Abbreviated Notes: The Geography of Nowhere

Below are some abbreviated notes on Chapters 7, 8, & 9 in "The Geography of Nowhere." So, after your presentations tomorrow we'll pick up with Chapter 10 in the book, and should be able to finish it by the end of next week.

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE EVIL EMPIRE

A. The "evil empire" being the automobile-suburb. Kunstler focuses on the considerable social, ecological, and aesthetic shortcomings of this evil empire.

1. Although suburbs are generally regarded as better places to rear children, Kunstler highlights the impediments to children moving about safely in the modern suburb. Roads are often too wide, giving rise to higher traffic speeds, and many suburban streets lack sidewalks which are very expensive for homeowners with large lots. And in shopping areas with huge parking lots, larger arterial roads almost never have sidewalks, which makes it difficult for children, the elderly, even adults to negociate on foot.

2. He talks about the extreme separation of uses and vast distances between things as another significant contributor to our over-reliance on the auotmobile. This grew out of the first zoning ordinances which sought to separate residential from commercial from noisy, smelly factories. It once may have served a valid purpose, but not so much anymore, and today it is taken to extremes -- separating high-income areas from low-income areas.

3. Kunstler says the least understood, and most difficult to measure, consequence of this is the loss of a SENSE OF PLACE (i.e., "the geography of nowhere").

a.) Notes the general impoverishment of public building.

b.) He challenges the claim made by some that the mall is an adequate substitute for the traditional Main Street (see, pp. 119-120).

c.) Criticizes the typical strip development on major highways coming into a city as gaudy and ugly.

d.) He notes the failure of academics who should have been more critical and foresighted with respect to this destructive pattern of suburban development.

B. He closes the chapter by highlighting some urban areas that have managed to maintain neighborhoods and roads that are more human scale and aesthetically pleasing, such as Charleston, SC. And from an economic standpoint, he notes how such areas have maintained their real estate value as well, if not better, than the artificial, isolated subdivisions of McMansions.

C. Finally, the "geography of nowhere" theme is captured well in the last paragraph of the chapter, p. 131.


CHAPTER EIGHT: HOW TO MESS UP A TOWN

A. Kunstler uses his hometown of Saratoga Springs, NY as a case study of how to mess up a town. It could just as easily be Spartanburg, SC or any small or medium-sized town in America.

1. Especially telling is the development of a commercial strip on the way into town -- South Broadway (think West Main or Asheville Highway in Spartanburg).

2. A good, insightful, observation: "The unwillingness to think about the public realm of the street in any other terms besides traffic (or commercial exploitation, I would add), shows how little value Americans confer on the public realm in general." (p. 138)

3. Also notes that after WWII there was little interest in fixing up the old. We wanted new things. And since gas was plentiful and cheap, why not build with the car in mind.


CHAPTER NINE: A PLACE CALLED HOME

A. Kunstler provides a critical history of architectural styles of houses, which culminates in the mass-produced home of the post-WWII period. "These housing 'products' represent a triumph of mass merchandising over regional building traditions, of salesmanship over civilization." (p. 166) -- and he goes on to make some further critical observations on this same page.

B. Again, the final paragraph of this chapter (p. 173) captures well this "geography of nowhere" theme as it relates to housing in particular.
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Again, that brings us up to Chapter Ten. DON'T FORGET, YOUR CITY PAPERS ARE DUE TOMORROW (THURS. 12/2) AND AFTER YOUR PRESENTATIONS WE WILL GET BACK TO "THE GEOGRAPHY OF NOWHERE."