In a world where making a quick buck is the only thing that most people care about, there is a group of residents in Santa Barbara, California that are making preserving their community character a priority. Save El Pueblo Viejo has been organized to preserve the historical and human-scale character of Santa Barbara, especially its downtown, in the face of new development that threatens it. Thank God there is one sane community on this planet that can serve as a beacon to the rest of us and show… Continue

Cut and past the following URL into your browser bar http://reversezone.blogdns.com/ and then scroll down to the entry for Jan 21, 2008 "Place to Grow -- Pictures tell the story". It will you a pictoral representation of how the addition of highrises to a city street destroys the human scale that it once had.

James Howard Kunstler is a leading opponent of urban sprawl especially in regards to how much energy is wasted as a result of people commuting long distances to go to and from work. In that regard, one might think that Kunstler would favour the construction of highrises because to some they are the antithesis of sprawl. But here is what Kunstler actually says about highrises from an interview conducted by The Tyee website in 2006:

"The Tyee: Urbanists say that Vancouver is outperforming America… Continue

Prince Charles stated that new highrises that are being proposed for London threaten to ruin its historic character and diminish the value of heritage sites. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080201.wprincecharles0201/BNStory/International/

Compact development is a concept that I support, but it can be accomplished without compromising human-scale urban design. A case in point is the reaction of some members of Carlsbad, CA city council to a proposal to densify their downtown in order to promote transit-oriented development. http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/01/23/news/coastal/2_02_221_22_08.txt