little hope of ever doing so - were these places deliberately built to crush the human spirit and keep them down by pumping them full of the opium of consumerism ... ?

Hi 303playa from the UK. I have visited your beautiful country and I wholeheartedly agree with you. I have lived it two major US cities and visited dozens of smaller ones and you are absolutely right - these places have no soul and their structure makes it expensive and inconvenient to be social. I'll be leaving as soon as I can. But at the same time I'll be working toward positive change while I'm here.

I'd like to point out that some disabled folks have already had to stop driving due to oil prices becoming as high as they are.

Shmuckfeatures: I agree, just like abled people have stopped driving.

Believe me, i'm all for getting rid of cars, but there's got to be a replacement in it's place. Most canadian(& american) cities dont put "transit" first on their agenda which is why we produce more carbon emitions. If we had an alternative for personal vehicles, we'd be solving a huge problem.