News Brief

Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities

by Timothy Beatley. Island Press, Washington, DC, 2000. Paperback, 491 pages, $30.

A professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Timothy Beatley has a lot to say about cities. Green Urbanism was born of his hope that European urban development might inspire Americans and guide our progress toward “more sustainable, more resource-efficient, and less environmentally extractive and damaging” urban areas.

Green Urbanism’s almost 400 densely packed pages explore various aspects of this broad topic, including housing and land-use patterns, mobility and transit systems, green building, renewable energy, economic development, local governance, and perhaps most important, the integration of these and other approaches.

Most of the book consists of detailed examples drawn from 25 of the most progressive European cities. Beatley’s case studies range in scope from major restructuring plans with the broad aim of reducing a city’s ecological footprint to more easily digestible components, such as cohousing and public bicycle-sharing programs. Each chapter ends with “Lessons for American Cities,” suggesting modifications to the European examples and recognizing American cities that have already taken the initiative in green development.

Though Beatley never defines his intended audience, the book seems to cater to empowered decision-makers already fluent in the underlying arguments for sustainable design. Beatley acknowledges “a healthy debate about density and compactness as desirable planning goals” but never explores that debate, assuming perhaps that his readers have heard it all before. Even without such an introduction, the case studies demonstrate green urbanism’s potential advantages.

The challenge of making our cities sustainable is daunting, and Beatley’s enthusiasm is welcome. But Green Urbanism may overestimate the success of even the best European examples as well as their transplantability to an American context. For example, our political climate would likely thwart a packaging law such as Germany’s, which requires manufacturers to take back their packaging waste or otherwise arrange for its collection and reuse. American cultural barriers would stymie other ideas such as Freiburg, Germany’s creative public transit promotional campaign, which has included printing tram ads on beer coasters and condoms.

Regardless of exactly how successful European cities have been or how effective European tactics might prove west of the Atlantic, Beatley’s point is well taken: more sustainable urban development is possible. American cities can and must do better.

– JB

 

Published September 1, 2002

(2002, September 1). Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities. Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/newsbrief/green-urbanism-learning-european-cities

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