A Country Of Cities: A Manifesto For Urban America By Chakrabarti

Pollution. Overpopulation. Global warming. At the heart of these problems lies humanity and its self-centered way of life. In his book, A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for Urban America, Vishaan Chakrabarti attempts to address one cause of these afflictions by focusing on the phenomenon of urbanization. He promotes urbanization as an alternative for suburbanization, but fails to investigate the legalities involved in implementing his ideas and fails to notice or address several fallacies in his plans. Chakrabarti proposes large-scale urban living instead of suburban living. He raises several points concerning the lowering of costs in many areas, such as transportation, living, and housing. In more rural areas, individual vehicles are deployed

He suggests that if more areas were organized into dense urban areas, these cleaner transportation means could be employed more, thus reducing waste. Chakrabarti also proposes an “up,” as opposed to an “out,” way of thinking, explaining that housing prices could gradually increase as air right prices increase. The encouragement of “hyperdensity,” a term Chakrabarti coins often, would increase efficiency while decreasing prices of living and housing as well as pollution and sprawling waste. Chakrabarti’s ideas would be somewhat difficult to implement at local levels, as well as at state and federal government levels. These ideas would have to be passed by the Taylor County Commissioners’ Court or by the Abilene City Council. The Court and the Council would not likely pass this referendum, considering that many in this area have large plots of land that they are not willing to sacrifice. Additionally, Abilene is a small town in relation to cities such as Dallas. If the ideas were to be implemented at the state level, a bill would be introduced by a representative or senator, proposed to either the Texas Senate or the Texas

Although more people would be forced to live closer together, the minorities and poor would likely still be pushed to the bottom levels of his models. In fact, the aggravated size differences between buildings would exacerbate the separation between the rich majority and the poor minorities because the taller buildings would cost more to live within them. The height difference would also increase segregation psychologically, as shorter buildings would represent the “smallness” of those living in them. While Chakrabarti does have some undeniably brilliant ideas, such as the allowances for light and air through careful placement of tall and short buildings, the segregation that would likely become extreme in such “model” cities is unavoidable. However, Chakrabarti’s model does provide a viable solution for pollution problems, as mass transport would become a part of daily life. If the proposed subways and buildings were made to run on clean energy, such as solar panels, the collective reduction of “dirtier” types of energy would be enormous. In fact, the entire hyperdense city could theoretically be run on clean energy. Chakrabarti’s model could potentially be the clean-energy breakthrough for which the environmental community has been