Green Apple?
Tara Lohan reviews David Owen's new book, Green Metropolis, which extols the ecological virtues of Manhattan. In her opinion, Owen doesn't ask the right questions and ignores some inconvenient facts.
Lohan points out that among the problems in Owen's book is that he ignores the immense garbage produced by New Yorkers, as well as any water consumption and contamination issues. .
"While New Yorkers get Owen's applause for taking public transit, that doesn't apply to the folks riding trains like Metro North or the Long Island Railroad, which connect the city to the suburbs. This, Owen says, helps enable more sprawl. But surely we couldn't take the several million Long Islanders and cram them into Manhattan could we? At what point does the city reach its carrying capacity? Owen doesn't say. Throughout the book, Owen seems so intensely sold on New York's greenness because it is almost accidental -- no one has to try too hard, it just works out that way because people have to live so close together. That's great and all, but shouldn't we be trying to set the bar a little higher?"
- Login or register to post comments
- Email this page
- Friday Funny: New York vs Boston, Which is the Better Sports Town? - Feb 03, 2012
- Converting Excess to Energy in NYC? - Jan 18, 2012
- NYC Removes Trash Bins in Subway to Curtail Litter - Oct 25, 2011
- Taking a Stroll With a Guide to Understanding Cities - Sep 28, 2011
- Transit, Not Traffic Reduction, Helps NYC Hit Greenhouse Gas Targets - Oct 05, 2010


















