Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
high_rise.jpg

The Atlantic Monthly's Matthew Yglesias argues that high-density living is a key strategy to fight climate change. Yglesias takes issue with fellow Atlantic Online blogger Ross Douthat and author Joel Kotkin, who defend suburban sprawl -- what James Kunstler has famously called "the most destructive development pattern the world has ever seen, and perhaps the greatest misallocation of resources the world has ever known." Reporting on a recent talk by Kotkin, Douthat writes:

The notion that Americans are moving back to downtowns in large numbers is a myth, Kotkin announced; instead, they're moving ever outward, into new exurbs and rural areas. The traditional unipolar urban downtown isn't going to make a comeback: Young couples with families can't afford to live there, and aging Baby Boomers don't want to. The American city of the future will be more of an archipelago of suburbs than the kind of one-downtown organism bred by the Industrial Revolution: "We aren't creating more New Yorks and Chicagos; we're creating more Los Angeleses."

Yglesias counters:

There's the paradox. The urbanist proposal isn't "hey, jerks, why don't you all move to dense downtowns." Rather, the proposal is something like "why don't we impose carbon taxes so that things like driving long distances and heating or cooling large detached structures are priced in accordance with their social cost? Why don't we stop having the federal government heavily subsidize driving cars as the preferred mode of transportation? Why don't we have more areas that allow for high-density zoning, thus reducing the cost of urban housing?" It's not that we urbanists are unaware that many people live in low density areas because its cheaper, it's precisely that we are aware of this fact that makes us believe that the "traditional unipolar downtown" could make a comeback.

Quite naturally, the combination of cars being invented, cars being massively subsidized, and governments being successfully lobbied by car companies to dismantle mass transit systems led to a massive shift in the direction of sprawl. But by that same token, if we step away from those policies to some extent we'll see a rebalancing in the direction of urbanism.


Photo: telesle17/Flickr

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Spooky Stuff: On Halloween, Some States Will Have Deadlier Roads Than Others

Find out how yours ranks — and what policymakers can do to make streets less scary.

October 30, 2025

Who Are Thursday’s Headlines For?

Non-drivers still perceive streets as being for cars even when they have bike lanes. And that's because, in many cases, they are.

October 30, 2025

An Olympian Task: Replicating Paris’s Bike Boom in Los Angeles

The Olympics can help transform the streets of Los Angeles  — if they look to the example of Paris.

October 29, 2025

Wednesday’s Headlines Are a Clear and Present Danger

Rescinding the "endangerment finding" could not only exacerbate climate change, it could also throw entire industries into chaos.

October 29, 2025

What’s More Regressive: Modest Driving Surcharges to Help Fund Transit, or Forced Car Ownership?

Do Illinois state senators and reps really want to make the financial burden on their constituents less "regressive"? If so they can start by ensuring that as many people as possible can live their lives without spending $12,000 annually just to leave their homes.

October 28, 2025

Tuesday’s Headlines Pay High Prices for Highway Repairs

If the U.S. didn't spend so much money on repaving roads, there might be more left over for other things, like transit.

October 28, 2025
See all posts