There has been a mythology labeled ‘the new urbanism’ running through the literature for some time now. Other catch phrases have been sustainability, the creative class, and gentrification.
The theory of these university sociologists, city planners, real estate developers and star architects has been that the young, the hip and the empty nesters will move back to the core city, live in cosmopolitan style and reside in high density condominiums and this will be better for all of us, because ‘sprawlburbia’ is somehow a bad and mundane thing, a plague upon the land, a defiler of the soul.
Yet the people themselves prefer dispersion. The 2010 Census revealed that in the last decade, the 8 largest cites grew at 3.2%, the suburbs surrounding them at 21.7%. Furthermore, the fastest growing and most prosperous cities are the ones which are smaller and more suburban in character. The so-called ‘Edge City’ where the preponderance of jobs, new homes and retail occurs was identified by the journalist Joel Garreau over 20 years ago. The current trope is an ‘edgeless city’ and that difficult to define environment is indeed where most of us live out our lives.
We are certainly a metropolitan civilization, but not in either historical or futurist ways—the way old cities have always been or in the imaginations of the new urbanists. This is true not only in America, but around the world. As much as the theorists see us in gargantua, the people themselves find the suburbs more humane. As one of the most perceptive writers on these subjects, Joe Kotkin, said, “Rather than force a density agenda on a largely unwilling population, it is better to consider how to make the more dispersed urban future more workable and sustainable.”
Now since Elgin has branded and trademarked itself as “The City in the Suburbs” we might as well begin trying to make things work around here. Despite its sometimes dour reputation, Elgin just may have a lot going for it in the coming age of dispersion. First of all, it is an established place, a town past its sesquicentennial. Diversity is not much of an issue here, just a fact of life. The city services and cultural mosaic are well above the norm.
For instance, we just had our annual “Art and Soul” festival taking over the village streets. Two things stood out for me (other than the broil of summer heat). First was how well the event was organized between the city services and the volunteers and second, that after it was all said and done with somewhere around 95 visiting artists, the very best art in my eyes were the Adirondack “thrones” that came out of our own citizens’ skill, imagination and humor. There was quite a stream of good music too, again from local talent. It’s always nice too see some lively life downtown in “death valley.”
Having a street fair in an old river city strolled by all these neighborhood denizens and sprawled-out suburbanites is sort of a metaphor for the whole situation of this kingdom perhaps we should call “Dispersia.” The central issues are relatively easy to understand:
Whether you call it a city or a suburb, a town or a ‘burg’, what a place has to provide first of all is an opportunity. The place most commodious to workers and entrepreneurs is the community that will succeed and survive. A city is not some giant and complex artifact waiting to be socially engineered; it is the place where jobs and businesses thrive. It’s really that simple and whatever our local governments and institutions set themselves out to do, that should always be the first criteria. They need to think about this each and every time money is allocated towards this or that, every time a new regulation is considered, and every time some new plan or scheme is conjured up for ‘development.’
To be “sustainable” is to be affordable. The true purpose of environmentalism is prudence. The future will be dispersed around places just like Elgin, Illinois. There obviously is a place for fuel-efficient vehicles and electronic telecommuting in Dispersia. Even Walmart is now investing in the local food concept, not to increase their virtue, but for reasons economic. It seems that transportation is more and more a factor in the price of what we eat, so if the planet is to be saved, as one of my favorite bloggers Walter Russell Mead has said, it will be saved by price and efficiency.
If this town or any is to rise to the occasion and challenge of our future, it will be because jobs were here, entrepreneurs were made welcome, and politicians were fiscally sane. Building a Super Walmart may be just as hip as putting plants on the roof of the library.
There has been a mythology labeled ‘the new urbanism’ running through the literature for some time now. Other catch phrases have been sustainability, the creative class, and gentrification.
The theory of these university sociologists, city planners, real estate developers and star architects has been that the young, the hip and the empty nesters will move back to the core city, live in cosmopolitan style and reside in high density condominiums and this will be better for all of us, because ‘sprawlburbia’ is somehow a bad and mundane thing, a plague upon the land, a defiler of the soul.
Yet the people themselves prefer dispersion. The 2010 Census revealed that in the last decade, the 8 largest cites grew at 3.2%, the suburbs surrounding them at 21.7%. Furthermore, the fastest growing and most prosperous cities are the ones which are smaller and more suburban in character. The so-called ‘Edge City’ where the preponderance of jobs, new homes and retail occurs was identified by the journalist Joel Garreau over 20 years ago. The current trope is an ‘edgeless city’ and that difficult to define environment is indeed where most of us live out our lives.
We are certainly a metropolitan civilization, but not in either historical or futurist ways—the way old cities have always been or in the imaginations of the new urbanists. This is true not only in America, but around the world. As much as the theorists see us in gargantua, the people themselves find the suburbs more humane. As one of the most perceptive writers on these subjects, Joe Kotkin, said, “Rather than force a density agenda on a largely unwilling population, it is better to consider how to make the more dispersed urban future more workable and sustainable.”
Now since Elgin has branded and trademarked itself as “The City in the Suburbs” we might as well begin trying to make things work around here. Despite its sometimes dour reputation, Elgin just may have a lot going for it in the coming age of dispersion. First of all, it is an established place, a town past its sesquicentennial. Diversity is not much of an issue here, just a fact of life. The city services and cultural mosaic are well above the norm.
For instance, we just had our annual “Art and Soul” festival taking over the village streets. Two things stood out for me (other than the broil of summer heat). First was how well the event was organized between the city services and the volunteers and second, that after it was all said and done with somewhere around 95 visiting artists, the very best art in my eyes were the Adirondack “thrones” that came out of our own citizens’ skill, imagination and humor. There was quite a stream of good music too, again from local talent. It’s always nice too see some lively life downtown in “death valley.”
Having a street fair in an old river city strolled by all these neighborhood denizens and sprawled-out suburbanites is sort of a metaphor for the whole situation of this kingdom perhaps we should call “Dispersia.” The central issues are relatively easy to understand:
Whether you call it a city or a suburb, a town or a ‘burg’, what a place has to provide first of all is an opportunity. The place most commodious to workers and entrepreneurs is the community that will succeed and survive. A city is not some giant and complex artifact waiting to be socially engineered; it is the place where jobs and businesses thrive. It’s really that simple and whatever our local governments and institutions set themselves out to do, that should always be the first criteria. They need to think about this each and every time money is allocated towards this or that, every time a new regulation is considered, and every time some new plan or scheme is conjured up for ‘development.’
To be “sustainable” is to be affordable. The true purpose of environmentalism is prudence. The future will be dispersed around places just like Elgin, Illinois. There obviously is a place for fuel-efficient vehicles and electronic telecommuting in Dispersia. Even Walmart is now investing in the local food concept, not to increase their virtue, but for reasons economic. It seems that transportation is more and more a factor in the price of what we eat, so if the planet is to be saved, as one of my favorite bloggers Walter Russell Mead has said, it will be saved by price and efficiency.
If this town or any is to rise to the occasion and challenge of our future, it will be because jobs were here, entrepreneurs were made welcome, and politicians were fiscally sane. Building a Super Walmart may be just as hip as putting plants on the roof of the library.
