Sprawling from Grace: The Consequences of Suburbanization - 2008 - Movie Review

6/14/2012

"What you've got with the suburban living arrangement and all of its accessories, can be described as the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world." -Author James Howard Kunstler, bold, but believable.

Suburbia and Me

The idea of suburban sprawl has captivated me for some time. Besides the cultural oddity that it is and the negative and positive aspects associated with it, it constantly comes up in conversation when I tell people where I'm from.

"Let me put it this way. If America could harness the energy
that it would get from blowing smoke up its own ass we 
would solve the energy problem."
-Author James Howard Kunstler. Well said, sir!

Me: Rochester, NY. It's a small city right by Lake Ontario.
Expat: I've been to Westchester before.
Me: It's about 6 hours from NYC. Not nearly as exciting either.
Expat: Oh, is it a big city?
Me: About a million.
Expat: O wow, sounds like a vibrant metropolis.

I loved Taipei and I love Kaohsiung for all the reasons that I didn't love Rochester. The vibrant metropolis that 1,000,000 people should provide disappears with most people living in the suburbs, the absence of walkable areas (minus the wonderful and cheap park ave area for all you Rochesterians), and nearly nonexistent public transportation. As unappealing as it all sounds to me, this is the life that millions of Americans are living, just as many dream about, and many countries worldwide strive to emulate.

Misses, but Hits

Sprawling from Grace explores this phenomenon to a limited extent and makes a few very interesting points that I haven't heard before, but, contrary to its misnomer, is better suited as a promotional tool for urban living and public transportation. Although it does a good job explaining the issues associated with oil dependence and how our way of life perpetuates this very serious problem, many other documentaries also do this very well or better and I was hoping for a more in-depth look at the process of suburbanization.

The documentary does have a wide selection of interviews of knowledgeable policymakers and experts that provide a strong narrative throughout, such as Michael Dukakis and the ever-entertaining James Howard Kunstler. They offer a lot of interesting statistics and a good historical perspective on our oil dependency from the '70's oil embargo to the iraq war to the impending housing crisis (this doc came out just before the crash). The convincing case they make is that our lifestyle is unsustainable because of our dependence on the car and suburban living.

"And why did we do this? We didn't understand the impact of what we were doing at the time...You could buy a house for 8, 9, 10 thousand bucks. And who would blame people at the time, who wanted to move out of cold water flats and urban slums and get their piece of the American Dream. Unfortunately, we forgot about how we were going to get back from home to work and back again." - Michael Dukakis

Sprawling argues that the American Dream of suburban
living is central to our dependence on oil

Frank, Candid, Forthright Reality

The idea that change will only happen after peak oil is
echoed by Sprawling

One thing I really liked about Sprawling's perspective on this problem was its realism. Where many documentaries extoll the belief that people will come around and we can beat this problem with good will and lots of love, this doc comes right out and says we will change when peak oil hits, and not before. As disheartening as this is, they make a strong point that the social rut we find ourselves in as complete car dependents, the completely unfeasible economic cost that the necessary infrastructure changes require, and the ferver with which we hold onto the American dream all show that we are very unlikely to respond without a heavy financial push. They also speak frankly about renewables as a replacement for oil. When discussing the replacement of oil with renewable sources of energy, James Kustler comes out with another great and sobering point that we rarely hear:

"We're gonna use all of these things in one way or another, and I'm not saying i'm against the idea of using alternative fuels. But we're gonna be very disappointed in what they can actually do for us and we're probably gonna be disappointed in the level and quality of innovation that comes along. There's not gonna be a rescue remedy for this."

Ethanol is a perfect example of an alternative fuel failing
to deliver on our expectations

A Culture in Decay

The other side of this documentary brings us back to the difference between cities like Rochester, Detroit, and Buffalo and cities like DC, New York, and Taipei. Cities that have experience large amounts of growth in the suburbs have generally also experienced large amounts of urban decay. Cities like DC and New York are exceptions to the rule, one because of the focus around a fixed center of jobs, the federal government, and one presumably because of the physical limitations of manhattan being an island and a subway system predating the automobile. The Sprawling identifies many negative lifestyle impacts of suburbanization here, including separation of societies such as with gated communities, the stress induced by long commutes and traffic, and a lack of community togetherness. Mark Falcone, the CEO of Continuum Partners, made an interesting point on this: "[We are trying to] give a suburban city a center...I had just moved to Colorodo when Columbine High School happened, and it was remarkable to me nobody seemed to know where to go to gather...there was no place to mourn..."

The solution for all of these problems is basically given as public transportation and creating walkable cities. It seems a weak conclusion because it still relies on peak oil to drive the price up and create a catastrophe before it will really happen, but it may not be far from the truth. They also show that this is beginning to happen in various cities, but the process is far too slow to have a serious effect on oil consumption or suburban sprawl.

A Good One: Transportation Gentrification

Sprawling mentions that with suburban living, heavy
traffic will be created by the poor after peak oil,
with the wealthy moving closer to public transport 

One very interesting issue mentioned was the possibility of gentrification of public transportation centers, such as areas surrounding subway stations, after peak oil hits and urbanization again becomes very attractive. Rich people will drive up the price of areas with good access to public transportation and there will still be a massive population of middle class and poor with no choice but to drive everywhere; simply a redistribution of socioeconomic classes with the same result. The solution to this is providing public transportation to ALL as an alternative to driving, bringing up the problem of the inefficiency of providing public transportation to low density suburban housing. Their ideal "city" put forward is one with small pockets of high density housing with walkable access to all necessities, such as schools, employment, grocery stores, and entertainment, and public transportation access to the other small pockets of civilization. I think it's a novel idea and maybe even very effective and pleasant as a living environment, but still on the other side of peak oil from where we stand.

Outro

One excellent quote to go out on is from Randy Udall, founding member of Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas:

"How are you going to get that civilization to 2100? Nobody in the United States has a clue."