American Cities, Suburban Sprawl, and the Threat of Terrorism

Abstract

It takes only the first raw scent of the smoldering piles of debris at Ground Zero in New York, and a quick glance at the gust of blasted, black-charred buildings fluttering in a smoky wind, to immediately agree with President George W. Bush that the attacks were a direct strike at what he called “the American way of life.” That way of life is not only tied to our freedom and mobility. It's also expressed in the wasteful design of our sprawling communities and the need to sustain them by reaching ever deeper into the far corners of the globe to satisfy American demand for oil, minerals, timber, labor, and capital. Keith Schneider, 2001