Ecomunicipality.com

Sometime after WW II, riding cheap land, cheap oil and the U.S. Government's desire to pave the way for developers' latest and greatest idea, the suburb was born. Take some farm land, carve out lots, ribbon in the roads, then put up houses--mass produce houses--and get government to pay for remaining infrastructure and services.

The result has been an historic change in America's landscape, social history and civic infrastructure. People get a house cheap, they avoid the issues, congestion and noise of inner cities, and, with some driving every day, get to experience the American dream of comfort, security and success.

Only, as with most of America's exceptionalism fantasy, the dream has quietly, steadily revealed itself a nightmare. From the re-segregation of America's neighborhoods and schools, to the over-consumption of fossil fuels, to the loss of integral community in our social fabric, the suburb looks, sounds and smells more like an albatross around America's civic neck than our great innovation.