The sustainable reader - "The Next American Metropolis"

This section begins by talking about the "American Dream" and the "American Metropolis." When thinking about development and sustainability it is important to realize that the "American Dream" has changed and that the "American Metropolis" has not yet changed to fit what Americans today desire.

According to the article "American's Love cars." This concept is easy to understand, just look at the difference between American cars and European cars. Along with this love of cars, Americans also love walkable neighborhoods and seek social networks within them. In this case, pedestrians are very important. The author, Peter Calthrope, say that neighborhood development calls for balance and the "integration of seemingly opposing forces". This balance was termed "Transit-Oriented Development (TOB)"

While reading the specifics of the definition of TOB. I was trying to envision how Bloomington relates to this definition. The public transportation in this city is very well done, in my opinion. The streets are generally pedestrian and bicycle friendly and the down-town area seems to encourage people to park and walk around.

Included in the definition of TOB where detailed descriptions of the residential systems. The author stressed the importance of front porches and the placement of the garage. I was really interested in the focus on the location of the garage. So many new house today have the garage as the dominating feature of the home. A family comes home, pulls in that garage, the garage closes and you never see any people. What seems as something so simple really does have a large impact on the sociability of the neighborhood. When thinking about Bloomington, I realized that I haven't really seen that many car garages. Most people seem to park on the street and I often see lots of people sitting on their porches looking out into the community.

Finally, I really think Bloomington is fitting this model well with the use of green spaces, parks and recreation (such as the farmer's market that I went to this morning"

The one thing that I think Bloomington really needs to work on is the quality of sidewalks and bike paths. Many of the side walks on the way to class are overgrown with shrubs and are uneven in many areas. This makes walking, especially at night, kind of hazardous.