John Massengale, a New Urbanist, sees all sprawl as bad. In Local Is The New Organic, he looks forward to higher oil prices, because it will undo this trend:
Simple fact: In the last few decades, the US was dramatically transformed with air conditioning and cheap oil. Tens of millions of Americans think the best way to live is to drive from their air-conditioned house to the air-conditioned Sam’s Club, in an air-conditioned truck. Every year more people move to Arizona than any other state, even though most Americans would find it unlivable without air conditioning.Phoenix is the epitome of sprawl. Everyone drives everywhere for everything, particularly patronizing distant stores like CostCo, where the consumer buys in bulk and serves as the warehouse and transportation system. Every year, people move farther out in the desert, trading long drives for cheap land.
I find this claim about swamp coolers difficult to believe:
Two other facts about Arizona: More people leave Arizona every year than any other state; Arizonans use swamp coolers for their houses rather than air conditioners, because in a desert climate humidifers work better than dehumidifiers — but now the sheer number of swamp coolers in Pheonix has changed the local climate enough that the coolers no longer work as well as air conditioners.
Clearly he’s looking for them to get their comeuppance:
It seems inevitable that oil prices will continue to rise, and that this will all come crashing down. At the same time, food will become much more expensive, because transportation costs will rise dramatically, and a place like Arizona can’t grow food for millions of people.The good news is that the new economy will look very much the economy many dreamt about in the 1960s, when Small [Was] Beautiful.
I can’t say I share that dream.