Planning Utopia

Jeff Speck says, "It's ironic now that I sit back and read it, how the community this book describes represents nothing but a utopia. Wouldn't it be great for these features to be present in every community? And for those of us who live in successful cities—one of the pictures has my bike in it—we live these benefits every day. What Andres is alluding to in avoiding the hair shirt is this: What’s so fantastic about smart growth is that if our planners were to achieve it completely, all of us would have quality-of-life enhancements. Among the things being asked and not being asked of us in the climate/post-oil discussion, smart growth calls on us to change our lifestyle but to change it in a vastly more enjoyable world."