Should We Plan Cities To Be Temporary?

The Christian Science Monitor blogger Eoin O'Carroll summarizes some important recent trends in American urbanism:

- population loss and economic decline in rust belt cities leading to plans to bulldoze neighborhoods;

- the challenge of relocating people from declining areas to more prosperous ones;

- the demographic shift towards city centers;

- the energy benefits of dense areas;

- the bulldozing of new suburban neighborhoods in the wake of the foreclosure crisis;

- and the potential for more pre-fab construction to make urban areas more flexible.