News, Apr 8, 2010
Chris Leinberger responds to New York Times column on urban and suburban futures

Chris Leingberger, a Taubman College Professor of Practice in Urban and Regional Planning and Director of the Graduate Certificate in Real Estate Development, provided a response to David Brooks’ recent column in The New York Times.

Leinberger parallels Brooks’ summarization of a prediction from a book called The Next Hundred Milllion; American in 2050 with his own personal research on urban downtown revivals and self-sufficient suburban villages. He links these areas to the public need for walkable urban places—as “upward of 70 percent of this demand will take place in the suburbs while the rest will be the redevelopment of center cities,” according to Leinberger.

Leinberger argues that “transportation drivese development” and that we must “build the second half of the American transportation system—rail and bus transit and bikes and walking—while repairing our exiisting roadway system” in order to create walkable urban places for the people.

Leinberger’s response, “Remake Transportation Policy to Meet Market Demand,” was published online on April 6, 2010, in The New Republic.

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