February 02, 2008
Dense communities, not nifty cars

WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: My Other Car is a Bright Green City

"The best car-related innovation we have is not to improve the car, but eliminate the need to drive it everywhere we go.

And the amount of density the study's authors call for is extremely modest. They encourage building new projects at a density of 13 homes per acre, raising the average national density from 7.6 units per acre to 9 an acre."

Let's see. Lower East Side of Manhattan had record density in 1910 of 120 households per acre. 375,000 people per square mile, 640 acres per square mile, 586 people per acre. Today, that figure is 227 people per acre. 100 homes per acre?

NYC is the Greenest City in America

"The key to New York's relative environmental benignity is its extreme compactness. Manhattan's population density is more than eight hundred times that of the nation as a whole. Placing one and a half million people on a twenty-three-square-mile island sharply reduces their opportunities to be wasteful, and forces the majority to live in some of the most inherently energy efficient residential structures in the world: apartment buildings. It also frees huge tracts of land for the rest of America to sprawl into."

But the tradeoff may be in disaster preparedness.

The Columbia Journalist - In Event of Natural Disaster, City’s 8 Million Residents Would Be In Trouble, Experts Say

"...even those who do own a vehicle may not be able to leave the city in a hurry. That’s because many of the crucial transportation arteries lie dangerously within the lowest regions.

Even the tamest of hurricanes would likely produce a storm surge of about 7.5 feet around New York City, according to a 2000 report organized by the federal government’s U.S. Global Change Research Program. Likewise, Category 2 or 3 storms would bring a rise in sea level of at least 17.2 to 20.5 feet respectively.

Most major bridges, tunnels and subway lines have openings well below these surge levels."

Should we keep our little inflatable boat in Manhattan, in case the subways and tunnels flood? Could we paddle across the Hudson?

Posted by Dave at February 02, 2008 11:34 PM