Ecocities: Chapter 4 The City in History

I chose this chapter because of my belief that to get anywhere you need to understand where you are and where you have been (though someone has probably said that more eloquently). While providing a history of city development, Register's history is also about reminding the reader that "the quest for the city in balance with nature has almost certainly been part of a dream of human fulfillment since cities first emerged." (first sentence). Register says, in essence, that because cities worked so well, production became over-production and inhabitants became consumers first and foremost. Register believes that by looking at rural village delvelopment and urban history we can understand where cities should be going - that the Ecocity of today pulls elements from both into its design. What can be learned from villages is the importance of folkway tradition, interconnectivity, and limited production. Villages tend to only produce what the inhabitants need, whereas cities are now centered on over-consumption of resources.
Beatley and Register are in agreement that land use planning is both an ill and a solution in the modern city. Beatley does a good job of comparing American and European zoning and showing how the European is more adapted to sustainable development. One criticism I would level at Beatley is his seemingly random use of statitical data to make some of his key arguements. This first jumped out at me on the second page with table 2.1. Beatley is using this data to compare density figures between European and American cities. Although he is drawing on someone else's research he gives no framework as to why these particular cities are to be compared. His list of American cities includes some of the worst offenders with regard to density (Phoenix, Los Angeles, Dallas) and compares them to European cities that he is lauding as being the greatest models of density. What about San Francisco, St. Paul, or Burlington? I needed some more information as to how these cities made the cut. This chart made me immediately suspicious of Beatley, but I especially liked that he included in the chapter sections hypotheses on why European cities have historically developed more sustainably than American cities. I'll add that with my antenna already raised I thought his comparison of handgun deaths in the UK to those in the entire US a bit overdramatic. Still, Beatley does point out that European cities still face decentralization. It is and will be interesting to learn from how these cities will deal and are dealing with this problem.