[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 17:22:57 05/26/09
When GM depicted a new vision of the good life for Americans at the 1939 World’s Fair (vivid pictures of a highway system that ran through the rural farmland into the heart of a well-ordered urban environment, where every family would own at least one car and would use it as their primary mode of transportation) it looked like a dream come true.
And you know what? It worked. A lot of people shared that dream. We have freeways connecting every major city in America. Most families in America have not just one but two or three cars.
We also have gridlock traffic.
And pollution.
And an addiction to foreign oil.
Our health is in danger from sitting too much and moving too little. And we’ve undermined the natural advantages of cities for innovation, opportunity and efficiency by spreading too few people over too much land.
It is increasingly clear that the old American dream is shattered. We need a new American dream to replace it, a dream better suited for today’s realities. We need a new definition of the good life.
Do you have ideas that can help? Post them here.
