There Goes The Neighborhood

Last week, The Atlantic's "Future of The City" Conference in Washington, D.C. ended, as I mentioned Friday.

Today, I read up on Christopher Leinberger's ideas on the future of the American neighborhood. He argued that walkability and rail transportation in condensed, urban neighborhoods are what will replace our expansive exurbs that we've been building the last sixty or so odd years.

While his idea of creating privately-funded versus publicly-funded rail is up for debate, I tend to agree with his basic assessment that exurban neighborhoods just won't make the cut in the coming decades. Every time I have to drive out to the suburbs, I am keenly aware of and often surprised about just how much gas and time I spent getting there.

As DotLoop is well aware, efficiency is important. This holds true not only for the business world, but for land development, too. After all, a sewage line that serves thirty people in an exurban neighborhood costs just as much as a sewage line that serves three-thousand people in a well-planned urban core. In the coming decades, as our population ages and energy costs rise, we will have to adjust not only our zoning laws, but our lifestyles as well.

I for one am eager to embrace more walkable, liveable and personable American neighborhoods.

Let the change begin.