Our Suburban DNA

I read his interesting article and aside some quibble (such as “they’ve been the preferred dwelling ever since the baby boomer generation embarked on its car-fueled suburban expansion.” — in fact’s been decades or even centuries earlier) I can sympathize with his dilemma.

My only long-term solution is to make many other places so interesting that Vancouver (Portland, SF, Seattle et al) are not so relatively desirable i.e. make other places so there is not such a push to leave other places.

Putting it another way — if you really want to slow down growth, make Vancouver ugly and unattractive and more auto-centric. Every time you improve Vancouver you make it wonderful and more desirable and hence more expensive.

It’s a good problem to have while it is still a problem. Though of course, which “problem” do you prefer? You _cannot_ make Vancouver nicer and keep it “affordable.”