Worldchanging: Is ‘The Old Economy of Car Dependence’ Over?
If you’re not reading Worldchanging on a regular basis, you’re definitely missing one of the most positive, encouraging, and exciting daily blasts of news from the world of sustainability and innovation. Alex Steffen and his team have been tirelessly working to point the way to a brighter future for America and the world that contrasts powerfully to the most dire predictions of energy shortages and global warming if we do nothing.
Sometimes when we’re so focused on innovation, there can be a blind trust in some mystery technology, not yet created, that will solve our energy problems. This is especially apparent with regard to our automotive fleet that will “one day soon” run on banana peels or solar power. Alex and Worldchanging, to their credit, have looked around and seen obvious, ready-to-go solutions to curb our energy thirst and cut emissions, while still getting us where we need to go, outlined in a wonderful essay from a year ago, entitled “My Other Car is a Bright Green City.”
We bring up Worldchanging also to point you to a short piece written by Transportation For America communications director David Goldberg on the connection between the current housing crisis and the old development model based on inexpensive fuel.
In truth, the phenomenon of sending people ever farther into the countryside to find houses that they (barely) qualified to purchase played no small role in the current global financial crisis. The epicenter of the U.S. foreclosure crisis can be found on the metro fringes. The buyers who stretched and took on variable-rate or interest-only mortgages, along with punishing commutes, to get into houses on the edge found themselves caught in a double bind.
As gas prices and commute costs rose, their “cheap” houses became ever more costly, even as mortgage payments adjusted along with rising interest rates. But when they went to sell, they found the bottom had dropped out of that market, thanks not only to higher gas prices, but also to demographic and cultural changes that were leading more households to look for homes in more convenient locations.
Read the full article at Worldchanging, and bookmark them for return visits. Our thanks to Alex and Worldchanging for the space.
September 23, 2008Millions spend half of income on housing
While a prolonged drop in home prices continues to ripple through the nation’s economy, millions of Americans are still struggling to pay for their homes. According to the Associated Press, nearly 15 percent of homeowners with a mortgage spend more than half their income on housing costs. (Adrian Sainz and Alan Zibel)
September 18, 2008Scott Bernstein on Smart City Radio
The president of the Center for Neighborhood Technology talks about the true cost of commuting and the impact high gas prices will have on where people choose to live. (Smart City Radio)
September 2, 2008$$/Sustainability Matched: New Economics of Place
Scott Polikov of Citiwire examines how the real estate market will respond to a changing world in which a sense of place is becoming increasingly important to developing a community.
August 28, 2008‘Smart growth’ is shaping the focus of modern housing development
A columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says that residential development that values density, easy transportation, and mixed-use neighborhoods is gaining ground in North Texas.
August 26, 2008A Different Kind of Bike Tour
As more and more Americans look to ride around their neighborhoods on two wheels instead of four, real estate agents are seeing the value in giving clients tours by bike. (Wall Street Journal — Nancy Keates)
August 22, 2008America’s bigger-is-better attitude toward housing may be shifting
As the housing market reels from the credit crunch and energy crisis, the idea of living closer to the city in a slightly smaller house looks increasingly appealing. (Associated Press — Scott Lindlaw)
July 28, 2008State of the City
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Harvard urban economics professor Edward Glaeser argues that high gas prices prices could usher in a “wholesale change in the nature of American urban development.” (Wall Street Journal — Kelly Evans)
July 28, 2008Housing crisis hits exurbs hard
The combined effects of the housing crisis and fuel price explosion has made single-family units in far-off suburbia seem a lot less appealing, and the real estate market is feeling the heat. (Christian Science Monitor — Michael Farrell)
July 23, 2008Smart move on housing
With the private sector in California responding emphatically to the state’s initiative encouraging new housing in urban areas, one journalist says that smart growth “appears to be getting smarter every day.” (Ventura County Star — Timm Herdt)
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December 8, 2008 - Americans overwhelmingly support new transportation investments
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October 15, 2008 - Reinventing American Transportation
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