Viana Garcia

Planning for Sustainable Communities

Written Reflection #1

It should be no secret or surprise that colonization has greatly affected the development
of many countries including the US and is deeply engrained in our systems. In the US today
where people recognize the kind of development of single-family homes and ideals of
individualism, I think it is hard to envision any changes to the way we are accustomed. Some of
these changes are perceived as a threat to privacy and the nuclear family unit. The WA state HB
1110 on middle housing regulations is new legislation that is an example of this, as it is seen as
polarizing to many Washington residents. It is always difficult to create change, especially for
people who do not see any problems with the way housing has been developed and who are not
directly affected by the housing crisis.

In this quest for individualism and the American dream, there has been a huge disconnect
between planning and the health of our cities correlated to public health issues. As mentioned in
the article “Defining Pathways to Healthy Sustainable Urban Development” (Tonne et al., 2021),
urbanization and systems of capitalism have many connections to public health and there is a
lack of research on the correlation between the two. New Urbanism and the UN Sustainable
Development Goals are certainly relevant to the US, if not particularly pertinent because they
attempt to join planning efforts and social public health issues. In this country, we have had such
a strong focus on the economic point of the Planner’s triangle that there is a need for a strong
swing towards a focus on social equitability and public health if we wish to have sustainable
urban development. Even though the US is a wealthy developed country, we still have a lot of
the problems that are addressed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals such as access to
food, poverty, equity, and public health. Because in the US we have an abundance of capital
resources to be able to more easily address some of these issues, sustainable urban development
outlined by the UN goals is very possible if there is enough political will to choose sustainability.

Another issue that inhibits sustainable urban development in the US is the emergence of
suburbs and the presence of high-tech industries converting them to “technoburbs”. Technoburbs
emerge as development determined by the free market. As long as industries continue to hold the
power in those spaces I think it is unrealistic to assume that these rising economic centers will
dissolve any time soon. Similarly to adopting the UN Sustainable Development Goals, more
attention and care must be given to the environmental and social equity sectors of sustainability,
rather than solely considering the economic vitality and viewing residents as “employees”
(Corbusier, 1929). In order for technoburbs and suburbs to have a role in a sustainable future,
more thought and care needs to go into the quality of housing as well as the character that is
desired. More unique middle housing developments like cottage-style housing would be
beneficial to technoburbs to give a better sense of place and to give character to these otherwise
bland and lifeless communities.
 Resources

Cathryn Tonne, et. al. 2021. Defining Pathways to healthy sustainable urban development,
Environment International, 146: 106236.

Fishman, R. 1987. “Beyond Suburbia: The Rise of the Technoburb” from Bourgeois Utopias: The
Rise and Fall of Suburbia (1987), pp. 75-83.

Le Corbusier, 1929. “A Contemporary City” from The City of Tomorrow and its Planning
(1929), pp. 336-344.

United Nations, 2017. NEW URBAN AGENDA. From habitat3.org.