Urban Planning, I guess.

I once read somewhere that the only responsible way for our modern communities to adapt to growing populations is to start building up.

Currently– and very obviously here in Southern California– many people live in one place and work in another. How do they get from place to place? They drive of course. The price of cars, car maintenance, gas, the cost of road upkeep can amount to billions of dollars annually in the United States. All so that we can live in separated communities far from the spaces we work, buy and interact. Urban planning can locate the spaces we work, trade, eat, buy and socialize in one area, limiting our negative impact on the planet through gas use and decreasing the time we spend sitting down in a car. Our reliance on cars for transportation is a huge reason for our obesogenic environment.

Have you ever noticed that most buildings here in Orange are very low to the ground? It appears that Old Towne Orange has a height ordinance (for historic preservation) that restricts most buildings in town to two stories. That's always seemed inefficient to me. Imagine if Chapman's dorms were eight stories high instead of four. Would we have a housing deficiency? Imagine if instead of sprawling neighborhoods, people lived in carefully designed skyscrapers and tall buildings. According to this Gizmodo article, the taller a building is, the cheaper and fast it is to construct. And yet you're housing twice as many people.

I think the common assumption behind a move to living in cities is that at some point we'll end up in a post-apocalyptic WALL•E moment where the buildings will be replaced by trash and humanity will embark on a endless space cruise to find a new planet to mess up. Not necessarily true!

"This is what urban living will do to our planet!"

Urban planning involves smart architecture and design, infrastructure planning, legislative changes, health benefits, economic benefits, environmental benefits. Great urban planning can solve a great many issues in one fell swoop. Encouraging city dwelling increases our mobility and social interaction and wellbeing. Urban planning and building up is incredibly interdisciplinary– my challenge will be honing in this idea to something I can adequately investigate.