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."