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James Howard Kunstler in Tacoma on April 23rd
Exit133 and Local Life Tacoma have partnered to bring author and speaker James Howard Kunstler to Tacoma. You’re invited to join us at the Theater on the Square on April 23rd. Kunstler is very well known in the circles of folks that care about urban planning and livable cities. His books include Geography of Nowhere and The Long Emergency.
Local Life Tacoma is a new non-profit dedicated to improving citizen life in Tacoma. They have two forums coming up soon and lots of energy for future work.
The exact time and ticket prices are still to be determined. More details to come.
We hope you can join us.
Link | Posted on 20. February 2008, 13:23
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Very cool!
Here’s is Kunstler’s clip at the TED conference. for a preview. Pretty hardcore. Why are some places dead and desolate and others have life?
Amazing that he’s going to be able to come to Tacoma.
It’s exactly what Tacoma needs with so many ongoing efforts to improve the urban design of Tacoma, make it more vibrant and to keep Russell here.
He’s going to bring a much needed no holds barred review of Tacoma. Hang on.
If there was every a talk that city planers and their consultants should come to, this would be it.
Kunstler also keep track of what he calls Eyesore of the Month of badly designed buildings. I wonder what he will find in Tacoma?
1 | Posted by Erik B. | Feb 20, 01:57 PM
My favorite flaming windbag! Sweet!
2 | Posted by RR Anderson | Feb 20, 02:25 PM
Kunstler’s the man! I can’t believe we got him to come here. I’ve also heard him talk a lot about the future of oil and energy and his doubts that we will be able to come up with a viable alternative to sustain our current built environment. I think that’s why he’s really into livable/walkable communities. This is definitely THE conversation and direction Tacoma needs to be in if we want to be a competitive city in the future.
I found this quote this morning that reminded me of him-
“One thing is clear: the era of easy oil is over. What we all do next will determine how well we meet the energy needs of the entire world in this century and beyond.” David J. O’Reilly Chairman & CEO Chevron corp, July 20053 | Posted by Justin Mayfield | Feb 20, 02:36 PM
The Freakonomics fellas did a “quorum” blog post where they asked a lot of people about urbanization, including Kunstler.
Here’s the post.
This is what they asked: This year marked the first time in human history that more people lived in cities than in rural areas. What problems and opportunities does this present? What effects has it had on our local and global culture? Economy? Health?
4 | Posted by Erik Hanberg | Feb 20, 02:43 PM
Kunstler’s unrelenting critiques of suburban sprawl are legendary. They have inspired a couple of people in the Urban Studies department at UW-Tacoma, especially me. He, like Jane Jacobs, seems to “get urbanism” like few other people do. He truly understands the predicament that our country is in, with its investment in a living and economic arrangement that is heavily dependent upon autos and cheap and plentiful energy supplies, specifically oil.
Is he going to be speaking about anything in particular? Is he going to be speaking about peak oil or new urbanism or transit-oriented development or civic architecture or historic preservation or public space preservation?
I’d recommend that everyone reads The Geography of Nowhere and The Long Emergency before he gets here. They are compelling and fascinating reads with systematic analysis of economics, aesthetics, as they pertain to urbanism.
5 | Posted by Chris K | Feb 20, 03:08 PM
Quotes from Kunstler for your reading pleasure…
…[the] physical arrangement of life in our nation, in particular suburban sprawl, [is] the most destructive development pattern the world has ever seen, and perhaps the greatest misallocation of resources the world has ever known.
Howard Kunstler
The tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities, and ravaged countryside that makes up the everyday environment where most Americans live and work [is] … a land full of places that are not worth caring about [and] will soon be a nation and a way of life that is not worth defending.
Howard Kunstler
“The things that will help us the most will be finding a new scale of living and a new way to rebuild local, cohesive communities and cottage industries around them. We will need a new infrastructure for daily life, a new place for the human spirit to dwell and rest in for a while.”
Howard Kunstler
6 | Posted by Paul Sparks | Feb 20, 03:12 PM
I will be there. Tacoma is ready. Local life sounds like what I’m dreaming of.
7 | Posted by Daniel Blue | Feb 20, 05:55 PM
Sounds like a great event. I’ll be there for sure. I saw Kunstler on “The End of Suburbia” and really dug his ideas.
8 | Posted by Glen W | Feb 20, 06:47 PM
This is very nice, the antithesis to “Mission Accomplished”. He should raise some hackles or he wont be making his money.
9 | Posted by jdub | Feb 20, 09:41 PM
This is very nice, the antithesis to “Mission Accomplished”. He should raise some hackles or he wont be making his money.
The plan so far is to have him take a walk through various area of Tacoma including the Theater District, UWT and Tollefson Plaza so see his reaction and anaysis. Let the cards fall where they may.
10 | Posted by Erik B. | Feb 20, 10:25 PM
The last time Kunstler was here for a lecture at the Landmark Center he dubbed the Pierce Transit Center on Commerce Street “The Jabba the Hut Memorial Fountain.” Can’t wait for his current take on our ‘improvements’ since then…
11 | Posted by David Boe | Feb 21, 08:03 AM
Get your marshmallows ready – I sense a roast coming on. Should be quite entertaining though.
12 | Posted by morgan | Feb 21, 04:01 PM
take him to Museum of Glass for god sakes!
13 | Posted by RR Anderson | Feb 21, 09:22 PM
I am tired of esoteric scientific reports detailing the current state of carbon levels in the atmosphere. I am tired of alternative energy cost analysis that removes the human users from the equation. I am ready to discuss issues of civilization with an eye on the people who create it, and with an ear to their needs, at ground level. This city dweller’s eyes and ears will be present and open.
14 | Posted by urbanecologist | Feb 22, 05:53 PM
This is exciting. I went to a Kunstler lecture at University of Michigan and it was all it was promised to be. It seems that the loudest voices influencing change in the urban design and planning professions are not those of planning practitioners, but journalists like Kunstler and Jane Jacobs.
Anyway, kudos to Exit133 and Local Life for bringing in another influential individual who may beat some sense into our local leaders.
Now, if only we could book Donald Shoup, we’d really be on a roll!
15 | Posted by drizell | Feb 23, 01:39 AM
Perhaps Kunstler would like to visit the UPS neighborhood. My husband and I moved here so that we could walk and bike everywhere. However, I am continually shocked to see my UPS student neighbors across the street drive their SUV’s to class, which is two blocks away and to the gym, a ten minute walk away.
16 | Posted by amy | Mar 3, 06:31 PM
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