Last Harvest

I was listening, very casually, to NPR last weekend and suddenly I hear some guy talking about sprawl and suburbs and going out and really talking to the people who live there about what they like about it...and I think, 'damn! he stole my project!" As it turns out there is room enough for the two of us (he is not a knitter for one thing). His name is by Witold Rybczynski and he is, among other things, a writer. He has written a book called Last Harvest: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville: Real Estate Development in America from George Washington to the Builders of the Twenty-first Century, and Why We Live in Houses Anyway.

I have only read about the first 50 pages or so, but it is an interesting take on the changing look of suburban development in the US. As a resident of Sunnyside Gardens, I can atest to the success of living in a walkable, mixed use community centered around common green spaces. If this is the future of development, as Mr. Rybczynski seems to be suggesting, then that is a good thing.