Some suburbs will be successful smaller towns, while others will become ruins, predicts James Howard Kunstler. Unlike other urbanists though, Kunstler thinks big cities are in trouble when cheap energy disappears.
Kunstler writes that big "metroplex" cities will be in significant trouble:
"Categorically, they are not scaled to the energy realities of the future. Our giant cities are products of the cheap energy era; the arc of their explosive growth since 1945 is self-evident. They're simply too large and too complex. Everything about them is designed to run on endless supplies of cheap fossil fuels and the resources and byproducts made possible by them: steel, copper, cement, plastic, and asphalt."
He predicts that large U.S. cities will contract around their historic cores and waterfronts, and that trains and boats will see a resurgence given the lack of cheap oil to fuel trucks for deliveries.
Read the full story: Back to the Future
Kunstler Explains Peak Oil
In a video interview, author James Howard Kunstler talks about peak oil, the effect of Mexican drug gangs on America's oil supply, and the diminishing returns of new oil-extracting technologies.
Energy Transformation Predicted in 12 Years
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Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
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In Texas, data centers are swallowing promised parkland
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MTA gives itself 30 days to transform pit into basketball court
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FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
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City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority