This is the last straw.  The idea that American's desire to live a better life in the suburbs is the cause of the financial meltdown is a flat lie and you and he know it.  Our desire to live differently than him is part of something called "freedom" that he has never grasped.  Are you going to tout Jimmy Carter as our new guru next?  I am unsubscribing.

As a twice-elected libertarian city councilman in a western community of ~40,000, I feel like I'm living the nightmare that Mr. Kunstler described. He didn't mention that "planning" is mandated and not simply our lemming-like behavior when presented with the levers of power as elected officials. 
 
We have an entire "Planning" department devoted to furthering urban sprawl as we pay homage to the "Local Land Use Planning Act." These people take college classes to learn how to find a credible nexus between seemingly unrelated planning items and how to use "nexus" regularly to bolster their oral argument for some planning point.  The libertarian in me wants to jump up and scream as we publicly debate what requirements we should place upon a given development before we "allow" them to construct their subdivision, strip-mall or whatever in our community.
 
It is amazing that any kind of market functions in commercial or residential real estate considering how we strangle most of the life out of it with statism.
 
Having another shot sounds pretty good right about now...

I never cease to be amazed and amused about why I continue to read James Howard Kunstler's W&G contributions with rapt attention. I mean, I've been riveted by his insightfulness and powerfully eloquent wordplay. Ultimately, I think it's HOW he says what he says that has kept me reading his stark diatribes so far. Because, really, once you have read one or two, you know the gist. It's similar to someone who can use words so well that, if time could be made to stand still, you'd be almost endlessly willing to listen to that person tell you in myriad ways how a bullet is speeding toward the midpoint between your eyes. (Maybe the key word there is "almost.")

He makes you feel like you are the victim of a bad wreck in progress but, at the same time, the witness who cannot look away.  I also can't shake the sense he enjoys playing the Prophet of Doom role. I mean, much like Boris Karloff, he's GOOD at scaring the wits out of people.  And y'know, if he's making a buck off it, I can't blame him. But meanwhile, I wonder if he is actually rooting for suburban Apocalypse. Would that bring validation?

Oh well. None of us have a crystal ball and perhaps it's a case of what will be will be. Meanwhile JHK gives us some stimulatingly provocative and controversial food for thought. I'm not sure what I could do about problems he cites. I'm not inclined to write my congressperson and ask that suburbia be changed, even if I felt sure it needed it.

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Mr. Kunstler has some good points about suburbia, but he missed an important one.  A big reason for the flight to suburbia was the increase in crime in the cities and the threat of riots after '68.  Most folks I know that left the cities did it because of crime.  After that, he is correct...suburbia took on a life of its own.

It seems to me that the American suburbs developed because middle class white people do not want to live with poor Southern blacks in crowded cities or send their children to integrated schools.  I am not implying that this is good or bad, it is just human nature.  I doubt high priced gasoline, traffic congestion, growth management acts, etc. will change this pattern.

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Most important first: Congratulations on the results of the Annapolis meet. Very impressive. Mens sane in corpore sana...you're the man!

Re James Howard Kunstler's offering: I know he takes his share of knocks in these pages and elsewhere, but I continue to believe he is dead-on accurate in his characterization of the psyche that has produced the American scenes he so aptly describes as cartoons. There is a road running through Disneyland that dead-ends in the heartlands of our country, and it is a dark reflection of the American Dream. Every positive impulse can be perverted; that's been know at least since the Hellenes were knocking about. I believe the fatal flaw in the American character is the perversion of our almost boundless optimism, and it manifests itself as the simple inability to entertain any idea that we could be laid low. This is Chamber of Commerce chutzpah on steroids and we are well on our way to choking to death on it. Someone needs to shake us collectively and remind us we can't 'grow' out of every corner we find ourselves in...if we could, cancer centers would be places to go where you pay to contract it.

It's fascinating to me how the very can-do attitude that made us the world's leading light may be the same principal we follow over the cliff of military expansionism and resource exhaustion. I think I could enjoy the spectacle more if my life wasn't hanging in the balance...

Random bloviation from Barstool #25 (go team)

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Gary,

You can trace the growth of suburbia directly to urban politicians and bureaucrats.
Families by and large do not want to live in cities due to crime, congestion and poor quality schools. All of these less than desirable attributes of urban living are the result of liberal, left wing government policy.
 
While urban living is attractive to very high-income families and single professionals, middle-income families cannot afford a quality urban environment in which to live.

True, it is more efficient to live right next to where you are working. However, with the advent of growth management laws that focus all industrialization to the urban centers to retain the property and employment taxes for the pleasure of the urban politicians, rural towns that once thrived with small scale sustainable industry shriveled up and died. These towns largely survive financially on week end tourists and wealthy summer home families. The manufacturing base that employed family wage jobs that were 'right next door' to the homes in these towns have been decimated by government policy that restricts or forbids industrial development in rural counties.
 
As one who grew up in a rural area, then following college moved to Seattle downtown and now I live and work back in the rural areas. I earn less money than I could in a city however, I have 7 acres, horses quietly grazing out side my window and zero crime as everyone knows each other and looks out for the neighbor's well being.

Vastly more enjoyable than the city where my apartment and car were victimized by criminal activity weekly. Making a few sacrifices for a good family life, but I save half my income and invest in gold and silver on a regular basis as I don't trust the banks.

The regional bank I use just last week was another zombie bank taken over by the FDIC.
 
At any rate, thanks for a great online forum and publication. I look forward to your musings every day.