For the first 18 years of my life I lived in small cities and rural areas. This lead to a complete dependency on automobiles because almost nothing was walking, or even biking, distance. An unquestioned acceptance of the consequences of automobiles came with this – air pollution being one obvious example.
Small cities can also contribute to poor eating habits – (this seems true of most small town USA, particularly in the Midwest). There are not many options. Eating healthy can be expensive and is so often ignored. You’re more likely to accept without thought the eating habits of those around you because alternatives aren’t apparent. Luckily for me both of my parents are doctors and did a good job of making a variety of healthy foods available. Still, those around me then and America’s food culture then and now affect my eating decisions – I wonder what long-term effects a life time of fast food and frozen dinners will have on my health.
The semi-rural area where I grew up also had (I think overwhelmingly) positive affects. We lived out of the city limits in the forest. This overturned any negative health affects of automobile dependency. Woods exploration was a near everyday activity. This offered more than enough exercise and outdoor exposure to compensate for drives everywhere else. An endless package of natural phenomena to keep my mind busy, swamps, ponds, trees, animals, easy access to camping, and fishing, gave me love and appreciation for the natural world around me (not the “built environment�, I know, but where our environment was built).
Since then I have lived in much more urban areas.
Anchorage, AK
Anchorage, Alaska was a nature lovers dream but somehow depressing and isolated, even from ideas.
Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles is unarguably urban but I relied on my car more than ever. Close access to the mountains was an unexpected perk. Food was everywhere and anything. The mass flow of ideas – the variety of music venues and movies and art exhibitions – completed the well rounded experience that I consider very positive.
San Diego, CA
San Diego was calm. Living downtown made most places easily accessible by foot or bicycle. The hills to the east and the beaches to the west were beautiful. I always wanted to be outside, even if it was raining.
Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix was hot and dirty. But it’s because of this that so many new ideas and programs related to sustainability are born there. Some intelligent minds are working vigorously on air pollution, water conservation, and cheaper, more energy efficient ways of cooling buildings. Still, developmental mistakes of the past are blaring. Car travel was a must, all the houses look the same and they sprawl into the beautiful desert only to be engulfed by more identical houses, there is no “downtown� (or one that you’d want to traverse by foot, much of the city smells bad . . . I never wanted to be outside, except if it was raining.
Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis has been a pleasant experience. Bus travel is easy – I rarely use a car. I can walk to get groceries, to get pizza, to get sushi, or to a park. I can bike almost anywhere else I need to go. Downtown has culture and I don’t mind walking it (unless it’s extremely cold).
The built environment has allowed me to move quickly and relatively painlessly from built environment to built environment. I experience different places because of it. I have instant communication with people across the country (or across the world) because of it. A travel to a place because of it and I travel away from a place because of it. It can bring or push me toward nature. It can lure me to or force me from itself. Its influence on me is in its connections.