.. 
. . If you’re interested in insightful and lively commentary on the history and future of suburbia and urban development in America, and the likely effects on our way of life of $4/gal. gasoline, head over to James Howard Kunstler‘s new website, The KunstlerCast — “a weekly audio program about the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl.” The site has offered weekly podcasts since Feb. 18, 2008 (with the inaugural podcast titled “Drugstores”). At KunstlerCast, Jim suggests that newcomers get acclimated with installments #8 (“The Glossary of Nowhere”), #6 (“Children of the Burbs”), and #10 (“Zoning”). Don’t fear that he might be too enmeshed in prophetic gloom-and-doom. As the Albany Times Union noted last March:
“When all hell breaks loose after the oil runs out and the military-industrial complex grinds to a halt, Kunstler will be the one rosining up the bow, cracking jokes, grinning broadly and intoning his signature phrase: ‘It’s all good!”’
For fellow podriahs, who still prefer to use eyeballs rather than ears when acquiring information or scanning web content, you’ll also find KunstlerCast Transcripts (currently with about a month delay). See, e.g., the transcript to the installment “Glossary of Nowhere.”
half a tank —
Old Glory in tatters
above the gas pump… by dagosan (Oct. 13, 2005; hat tip to elizabeth macfarland)
From his nonfiction landmark “The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape” in 1993, through “The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century” (2006), to his latest novel, “World Made by Hand” (2008), author (and painter) Jim Kunstler has been explaining what’s wrong with America’s sprawling suburbs and depdence on fossil-fuels, and suggesting solutions.
Kunstler was surely right when he warned in 1993, in The Geography of Nowhere, that:
“The newspaper headlines may shout about global warming, extinctions of living species, the devastations of rain forests, and other world-wide catastrophes, but Americans evince a striking complacency when it comes to their everyday environment and the growing calamity that it represents.”
But, he was also correct when he said:
“I believe a lot of people share my feelings about the tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities, and ravaged countryside that makes up the everyday environment where most Americans live and work.”
Jim Kunstler lives in Saratoga Springs, here in the New York Capital Region. The Schenectady Sunday Gazette ran an interview with him today, that will give you a good feel for Kunstler’s notions about what will and won’t work in America as we face dwindling supplies of fossil fuels and very expensive oil. “James Kunstler insists suburbs are done for” (July 27, 2008) Here’s a good sample Q&A:
Q: Where do you see things going in terms of the housing market? Will America abandon the suburbs in favor of the cities?
A: A lot of people (Realtors, builders, bankers) are waiting for the “bottom” of the housing crash, with the idea that we’ll re-enter an up-cycle. I see it differently. There won’t be a resumption of “growth” as we’ve known it, certainly not in suburban residential and commercial real estate. The suburban project is over. We’re done with that. (I know people find this unbelievable.) The existing stuff will represent a huge liability for us for decades to come as it loses value and utility and falls apart.
However, I also believe our big cities will contract. They are simply not scaled to the energy realities of the future. The successful places, in my opinion, will be the smaller cities and towns that 1.) have walkable neighborhoods, 2.) have proximity to water for power, transport and drinking, and 3.) have a meaningful relationship with a productive agricultural hinterland. Some places you can forget about completely: Phoenix . . . Las Vegas . . . they’re toast.
That’s about enough from me this sunny Sunday in Schenectady. I’m going to get out and enjoy my lovely, walkable neighborhood along the Mohawk, or maybe take a short drive to our agricultural hinterland.
early morning cool
men in hard hats gather
on the last patch of grass……. by Randy Brooks – the loose thread: rma 2001; Modern Haiku XXXII:1
long wait alone
in the parking lot. . .
a dog in the next car
….. by Tom Clausen – being there (Swamp Press, 2005)
traffic jam
my small son asks
who made God… by peggy willis lyles – To Hear the Rain (2002)
on the bridge
hundreds died to defend
end-to-end graffiti…… by George Swede – Acorn #17 (2006)
corporate parking lot
another starling
settles on the power line
….. by Yu Chang – Upstate Dim Sum (2005/I)
p.s. Just as Jim Kunstler is a prophet ahead of his time, master-debater Scott Greenfield at Simple Justice is the premature host of Blawg Review #170, which he posted this morning rather than waiting ’til Monday. As the only colleague who encouraged him not to weigh down his turn as host of Blawg Review with an clumsy, annoying theme, I take some solace in reporting that Scott used such a light hand presenting his compilation of the best lawyer-blog posting of the past week (purportedly tied together by the 14th Amendment) that it seemed both seamless and themeless. As usual, you’ll find Scott’s mischievous brand of humor throughout his post, plus pointers to a lot of good blawgging (and purloined photo of the Giacalone Boys from 1971).