Friday TED talk: James Howard Kunstler: The ghastly tragedy of the suburbs

Every Friday between now and the screening of the Jan Gehl film The Human Scale at the Hackney Empire in January, we're hosting a Friday TED Talk to promote thinking and discussion about how streets and cities work, and what we'd do differently if it were up to us.

Looking at the places where we live, American writer and social critic James Howard Kunstler puts forward an at times entertaining and at times forceful opinion on the role of suburbia in planning, and the effects it has on the people who live there.  Is suburbia simply a "ghastly tragedy" as Kunstler puts it, or a by-product of our radiation towards a more urban environment?  Could it even be - shock horror - the result of market forces, with developers meeting demands because people might actually want to live there?  And putting our cycling caps on for a moment, what are the differences between suburban and urban cycling?  Is one more dangerous than the other by default, but which is more appealing?

Tune in with an open mind for a little Friday lunch time learning...

Jan Gehl will present "The Human Scale" at Hackney Empire Theatre on January 23rd 2014 - buy your tickets online now.

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