Len Beyea writes that “The modern city has grown up during the era of the automobile, resulting in sprawling land use, paving over of up to 60% of urban space, loss of productive farm and range lands, forests, and wetlands, destruction of riparian habitats, and increased runoff and erosion; while within the urban spaces offering a lack of walkable neighborhoods and real centers of social and civic engagements, financially unsustainable infrastructure, traffic jams, and almost total dependence on private motorized transportation for shopping, school, work and basic services.”

Additional Resources

Local groups working on Santa Cruz area planning issues:

• Downtown Commons Advocates – https://downtowncommonsadvocates.weebly.com
• Campaign for Sustainable Transportation – http://sustainabletransportationsc.org

And further information about New Urbanism, walkable cities, transit-oriented development, etc (and this is a very partial list):

• Congress for the New Urbanism – http://www.cnu.org
• New Urbanism – http://www.newurbanism.org
• Articles, Events, and Resources on Sprawl Repair – http://sprawlrepair.com
• Strong Towns is an international movement that’s dedicated to making communities across the United States and Canada financially strong and resilient – https://www.strongtowns.org
• City Repair Project – https://cityrepair.org
• National Complete Streets Coalition  https://smartgrowthamerica.org/program/national-complete-streets-coalition/
• Original Green – http://www.originalgreen.org – this website emphasizes the importance of the collective wisdom of sustainability in contrast to technical fixes – the collective knowledge and traditions of vernacular architecture and land use that enabled our ancestors to survive and thrive without modern technology
• “Owned: A Tale of Two Americas” – https://www.ownedfilm.com
• Placemakers – We’re planners, urban designers, form-based code wranglers, storytellers, advisors and advocates. http://www.placemakers.com