The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream
Leinberger, Christopher. The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2008.
The main point of this book is the idea that we currently are in a social and economic position in the history of the US to choose between developing walkable urban space or drivable sub-urban (he always hyphenates this word) space or some combination of these two extremes. He explains how drivable sub-urban real estate was turned into a commodity that could be traded on the stock exchange. This commoditization explains the uniformity of every suburban streetscape in the country. There are 19 standard drivable sub-urban products that are recognized as commodities that can be bought and sold on the NYSE. That seems hard for me to believe that the explanation is so simple.