Preaching Urbanity in Salt Lake City

"Keith Bartholomew has felt a little like John the Baptist in the desert as of late.

The urban planning professor's message to the suburbs: "Repent."

Amid the picket fences and two-car garages, a deluge of "for sale" signs and foreclosures highlights the failure of "the real estate machine" and the redefinition of the American Dream, Bartholomew said.

And as the country looks to resuscitate its housing market, the University of Utah academic hopes Americans will return to the urban core, swapping a love affair with the car and the cul-de-sac for mass transit and mixed-use developments.

"That's more reflective of what the American Dream is now," Bartholomew said. "A home is not just the four walls of a suburban house. It's the neighborhood and the community.""