Cities are green

via WorldChanging, an excellent view on urbanization:

The construction of high-rise apartment buildings, condo clusters, and townhomes is often met with howls of protest. But high-density development is good for the environment. It is a solution to traffic gridlock and long commutes. And it helps make real estate more affordable....

Developers should be free to meet the demand of those seeking the "American dream" of a single-family home with a yard. They should also be free to build multi-unit housing, especially because our demographics are changing in favor of the latter.

"Single-parent households, single-person households, empty nesters, and couples without children make up the new majority of American households, and they have quite different real estate needs," according to a report by the Urban Land Institute. "These groups are more likely to choose higher-density housing in mixed-density communities that offer vibrant neighborhoods over single-family houses far from the community core."