While the New York’s, Chicago’s and San Francisco’s are desirable places to live today –studio apartments in these cities regularly fetch over $1,000 per month – this wasn’t always the case. The vibrancy of these cities was born of policies designed to correct mistakes made in the past.

Twentieth century urban form draws heavily on 19th century planning philosophies. Urbanism is deeply rooted in social and political theory. As time progresses and those theories change, so do planning practices. City planning has long been used for hegemonic displays, as a tool to subvert marginalized populations, and as a way to provide for the health and well-being of its residents. Urban form simultaneously reflects society and directs it.

The zoning codes, building regulations, and formal city planning of today are reactions to unregulated urbanization in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Drainage systems were often poorly maintained or simply didn’t exist. Rainy days paired with the lack of sidewalks proved miserable for people walking in streets flooded with raw sewage. With the advent of steel, skyscrapers were being built taller and taller, blocking sunlight from the streets. These conditions were considered part and parcel with urban living.

Deplorable urban conditions were the subject of muckraking journalist Jacob Riis’ “How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York,” which exposed the dirty, unsanitary living conditions of the lower classes. Urbanites dwelled in cramped, crowded conditions often with no windows and poor ventilation. This was the image of the city; this was what planners were working against, and what people wanted to move away from.

High density urban life was perceived as the source of crime and disease, and the answer was wide open spaces and country living. Arguably, one of the most influential urban theories in the United States comes from Ebenezer Howard, a turn-of-the-century British planner who conceptualized the “Garden City.”

Under Howard’s plan, people would live in satellite communities located away from larger cities, which housed industry and commerce. Lush parks and gardens divided these land uses and “Inter-Municipal Rail” transported people between them. In Howard’s theory, city life benefited from jobs, social opportunity, and entertainment, but suffered from “armies of unemployed” poor air quality, and slums. In contrast, the country offered cheap rent and ample space, but low wages and a lack of public spirit. Combining the two created an idyllic place, featuring all the pros of each, and none of the cons.

Today’s suburbs are grim adaptations of Howard’s garden cities. Instead of garden cities, they are garden suburbs, as modeled by Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 19th century. Highways, freeways, and multi-lane thoroughfares replace Howard’s railways as a way to connect communities in the twentieth century American model. Many US cities do not have ample greenspace to relax in either: easily accessible and well-maintained neighborhood parks, trails, or community gardens. One of the most pronounced shifts in American city planning coincided with the end of World War II. Traditional urban development, as found in nearly every city built by man (street grids, mixed-use buildings and districts, and vibrant downtowns) gave way to suburban development (tract housing, strip malls, and low density).

Many social and political factors contributed to this shift, but the federal interstate highway system and the G.I. Bill, which provided low-interest home loans to returning veterans played a deciding role. Additionally, cheap domestic gasoline for cars and rising wages increased demand for single family homes. As predicted, or prescribed, by Economics 101, supply increased to match. Families in the baby-boom needed places to live.

Building new single-story housing on “greenfields” – former farmland – proved insanely lucrative for real estate professionals. Last but not least, the American automobile industry bought up and ripped out electric transportation systems in most major cities in order to create markets for their new wares. The “Great American Streetcar Scandal” conspiracy as it was known, later featured in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, was tried in federal court. Auto executives were punished with a nominal fine, but the damage was already done. Since then, suburbia has reigned supreme.

Simply put, cities built up in the latter half of the twentieth century were car-oriented. Americans could travel further for goods and services they needed. The mega malls and big-box stores found on the fringes of many communities are featured in countless mediums: music’s “Rockin’ the Suburbs” and “Little Boxes”; TV’s “Weeds”, “Desperate Housewives” and “The Wonder Years”; and movies “Over the Hedge”, “American Beauty” and “Little People”. Residents in these communities drive to work, drive to school, drive to eat, drive to entertainment.

The result: cities and their residents have suffered. A dependence on driving increases social isolation and exacerbates health problems (including obesity and heart disease). Cars pollute our environment: their exhaust degrades air quality and urban runoff from roads and freeways pollutes watersheds and groundwater supplies. Streets are unsafe to play on. And they’re noisy. And finally, cars are dangerous: about 40,000 Americans die in car crashes per year.

In light of all these negative aspects of “car culture” (what is America without cars?), cars were initially seen as an environmental solution to the formerly overwhelming pollution of horse and buggy days: thousands of tons of horse manure piling up each day in cities around the country.

How does this relate to sustainability? Cities with a car-oriented tradition likely won’t have strong metro transit ridership and won’t have as many practical commuting options. Post-1945 suburban development is synonymous with sprawl, a key factor on our Planning and Land Use category. Sustainability hindrances are part of their fundamental design. Recently, as author James Howard Kunstler observes, the 2006 housing bust and rising gas prices have revealed to Americans just what a challenging future suburbia may face.

City planners and officials are recognizing these challenges and are developing and implementing policy to overcome them. Cities are combating climate change and are trying to minimize carbon output. Reducing automobile dependence is seen as a solution, hence coast-to-coast trends to increase public transit ridership and promote “multi-modal” (more than one mode of) transportation. Phoenix will christen its first light rail line this Christmas and is expanding its light rail to reach more destinations within the city and also the larger metro area. Charlotte and Seattle are also building up light rail lines to quickly ferry residents from home to work and back. Indianapolis is removing lanes of car traffic and replacing them with garden-planted medians, wider sidewalks and bike paths.

“New Urbanists” led by the Congress for New Urbanism, Smart Growth America, and other organizations, are calling for more compact city planning and for people to live within walking distance of their day to day needs. Disciples of New Urbanism propose increased “Transit oriented development,” or TODs, to create miniature downtowns around train and bus stations, where people can live, work and shop in easily accessible locations. In short, we are seeing a call to Europeanize, or Asianize, America – at least as far as city planning and urban design go.

The call to change urban planning has been made, and cities are answering.

Learn More:

• SustainLane: Planning and Land Use
• SustainLane: City Commuting
• SustainLane: Metro Transit Ridership
• Wikipedia: Suburbs
• Wikipedia: Great American Streetcar Conspiracy

Related Articles:

• Rethinking Seattle's New Highway: To rebuild, or not to rebuild, a waterfront highway
• Since When is a Growing Beltline Good? In Atlanta, it is

City Planning/Design Think Tanks:

• StreetsBlog
• Smart Growth America
• Congress for New Urbanism
• Planetizen
• Next American City
• Urban Land Institute
• Author: James Kunstler