the suburban future

I'm still plowing my way through Thad Williamson's book, Sprawl, Justice & Citizenship and while I haven't gotten to the heart of his argument I'm appreciating how he synthesizes previous research into the social and economic effects of sprawl. I also like his definition of sprawl, which is low density, automobile oriented settlement. I need to keep on repeating that, because I think it's worth remembering.
In general, sprawl costs about 5 to 10 percent more than higher density settlement, which isn't that large of a premium. Those costs aren't broken down in terms of energy consumption only, so the constant dollar figure used may not be as useful in a future where energy costs and their externalities are much higher than they are now.

Where will people live in the future? The more I read and think about it, the more unlikely seeming are the sci-fi/modern architecture visions of hyper-dense, vertical cities. Robert Silverberg chronicled one of the most extreme versions of this in the book above. Skyscraper living has been and probably always will be an extreme outlier in settlement patterns. More interesting and significant things will happen in the way we plan and build small towns, suburbs and fringe district communities.

I'm waiting for the product that supplants vinyl siding.