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KunstlerCast #209: NextGen New Urbanists
Released: June 28, 2012
JHK and Duncan speak to a group of NextGen New Urbanists during the Congress for the New Urbanism held in West Palm Beach, Fla. this May 9-12. NextGen New Urbanists are young professionals participating in the New Urbanist movement. Jim asks the group to tell him what they’re up to and what’s next for New Urbanism. After a quick history of the NextGen movement, topics include: Resettle America, the Braddock PA Initiative, Tactical New Urbanism, Growing Culture and more.
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( 26 MB | 35:21 mins.)
Also check out the Congress for the New Urbanism YouTube Channel for videos from the latest congress.
In this enhanced podcast, JHK & Duncan explore North Central Troy, NY with Billie-Jean Greene, a KunstlerCast listener who recently purchased a home in this area. This once wealthy neighborhood on the Hudson River has suffered from urban blight for many years. But a group of neighbors, known as The Uptown Initiative, are committed to helping turn their neighborhood around. Billie-Jean leads this tour and introduces us to some of the neighborhood residents, including a bed & breakfast owner, another homeowner, and some urban chickens named Ruby and June. Also along the route is a Hells Angels clubhouse.
JHK explores a mostly abandoned low-income housing project in Duncan’s neighborhood. Two of the three 9-story brick “vertical slums” are boarded up and abandoned. They come complete with their own “rape-o-matic” tunnel for pedestrians to travel under the bridge ramp that separates them. Kunstler says these “towers in a park” are based on the ideas of Le Corbusier, the Swiss-French architect/planner whose “Radiant City” plans envisioned turning the right bank of Paris into a series of high rise towers connected by highways. Corbu’s plans were not implemented in Paris, but his ideas didn’t die. In fact they morphed into what are commonly known as “the projects,” low-income high rise towers all around the U.S. and indeed the world. Taking inspiration by the housing projects in Troy, Kunstler explains the history of this style of low-income housing and its detrimental side effects.
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James Howard Kunstler is pleasantly surprised by Rochester, N.Y., a small industrial city in the Great Lakes region. The first portion of this program features two of JHK’s former classmates who share stories about Jim’s college days at SUNY Brockport. The bulk of the show includes a driving tour of Rochester NY with JHK. (Note: this episode contains some cursewords).
James Howard Kunstler believes that the Happy Motoring project is running out of time. Peak Oil and problems with alternative energy aren’t the only issues facing future motorists. He thinks that car ownership will become less democratic in the future as cars become too expensive to buy without the current financing options. Kunstler dismisses Christopher Steiner’s “$20 Per Gallon” book for assuming that an orderly procession of events will take us from $3 per gallon to $20. The conversation naturally leads to a discussion of NASCAR, which Kunstler views as a particularly pathetic reincarnation of Roman chariot races that serve to preoccupy the masses as the American empire declines. Lastly, Kunstler addresses a recent International Energy Agency scandal to coverup the reality of dwindling oil supplies.
Planetizen, an urban planning website and book publisher, recently conducted a poll about the 
James Howard Kunstler says one reason why American cities are so dirty is because we do not have a firm agreement about how to treat the public realm in this country. He believes that people will literally trash a place that they don’t like or respect. And a lot of American space is difficult to respect. On a larger scale, many corporations treat the American landscape with a similar disregard. While Kunstler believes that large scale pollution from mega corporations may taper off with the cheap oil supply, he thinks local manufacturing in the future might reintroduce forms of pollution that haven’t been seen in the U.S. for a while.
New Urbanist Planner and Author Jaime Correa speaks about urban planning in the peak oil era. KunstlerCast Host Duncan Crary recorded Correa’s talk on May 28 at the Albany Roundtable in Albany, N.Y. Correa speaks about how the end of cheap oil will affect communities in the future. He describes his peak oil action plan, which he calls The 40 Percent Plan. As urban communities begin to contract in the future, Correa has some ideas about what people need to do to successfully prepare for the future. James Howard Kunstler introduces Correa and chats with Crary about the role that Correa has played in the New Urbanism. Kunstler also responds to a question posed to him by Correa about his preparations for peak oil.
“It Was Not Exactly Paris”
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