Interesting "New Urbanism" Essay

Thanks to Stuart Buck for pointing me to this interesting review essay, "Lawless Prophet: James Howard Kunstler and the New Urbanist Critique of American Sprawl." Here's the conclusion:

"We need to rethink an eschatology that is not over-influenced by the privatized image of the American dream or by the Edenesque longing for virgin wilderness. We need an eschatology that takes human community (and its built form) seriously. The churches we build, the houses we live in, the stores at which we shop, and the important spatial connections between all these things represent a form of proclamation that we can no longer ignore. It is time for the church to develop a theology of place that can adequately respond to the Geography of Nowhere."

I tend to share the New Urbanists' aesthetics -- that is, I prefer the "look" of, say, Burlington or Alexandria or Lawrence to that of, say, Reston or Overland Park. I tend to agree with one of the key premises of the anti-suburban critics, namely, that the layout and design of the places in which we live shapes, in important ways, our culture and our souls. At the same time, critics like James Kunstler -- like many in the anti-sprawl camp -- are maddeningly snide and elitist. Too often, one suspects that the opposition to Wal-Mart is as much about cultural snobbery as it is about Jane Jacobs' wisdom. At the same time, I remind myself, the tedious smugness of some sprawl critics should not blind us to the facts that (a) "sprawl" has downsides, both cultural and aesthetically, and (b) "sprawl" might be a result of misguided policy choices -- or, of policy choices with unintended effects -- as much as a reflection of citizens' choices.

In any event, this review essay is worth checking out.

Rick