We don't need gold plated highways. We don't need zoning commissions which penalize offices at home and promote car commutes.
James Howard KunstlerI have a new theory of history, which is certain things happen because they seem like a good idea at the time. And suburbia seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was a special time and place in history, with special dynamics. And now, we're going to have to live with the consequences of that. And the consequences will be tragic.
James Howard KunstlerTwo decades from now, I doubt that the home building industry, so called, will even exist as we have known it.
James Howard KunstlerWe're not going to reform our moronic land-use laws, which mandate suburban sprawl one way or another. They're simply going to be ignored when it becomes self-evident that we cannot build stuff that way anymore.
James Howard KunstlerWe will have to make new arrangements, or revive bygone ones. We may, for another example, see the return of the boarding house.
James Howard KunstlerThe "Green" community, the enviro people, are preoccupied with running all the cars differently. Our techno-grandiosity has us gibbering about high-speed rail - which we don't have the capital for anymore - but nobody is interested in repairing the existing rail system, which would be far less costly and hugely beneficial for us. In short, we are acting cluelessly. And life is tragic. The clueless usually suffer.
James Howard Kunstler