Suburban nation provides the description and elaboration of three writers who are experienced in urban planning. The three writers include Jeff Spark, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater who relate and explore the various reasons for the movement towards the suburbs which took place in the last 50 years. They showed that the movement towards was mainly as result of congestion and gated neighborhood. The authors of this book tried to show clearly the problems associated with the closed-in and gated neighborhoods which are isolated and locked the sidewalks and no closeness to facilities like stores. These things led to imprisonment of children and the elderly by isolating them from their neighbors. The authors also compares these conditions compared to those of 1950s where the environment and the neighborhood were clear and the children could freely play and run to school since they were not congested. The authors have therefore offered realistic solutions to the problems and causes of the movement towards the suburbs. The authors therefore suggests solutions and a proposal of the community design towards solving problems relating to urbanization.
The book is very essential to the American political system in showing the actual problems facing our country in relation to the congestion of roads and housing facilities leading to the deaths of people in the roads. The American government should therefore take into considerations and arguments of these urban planners in order to avoid future problems pertaining to traffic congestion and further increase in social inequality, isolation and insecurity in the towns. The arguments of the authors are elaborate in relation regional planning thereby enabling the American political system to put such plans in practice so as to avoid the problems associated with the suburban sprawling.
In conclusion, the authors have clearly elaborated the importance of regional planning by adopting the traditional concept where the problems of congestion are minimized while the issue of sustainability of the environment is emphasized. The government of America should therefore take these arguments into consideration in regional planning so as to solve or minimize problems related to isolation of people, social inequality as well as insecurity. The aspects relating to traffic congestion criticized by the authors thereby the need to emphasize road planning by providing enough space for pedestrians.
Works Cited
Duany, Andres, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck. Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York: North Point Press, 2000. Print.
Duany, Andres, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck. Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. Princeton, N.J: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, 2007. Print.
Duany, Andres, Jeff Speck, and Mike Lydon. The Smart Growth Manual. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.
"Nonfiction Book Review: Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream by Andres Duany, Author, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Joint Author, Jeff Speck, Joint Author North Point Press $35 (290p) ISBN 978-0-86547-557-1." PublishersWeekly.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
