That's no way to sell books! Excellent commentary of a forum in New York entitled "Can Sprawl Be Beneficial", courtesy of StreetsBlog. Once again, it appears as though so-called "pro-sprawl" pundits have a real apples-and-oranges view of what sprawl is when they seek to demonstrate historical examples. Bruegmann ought to come see the so-called "city center" here in Franklin, Wisconsin before he decides he knows what sprawl can be (hint - it ain't Leicester Square):
Folks who went to yesterday's Municipal Art Society forum "Can Sprawl Be Beneficial" heard what must be the best possible defense for suburban sprawl from one of its recently arrived boosters: "I'm not saying that sprawl is good," said author Robert Bruegmann. "All I'm saying is that it is not necessarily bad."
In other, tepid, words: Sprawl is not good. In fact, it might be bad. But it's not necessarily bad.
Rather than struggle to fill a room in an office park at the interesection of I-287 & I-78 out in Jersey, Bruegmann, who is promoting his new book providing intellectual cover for sprawl, bravely ventured into Midtown Manhattan to tell an evidently skeptical crowd that skyscrapers use a lot of energy, cities have more pavement than suburbs, and sprawl, if you define it the right way, isn't the huge problem that people make it out to be.
Bruegmann says that the desire to flee the city is the natural order of human existence from Herculaneum to today, that it is the natural choice people make when it is given to them. And that we ought to embrace it for that. Casting himself as one who is overturning conventional wisdom, Bruegmann waters down the definition of sprawl as it is commonly understood, rendering the rest of his pro-sprawl assertions more or less meaningless. In doing so, he confuses growth of the city with sprawl. Here is the image of Leicester Square in 1750 that he used in his slideshow to define early sprawl.
London's Leicester Square in 1750: If this is sprawl, let's have some more.
Link: StreetsBlog � Can Sprawl Be Beneficial?.
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