James Howard brings up interesting points throughout these readings, though nothing that I feel like I haven't heard before. I agree with most of his statements, that the highways lined with huge shopping malls, fast-food restaurants, and covered with cars seem to be a step for America in the wrong direction. Besides American towns losing their personal identity and anything that makes them unique from the millions of other towns, this development kills the environment. As Howard says, the mega malls and giant complexes are built over once lush cornfields or land. THis destruction of the natural environment, I think, leads to a disconnect between people and the world they live in. I think that no relation to nature will lead to a less intelligent, observant, and generally less happy population.
Maggie
I found this reading really interesting, especially since we have discussed the issue of urban sprawl and “the strip mall problem” in several of my other classes with respect to environmental and societal concerns. As Kunstler was describing the small town that he used to live in, I realized just how out of date this seemed. There aren’t many towns today that still have stores that are owned by locals. There aren’t many towns today when the farmers come in from the country to buy their supplies from these stores. A lot of this has to do with the fact that freeways have replaced railways. There aren’t freeway stops at many small towns, and therefore these towns don’t get the business they used to from truckers and other passersby. Kunstler’s quote, “for all practical purposes, Schuylerville became a colonial outpost of another America” sums up the process that is happening in small towns all around America. It is interesting that what most Americans define as “growth” is really just the decline of towns like this one and the rise of suburbs that do not encourage social interaction and make people dependent on cars.
ReplyDeleteI live in a suburb but I think that for the most part they are a lot of what is wrong with how the United States is run. Suburbs and urban sprawl are terrible for the environment, do not encourage social interaction, and are making our cities and towns undesirable place to live in.
It’s kind of sad to think that, at the rate things are going, small shops and local farms to buy food from could be completely defunct. It is conceivable that all of our goods could come from Wal-Mart and all of our food could come from large “agribusiness” farms.
I agree with Maggie when she says that the general discussion of mass development- never-ending highways connecting every part of the country, fast food restaurants and cheap, dirty hotels, etc., - is not something new to us. We all know it exists today, and we have talked and read and (in movies) seen a time when "urban sprawl", as ellyse put it, was not always the norm. But I think this piece touches on a few specific points that stick out. "ever-busy, ever-building, ever-in-motion, ever-throwing-out, the old for the new, we have hardly paused to think about what we are so busy building, and what we have thrown away." When i read this quote I couldn't stop thinking about something Professor Berry said in class; With each gain from a technological advance comes a loss of an older kind of knowledge. We spoke of loss of cooking knowledge in class the other day. It is so easy to not cook, to be pre-made meals, packaged/can goods or grab something from a fast-food place that we have become lazy and let ourselves stop learning how to cook. This is a generalization of course- tons of people still know how to cook. But it is an example of what is lost, of what we're "throwing away" as we keep building building building (either literally, such as in Kunstler's piece, or figuratively, as we keep pushing for more knowledge, more advanced technology, higher productivity, etc).
ReplyDeleteSince this quote was at the beginning of the expert we read, I had it stuck in my head the entire time. I feel like so much of what we have addressed in this class can be related to the sad truth of what has been lost as a result of what we have gained (or what we think we've gained). Worse yet, we often don't realize we're losing it until it is too late. Relating back to what Ellyse said, gaining productivity from rise in agribusiness only results in loss of local farms, local markets, local bakeries etc. I always loved learning the French terms for these places- "la patisserie, la bucherie, la boulangerie" and so on, because we dont have them here! To me they seemed like something from a fairy tale, something that didn't really exist. That's because they don't exist in many parts of the US anymore, and rise in large scale agriculture and massive corporations like Wal-Mart.
After I read those pages, I start to think that what we lost and what we gained from the environment. In this book, the author uses a small town as an example to tell us how the small town changed and how people were in the town. Let us talk about some changes in the small town first: trees were crashed down, and new houses were built up. People built a high way to the town and there were lots of shops for people to buy goods to improve the economy of this town. There are also some amusing places for people to hang out, like a place full of video games. More and more tourists visit this town and have lunch in the local restaurants. Lots of people will say that is a great situation because the economy is growing, and the local people will make a lots of money. Is that true? I do not really think so. The money actually got into investors’ pockets, because lots of shops were owned by investors. The peace of town also disappeared. Another important thing that the author refers is Parents. From the book, we can know lots of children make their own breakfast, why? Their parents are too busy to take care of them. Most of children watch TV for the whole day. That is the cost of the increasing economy in small town. Is that worthy? No, definitely not. We really should think more beyond the increasing economy.
ReplyDeleteKunstler poses some pretty provocative questions with his article. Is human society truly evolving, or are we living the shadow of our former post-WWII glory? I believe that Kunstler would argue the latter. His critique of the modern “town” is quite chilling. I find it interesting that while many people who live outside America idealize our nation, people within it idealize the complete opposite values. The American citizenry has come to praise the small time as the equilibrium between human interaction and privacy. However, this idealization is a dangerous fallacy. As Kunstler points out many of our nations towns have been left derelict even in light of our supposed progress. He comments that the continued perpetuation of a monoculture society threatens our traditional values and even our livelihoods. It is tragic that such ruthless standardization has taken place. Standardization, however, is meant to be used as a means to make everything efficient, sort of like an assembly line. The problem with this model is, that humans are not standardized. We do not look the same, act the same, and certainly don’t hold the same beliefs. Human existence cannot fit a one-size fits all cookie cutter society. And as we have been emphasizing throughout his course lately, neither can the environment. The environment is by no means standardized. Thousands and thousands of acres containing the same crop is not possible in the untampered wilderness. It is disorganized and random. However, there is purpose to this randomness. It fosters growth and evolution. How can our nation expect growth to take place when many of nations towns don’t even have proper sidewalks? Growth is dependent on children, it is precisely this demographic that we should keep in mind when we consider engaging in more technological “process”.
ReplyDelete- Alex Leeds
Zoya Mufti
ReplyDeleteFrom the beginning of the article alone, I learnt so much. I did not have this normal, suburban upbringing that most American teenagers have. Reading Kunstler's article gave insight into a typical American upbringing. Since I moved around so much, the idea of growing up somewhere so stagnent is something I could never imagine. A statistic that Kunstler used was that "80% of everything built in America has been built in the last fifty years." What came to my mind and put this statistic in perspective for me was the vast difference between America and Dubai, in that everything in Dubai has been built in the last ten years.
I also agree with Maddie and Maggie about how mass development is not something new. This is not just true in America but also around the world. Its bizarre to go somewhere like Pakistan and see a highway that has been built recently and turned my 50 minute drive home from the airport to a 20 minute drive.
I agree with James Howard, that the development of giant malls and oversized highways is leading to a loss of culture in America. I also believe that large open highways, lined with fast food restaurants contribute to air pollution. In suburban areas, most places you need to go to require somewhat of a drive. Drive throughs and large shopping centers act as a catalyst for air pollution. In Europe, suburbs usually surround towns, and don't require much transportation to and from the towns. Also, each town is unique and has different types of stores. In America, you tend to see chain stores that take away from the uniqueness of community. Chain stores are depleting diversity in America.
ReplyDeleteFirst off I agree with Maddie, and Maggie and Zoya about the fact that mass development is not new. However, I think we have the US to blame for a lot of those highway's in Pakistan and developing countries. This idea of the suburbs is no longer isolated in the US but has spanned out to the whole world. The worst part of this is that we project mass development and urbanization as the best way of developing. Almost as a Utopia. The suburb has turned into the Utopia but I think it is a Distopia. It saddens me to know that we no longer have places like Schuylerville because they were a token of old American society. These places are now completely ignored and serve no purpose except to drugged out teenagers as Howard says. The US now lacks cities with unique characteristics. Towns like Schuylerville used to each serve their own distinct purpose but now I can drive across the country and a strip of land in Washington will look about the same as one in Virginia. I will pass what is a "town" but really will just be strip malls littered with restaurants such as jack n the box, mcDonalds, maybe a TGIF. These are not towns. This is what Howard is addressing. The loss of unique small towns in America, now we are left with stip malls and highways and suburbs.
ReplyDeleteI thought this reading was particularly interesting especially in regard to small town America. I would agree that smalls towns are suffering increasing loss of personal identity and the characterize them. I have to disagree with Ellysem though about her highway comment as why there is a loss of culture. I think that a large part of this loss of identity is contributed to the rise of large corporations such as Wal-Mart. It is easy for Wal-Mart and other large companies to swoop in and pray on small towns simply because they can provide goods and service more inexpensively than local providers which has both is benefits and drawbacks. In my opinion though, I think there is so much value in the unique characteristics of the local culture than there is value in having cheap and inexpensive goods.
ReplyDeleteBeing from Long Island, some parts of Kustler's narrative struck me centrally, and I often found myself feeling the familiar queasiness when picturing urban sprawl in various parts of New York. Although his perspective of his hometown precedes mine own by quite a few decades, it echoes the continual growth of cities and the decline of small towns which disquiets the observant, and widens the gap between the rich and poor. His commentary provides a reflection upon the cause and effect relationship of the greediness of corporate America, and the guise under which this lies- of "growth" and "progress". This commentary is almost 20 years old, written just a year after I was born, and I venture to say that a lot has happened since then. I wonder what his thoughts would be in a 2011 version, although he seems to be forward thinking in relating to a past notion of Winston Churchill. America seems to really only react at the last minute, when the hour is late and the damage has been ravaged. I like Kunstler's style- his methodic, detailed breakdown of the development of cities, appeals to all of my senses. Plus, he mentions Who Framed Roger Rabbit? which is one of my favorite movies- I used to watch it with my grandfather, who happens to have been raised in Kew Gardens, not too far from the heart of New York City. Emotionally I feel for the dilapidated communities which have been indirectly effected by the growth of big business, even if faceless and nameless. In his emphasis on small town, local life I can agree, but I think that maintaining stability based on small town business will always lead to a desire to expand and outsource. The real solution relies on the de-emphasis of class stratification and wealth, and I say that with optimism, even knowing how trite, naive, and idealistic it sounds.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the manner in which Kunstler writes, very detailed (perhaps a bit too much so--indeed, it felt like he wrote reams about the boring little Schuylerville) and observant.
ReplyDeleteKunstler makes some very good points about the scariness of the urban sprawls that have sprung up in the past fifty years. Personally, I always have to swallow down a feeling of nervousness when in New York City. Besides being daunting in its muggy darkness and tall buildings, New York City is also overwhelming in its ability to bedazzle. It brings both these feelings to one at once, leaving the visitor feeling happy and excited and at the same time small, poor, and insignificant. D.C. is quite like this, also.
I somewhat disagree with what Kunstler says about the suburbs. I have always found the suburbs to be strangely comforting, and, in my childhood, neat gardens and manicured lawns seemed to be just enough nature for me. At the same time, I have always longed for the small-town Kunstler idolizes. A place where things are wonderful and warm, and the people close. Somewhere one would perhaps find in the still-sunny South, in some rural part of Georgia or South Carolina. However, these, too, as Kunstler mentions, are dying. All that's left of the bustle of small-towns are abandoned sign-posts and discarded wood.
I agree with the previous posts in that his points are not groundbreaking but I felt that James Howard Kunstler was a bit pompous in his references and opinions. He refers to development and things built in America as spiritually degrading, but I feel like we should embrace humanity’s accomplishments. On the one hand, we should be able to see the hidden beauty in all that humankind has created with the minds and hands that God has given us. On the other hand, humanity’s accomplishments are destroying what God created. I thought that the way he has such a stigma against the word “development” is unnerving and he criticizes everything that is America. He feels like development makes people lose their closeness with one another and that development destroyed the distinction between city life and country life. In that sense, Kunstler should embrace how humanity is changing but he does have the right to dislike how we are destroying the environment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of what my classmates have said before, and to reiterate a statement and a question in particular: what Kunstler says in this article is not something I haven't heard before and, by building the hundreds of mini malls and suburban neighborhoods where all of the houses are identical, does this mean that society going in the wrong direction? I agree whole-heartedly with Kunstler in that by building the highways, fast food chains, etc., all of these places in America lose there uniqueness. Also, this made me think about other countries around the world. For the places that I have traveled to, I could not think of any of the things that Kunstler described. Does this mean that only the United States is building the strip malls, or are other countries doing it too? Are they doing it because of the United States? All of this ties into my class' discussion we had the other day on globalization. Is this another part of cultural globalization, and will the type of things that United States soon spread to other countries?
ReplyDeleteThe chapters from The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler really opened my eyes to how America is developing and how many do not see the destruction we are causing to our environment. He emphasized how there is little or no sense of community because of this. I particularly liked how in the last reading didn’t just leave the readers guessing as to how to fix this problem. He provided the quote by Winston Churchill “that Americans could be counted on to do the right thing after they had exhausted the alternatives”. This suggests that soon we will have no alternatives and if humans do such things as “learn to live locally” or “redesign our rules for building” we can fix this problem.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I've always been very much interested in the ideas Kunstler brings up, I was overall not very impressed with his article. Like Maggie said, they are all complaints and observations I have heard before. I think it is obvious that we have become a society very unconcerned with the preservation of the environment. It is an interesting question, as Alex brought up, of whether we are indeed continuing to evolve now, or have we turned back down the hill of advancement. Although this can be seen from many angles, I think our continual advancements in technology answer this question for the most part. Kunstler did, however, bring up one point that very much interested me. This was the idea that his development was really just a "mockery" of what a town like Lebanon, NH really was (and furthering this, I'm assuming what many international towns still are today too). This was interesting to me because I think it brought up a good point that people still want this type of town. Or they appear like they do. So if everybody wants these old, classic types of towns, why do we push for such technological, isolated and independent lives. It seems there must be a connection we, and Kunstler, is missing in between these too.
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ReplyDeleteThis reading was actually pretty sad. Kunstler described the economic decay of the small town in a way that seemed inevitable. The worst part is that these towns were once prosperous. But as our econemy focuses on consumption and not production there is no place in the market for local labor any more. Now a days living away from the city is a luxury when its 40 minutes and a hassle when its farther. Only those who can afford to transport their lives, both in transportation costs to their job and also the increased cost of goods that travel farther can live farther away from where the jobs are.
ReplyDeleteThe community feeling that has been lost is the true tradgedy. Communities need an identity. Kustler detailed why suburbia can't really have an identity, nothing is done there. Where people work and live is somewhere that can become a community.
And I think this problem arises from a lack of forsight. There is no question about what happens fifty years down the road. When planning our living and working spaces people need to consider what the future of that place is going to be.
I agree with Maggie that although Kunstler's points are all valid, I feel like they are things that that we have all already acknowledged to be true. I like his phrasing in many parts of this reading and I guess it's always good to analyze things in different ways. The first line that stood out to me in todays' reading is when he stated that "eighty percent of everything ever built in America has been built in the last fifty years, and most of it is depessing, brutal, ugly, unhealthy and spiritually degrading-the jive- plastic commuter tract home wastlands, the potemkin village shopping plazas with their vast parking lagoons..." First of all, I personally, had no idea that 80% of our country has been built in the past 5 decades. This is astonishing to me. I almost can't accept it as a fact. I guess it makes sense with all the new technology. It makes me think of what will happen in the next 50 years. There's not much more room to build; so does that mean that we will stop inventing and creating and reinventing?
ReplyDelete“Geography of Nowhere” definitely encompassed a feeling which I can relate to in its description of the rising strip malls and quick development that Kunstler calls a “joyless junk habitat”. Although Kunstler seems a bit extreme at cases in his criticism of the American people his point are very valid and striking. Not only do major national chains ruin the economy of a small town, which forces families to commute long distances for low paying jobs, but it also ruins the community. I think that community is a vital part of what makes America so unique. However with the development of cookie cutter mega stores and spread out strip malls that sense of community is lost and our nation becomes one of individual consumption.
ReplyDeleteIn the town my grandparents live in, on Cape Cod MA, the city planning board has been trying to maintain the historic sense of community for many years, and quite successfully. However last summer the planning board lost an argument and a Dunkin’ Doughnuts was built in town causing a public outcry. I feel as though Kunstler would commend this type of defiance and it is unfortunate that the rest of America did not follow suit. The people let this happen and I agree with Kunstler that it is an impending catastrophe.
It was very apropo that we would read this article for today because last night I was with some friends and we were discussing the differences of how our lifestyle compares to others. Kunstler's ideas weren't new to me but I still very strongly agree with what he said and believe he put it well in "geography of nowhere." My friends and I were talking about how there are new states being created still in our world, south sudan, and how little they have as a country. They are paving the first road there and their capital is essentially a small village. Although the trend of Americans is to view such a lifestyle as 'backwards' or 'lacking' i wonder if that's actually correct. In the U.S. we love having the convenience of stores like wal-mart and target but I wonder if those stores never existed if we would have the feeling that something is missing. I'm trying to say that although now we can't imagine not having these strip-malls and fast food restaurants, it doesn't mean that need them or even that they are integral pieces of our culture.
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