[shrinkermd]

The future as seen by Krugman, Pinch, NYT and the Democrat Party.

[Lx]

but Berlin is a city of trains, buses and bikes, while Atlanta is a city of cars, cars and cars.

Then what was it I rode to the airport? They have a pretty good subway.

[RockinRight]

To see what I’m talking about, consider where I am at the moment: in a pleasant, middle-class neighborhood consisting mainly of four- or five-story apartment buildings, with easy access to public transit and plenty of local shopping.

Apartments? As in, nobody owns their home? Doesn't sound middle class the way I know it.

[RockinRight]

Public transit can work for some people, but it’s never going to work for all people. There are a lot of situations where you might have to take a job that’s out of reach of public transit because you need a job and that’s the one you got.

[cvq3842]

Tapping some of the huge amounts of reserves on our terroitory and off our shores might help also.

[steel_resolve]

with easy access to public transit

And that is an option for everyone, right?...right?

[BuffaloJack]

Sounds like they want us all to live in inner city communes.
Don’t they call them ghettos?

[A_perfect_lady]

... neighborhood consisting mainly of four- or five-story apartment buildings, with easy access to public transit and plenty of local shopping. It’s the kind of neighborhood in which people don’t have to drive a lot, but it’s also a kind of neighborhood that barely exists in America, even in big metropolitan areas.

They're called public housing and we have lots of them. They're easy to find. Follow the sound of gunfire.

[RockinRight]

And there are, as always in America, the issues of race and class. Despite the gentrification that has taken place in some inner cities, and the plunge in national crime rates to levels not seen in decades, it will be hard to shake the longstanding American association of higher-density living with poverty and personal danger.

You're looking too hard at this. For many of us, this:

is simply more appealing and desireable than this:

My wife and I actually live in a condo/townhome development and like it as a starter home, but the top pic is our eventual goal, not the bottom one.

[anonsquared]

Dear NY Times dimwits,
Then I guess you better learn how to grow all your own food on those NY City rooftops, because we out here in the country are not going to waste precious fuel getting our organic produce to such an undeserving bunch!

[donna]

Free people are very creative.

If the government would just leave us alone we’ll figure out 10-different ways to get around. All without government “help”.

[HoosierHawk]

...Americans will face increasingly strong incentives to start living like Europeans — maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of our lives.

Sounds like he's looking forward to it.

[HappyinAZ]

three words..........DRILL IN ANWAR..he’s an idiot.

[primeval patriot]

...the longstanding American association of higher-density living with poverty and personal danger.

No amount of hectoring and guilt tripping of Americans is going to change that reality. The danger is real, it's not some perception caused by ignorance. And that aside, many productive citizens don't want to put up with the degradation and filth of urban living.

[Interesting Times]

Notice that I said that cars should be fuel-efficient — not that people should do without cars altogether.

How magnanimous.

The arrogance of the liberal elites never ceases to entertain.

[The Electrician]

To see what I’m talking about, consider where I am at the moment: in a pleasant, middle-class neighborhood consisting mainly of four- or five-story apartment buildings, with easy access to public transit and plenty of local shopping.

Does anybody believe for a moment that Paul Krugman would entertain for even a millisecond the thought of Krugman himself or any of his cronies actually living in such a "pleasant, middle-class neighborhood consisting mainly of four- or five-story apartment buildings, with easy access to public transit and plenty of local shopping"?

Busybodies and harpies such as Krugman are constantly telling everybody else where to live and how to manage their pathetic and miserable little lives - but, strangely, they never seem to take their own advice...

[ottbmare]

"here are the two secrets of coping with expensive oil: own fuel-efficient cars, and don’t drive them too much."

Easy to say, Paul. But Europe is a much smaller place than the US, so of course it's easier for Europeans to avoid driving.

I have Dutch friends who used to lecture me about how Americans needed to start biking to and from work. I invited them to try it. They all tried it once and found that the hills, extremes of weather, and long distances made commuting or errand-running by bike impossible.

[Myrddin]

Agenda 21 at work. Force everyone into big cities. Making gas exorbitantly expensive kills mobility. The fallacy is that the U.S. is not laid out in a fashion conducive to using trains and subways. The "public" transit that does exist runs mostly empty at taxpayer expense. It simply doesn't go between where people live and where they need to go.

[The Toll]

I’m from Atlanta and Krugman wouldn’t last 5 minutes on MARTA!

[Little Pig]

There’s only one aspect of European life I wouldn’t mind seeing adopted here: greater acceptance of motorcycles.

I sometimes think that these socialists’ plans might not be all bad if it tricks the yuppies into abandoning their push into the countryside so that those of us who appreciate it can enjoy the place without their interference.

[Mamzelle]

Nothing is more tiresome than a pretentious US urban liberal expounding on the glories of European life to us hicks. I just so wish they’d go live there and shut up.