Green Daily

I may think that suburban life is a huge folly, and that for the sake of our planet, our waistlines, and our democracy, we should just say no to more suburban development because it gives people the excuse to build ugly, shoddy houses on previously empty land, wreck wildlife habitat, drive cars to the store for a gallon of milk, and exclude "undesirables" based on their inability to buy houses.

But I won't say so, at least not out loud, because far too many friends and relatives of mine live in the aforementioned soul-sucking suburbs, and I don't want to seem self-righteous. I will just let James Howard Kunstler speak for me.

If you haven't picked up The Geography of Nowhere or The Long Emergency, you might not know about Kunstler, the United States' number one anti-development crank (who also loves to talk about peak oil). His website has a feature called "Eyesore of the Month," which showcases an architectural travesty from the suburbs or the strip malls, and he just wrote a novel about a small town in New York and how it survives post-peak-oil (World Made By Hand). Kunstler also has a new podcast, the Kunstlercast, which means you can have Kunstler rant in your iPod headphones at all hours of the day. That might be enough to drive anybody back into the 'burbs.