Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Absolute vs. relative reporting

A couple weeks ago I complained about a Washington Post story lauding green McMansions, ""Can Big Be Green?."

Somehow I missed a story in the New York Times on the same broad subject, the impact of the suburban "carbon footprint." In "Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You," the Times article is very direct about the "enormous carbon footprint" of suburban living.
Suburban energy consumption
Suburban energy consumption in metro Atlanta. NYT graphic.

I have published this particular graphic many times. (And don't forget the great article, Green Manhattan from the New Yorker.)
Sprawl vs. Green Urban
Graph by the Jonathan Rose Companies.

Also see the NYT Dot Earth blog entry, "Can we uninvent suburbia?"

One of the things to do regardless of suburbia, is to ensure that infill development in fundamentally urban places is urban, rather than suburban. The new Congress Heights shopping center mentioned in a blog entry yesterday fails on that count.
Brentwood Shopping Center, DC
Rhode Island Place shopping center adjacent (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) to the Rhode Island Metro Station.

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