World-class Vancouver also has a dark underbelly

…Sprawling suburbs emerged after the Second World War in response to unprecedented population growth (more than four billion globally since 1950), an abundance of cheap oil and the proliferation of the automobile. With peak oil on the doorstep, we’re finding that the great American dream of a large single-family home on a big lot far from the city centre no longer makes sense. Why not?

First, the cost of providing and maintaining infrastructure such as sewers, electricity, garbage pickup, roads and street lights is high because suburbs are widely spread out. Taxes do not recover these costs, so municipalities are caught in a bind: The faster they grow, the poorer they become. The escalating price of oil only hastens the financial drain.


Another problem is that suburbs are reliant on the automobile and endless roads. This leads to high consumption of fossil fuels, which creates smog and releases carbon dioxide. The B.C. Lung Association reports that air pollution causes about 5,900 deaths annually in B.C. and places an enormous burden on the health-care system. More compact urban areas would save lives and help meet B.C.’s Kyoto commitments.

There’s more. Quality of life suffers because suburbs are generally cultural wastelands, having little sense of community. Prime agricultural lands fall under the developers’ bulldozers. Medical studies show that suburbanites are more obese than denizens of city cores, who walk much more. Biodiversity also takes a hit when the natural habitat is paved over.

James Kunstler, the author of The Long Emergency, puts it bluntly, “The suburban life style is monumentally stupid . . . and represents the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world.”

Vancouver Sun