Josh Stephens of the venerable Planning Report, and another in a fine brotherhood of writing "Joshes," has reviewed Robert Bruegmann's Sprawl: A Compact History for Planetizen. You may recall, we were soundly whacked by a few other bloggers for our review back in December in which we referred to Mr. Bruegmann as a "dingleberry." Maybe that was too low-brow for such a high-brow topic.
Stephens does a much better job of dissecting Bruegmann's pro-sprawl philosophy, identifying his rah-rah sprawl spiel as "a cartoon version of scholarship that advocates little but the status quo." A dingleberry by any other name... But Stephens does find some positives in the book, including an examination of policies and regulations that have made real estate prices skyrocket or have resulted in backlashes to central planning. Of course, this all ties into the ways we make and govern our cities, and how policy can have a great effect, sometimes unitentional, on our quality of life. Please, everyone write a 500 word essay on this topic, due Friday morning.
· Book Review - 'Sprawl: A Compact History' [Planetizen]
· Sprawl: You so sexy [Curbed LA]