He’s kind of crude at times, but his umbrage with the suburban paradigm is appropriate, I think. I wrote a couple years back on Brazen Careerist that the suburbs were an “abomination”, which came across as a little harsh. Charles Harohn, puts it more diplomatically in his piece “The American Suburbs are a Giant Ponzi Scheme”, writing:
We need to end our investments in the suburban pattern of development, along with the multitude of direct and indirect subsidies that make it all possible. Further, we need to intentionally return to our traditional pattern of development, one based on creating neighborhoods of value, scaled to actual people. When we do this, we will inevitably rediscover our traditional values of prudence and thrift as well as the value of community and place.
