[p2p-research] "We need more megalopolises"

[Kevin Carson]

On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 12:12 AM, M. Fioretti <mfioretti at nexaima.net> wrote:

> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/magazine/19Urban_West-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
>

>        [West] suggests, for instance, that modern cities are the real
>        centers of sustainability. According to the data, people who
>        live in densely populated places require less heat in the
>        winter and need fewer miles of asphalt per capita... Small
>        communities might look green, but they consume a
>        disproportionate amount of everything. As a result, West
>        argues, creating a more sustainable society will require our
>        big cities to get even bigger. We need more megalopolises.

I don't buy it.  The advantages West ascribes to dense population
don't require large cities, as such.  They involve nothing more a
reduced surface/volume ratio on buildings, combined with economizing
on infrastructure by bunching stuff together.  They could be
replicated for all intents and purposes by the European village model:
 a dense core of houses (perhaps including a community house laid out
with central common facilities and family apartments along the outer
walls with private outdoor courtyards) surrounded by fields and park
areas.

And that's fully compatible with Kropotkin's model (in Fields,
Factories and Workshops) of eliminating the distinction between city
and country, replacing both with a large number of communities in
which small industry is integrated with agriculture.

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
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