What Champions Of Urban Density Get Wrong

Just because it's physically possible to squeeze more buildings and people into a city doesn't mean that you should.

After a century of encouraging Americans to light out for the open spaces of suburbia, the nation's development gurus have now decided that what we really need are more crowds. Not just more people, but more tall buildings, more shops, more restaurants and more amenities, all of it crammed together in a compact geographic area. The planning shorthand for such concentrated development is "density" and it is hailed as a market-driven cure for a myriad of the world's problems. By increasing density in our cities and towns, planners say we can reduce dependence on carbon-spewing automobiles, slow environmentally destructive sprawl, increase our stock of affordable housing—while making cities safer and more fun places to live.

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