[Andrew_S]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eXpat', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GenghisKen', '
') Metals and paper wont buy you food unless people beleive that the paper and metal you try to trade with are actually important.(american indians left the gold on the ground cause ya cant eat it).
Peak oil isn't what frightens me it's peak everything at once that gives me nightmares..

[zeke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Andrew_S', '
')You assume that the only trade will be barter, i.e. no money will be acceptable. I believe that only in the most extreme circumstances where no trade markets exists would that be the case.

[spudbuddy]

Fascinating stuff.
I don't live there...but a majority now do - and with the political clout on a municipal basis, will have to be attended to.

I like the idea of retraction / infill...and better use of existing sprawl.
In many large cities, one can still ramble main streets where original houses have been converted into main floor storefronts, with living quarters upstairs.

Consider the sqare footage of a suburban mall - and then convert that into an existing subdivision community....all sqeezed down into small store sizes.
This model makes the necessity for incessant motoring non-essential, when one has the choice of covering a few surrounding blocks on foot (as is the case in urban neighborhoods.)

Perhaps hard to imagine when one views the layout of suburbia as it now exists - but what I described above - often was not radically changed from its original desing until it was a few decades in existence (eg. - an inner city house built in the 1920's - converted into a ground floor commercial space in the 1960's.)
So surely this is possible.
requires re-zoning, and a re-set in suburban thinking.
When dictated by necessity, entirely possible - why not?

Not only do we radically reduce fuel dependency (as in vehicular) but re-design communities that are probably more desireable to live in, as in walkable, and more socially condusive to a public discourse.

This is a radical departure - from the inner sanctum of the lonely single commuter inside a car , and from the insular nature of suburban households as they are currently set up, in many places...especially the newer suburban and exurban models - house set apart by an acre or two (as if they were farmhouses...)

Which also brings to mind the idea of a lot of that land put to good use - growing food - and not lawns that require oceans of fuel to mow constantly.

[mackina1]

Have you guys given any thoughts to highrises? A city made up of tightly packed concrete housing could hold far more people per kilometer than any of the proposals. Of course it would have to be built anew, and be supplied with power and materials from a relatively well functioning economy. But just imagine the dark image it would create of cities. Ten to twenty stories tall buildings blocking out the sunlight. The street level being a bit in disrepair, since almost all uses their feet or prefer to take the metros. Blahblahblah.

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mackina1', 'H')ave you guys given any thoughts to highrises? A city made up of tightly packed concrete housing could hold far more people per kilometer than any of the proposals. Of course it would have to be built anew, and be supplied with power and materials from a relatively well functioning economy. But just imagine the dark image it would create of cities. Ten to twenty stories tall buildings blocking out the sunlight. The street level being a bit in disrepair, since almost all uses their feet or prefer to take the metros. Blahblahblah.

[Jenab6]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', 'O')nce-a-day commode flushing, anyone?

[dinopello]

How are the suburbs adjusting ?

Suburbia R.I.P.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')ul-de-sac neighborhoods once filled with the sound of backyard barbecues and playing children are falling silent. Communities like Elk Grove, Calif., and Windy Ridge, N.C., are slowly turning into ghost towns with overgrown lawns, vacant strip malls and squatters camping in empty homes.

A study by the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech predicts that by 2025 there will be as many as 22 million unwanted large-lot homes in suburban areas.

Already low or middle-income families priced out of cities and better neighborhoods are moving into McMansions divided for multi-family use. Alison Arieff, who blogs for The New York Times, visited one such tract mansion that was split into four units, or "quartets," each with its own entrance, which is not unlike what happened to many stately homes in the 1930s. The difference, of course, is that the 1930s homes held up because they were made with solid materials, and today's spec homes are all hollow doors, plastic columns and faux stone facades.

There is also speculation that subdivision homes could be dismantled and sold for scrap now that a mini-industry for repurposed lumber and other materials has evolved over the last few years. Around the periphery of these discussions is the specter of the suburb as a ghost town patrolled by squatters and looters, as if Mad Max had come to the cul-de-sac.

[mos6507]

If the suburbs are dead somebody should tell prospective home buyers in the Boston area because I still can't afford to buy a house within the arc of Rt. 128. So we're really talking about EXurbs which are being abandoned.