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b'Peter Calthorpe, Founder, Calthorpe Associates; Author, Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change It\\u2019s a love story gone horribly wrong. Big cars, ever-bigger homes, distant suburbs \\u2013 all of it kept afloat by cheap oil. If this American arrangement ever made sense, it certainly doesn\\u2019t now, Peter Calthorpe says. Tragically, we\\u2019re perpetuating this failed system in much of the country, ignoring a cheaper, greener alternative: urbanism. \\u201cIt\\u2019s better than free,\\u201d says Calthorpe, founder of Calthorpe Associates and author of Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change. \\u201cIt costs less money to build smart, walkable, transit-oriented communities than it does to build sprawl. It takes up less land, it uses less energy, it uses less infrastructure, less roads \\u2026 less of everything.\\u201d For Calthorpe, the ruptured housing bubble revealed a broken system but offers a chance to rethink how we build. \\u201cThe real estate recession was a sign not just of perverse bank financing,\\u201d he says, \\u201cit was also a manifestation that we\\u2019d been building too much of the wrong stuff for too long, specifically large-lot, single-family subdivisions.\\u201d Why did we overbuild? \\u201cHabit and inertia,\\u201d Calthorpe says. \\u201cThere\\u2019s tremendous institutional inertia\\u201d \\u2013 banks, homebuilders, and zoning. \\u201cWe have land-use maps that dictate low density in many areas and single use in most areas.\\u201d Calthorpe dismisses the notion that every American yearns for a piece of suburbia. Households with kids represent just 24 percent of the total, he says. The rest \\u2013 singles, empty nesters, young couples \\u2013 have different needs. \\u201cThere are a whole range of needs out there and lifestyles that the one-size-fits-all subdivision just doesn\\u2019t satisfy,\\u201d he says. Calthorpe gives an example from his firm\\u2019s work, Stapleton, the nation\\u2019s largest redevelopment project. There, 12,000 units are going up on 4,500 acres \\u2013 four times the density of the typical suburb \\u2013 at the site of Denver\\u2019s old airport. \\u201cPeople spend more dollars per square foot for a smaller house and a smaller lot,\\u201d Calthorpe says, \\u201cbut it\\u2019s in a walkable community; they\\u2019re willing to make that trade.\\u201dChange will require hard choices. Calthorpe challenges environmentalists to accept that infill alone won\\u2019t be able to meet the demand for housing; in some areas, projects cited near transit, for instance, building on greenfields may be necessary. We must also be willing to partner with developers. Development can help pay for a lot of the things we need, Calthorpe says: levees, transit extensions, flood control projects, parks, open space, and schools. \\u201cQuite frankly, the Bay Area should be thankful that we have the growth to deal with because it\\u2019s what we can use to repair so much of what we\\u2019ve misdesigned,\\u201d he says. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at the Commonwealth Club of California, San Francisco on May 25th, 2011\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'