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Should we remove "green" standards for dense buildings in urban locations?

greenleaf

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Found here: http://www.p4sc.org/articles/all/duany-predicts-decline-strict-green-building-standards

"[New Urbanist co-founder Andres Duany] said that high-density development in urban locations which entail less reliance on private cars should get a free pass on energy efficiency or energy generation standards. "Don't make apartment dwellers install solar power," he said. "They are doing their part just by living densely and driving less."

He ridiculed the notion that single-family homes would ever lose popularity or that they should be squeezed out by public policy. But he did suggest that they be subject to more efficiency requirements to compensate for the inherent inefficiency of this use of land."

From what I've read, this idea also goes hand-in-hand with Ed Glaeser's ideas in his new book that building and living in dense urban areas is already the "greenest" thing humans can do.
 
Ask that bigot Duany about public housing. He and his buddy Kunstler don't give a shit about the poor. Shit, Kunstler said in the 1990s that the poor are the losers, who cares about them... this was at a university in illinois. Their planning is profit-oriented, and aims at making a profit. Hence it's not really about sustainability. They use sustainability as a smokescreen to make more money.
 
They use sustainability as a smokescreen to make more money.
I don't know anything about this guy, but I'm not sure what the problem is with this per se, since that line I quoted just seems like smart business practice. I have no problem with someone trying to make money with green initiatives, as long as it's done properly. The problem arises when it isn't done properly.

Oh, and I'm not sure what giving a crap about the poor has to do with the original post.

To put it bluntly, in a western economy, if your approach to sustainability is to metaphorically sing kumbaya in a kibbutz, you're not going to accomplish very much.
 

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