Smart Growth: from Sprawl to Sustainability

The basic contention of this book is that low-density urban sprawl based on the spread of the car is unsustainable at a time of climate change and peak oil. Some of these places began as a garden cities over 100 years ago, but they reflect a bias towards the individual rather than the community. The notion of smart growth argues that compact cities with rail-based transit systems have smaller ecological footprints and can restore community. The book begins with the tales of two William Morris's - the designer and the car manufacturer, with very different visions of the world. The history of urban planning over the last hundred years makes for some interesting reflections, illustrated with a series of black-and-white photographs. The transition from consumer to citizen enables the recovery of community values as a balance to extreme individualism.