Radiant City Documentary

I’ve just seen an excellent documentary called Radiant City  which follows the lives of a family living in the Evergreen suburb of Calgary, Alberta. The film documents the issues raised by urban sprawl and what effect this has on the family. My only criticism is that one proposed solution of developing our ubran centres around the New Urbanism movement is not the best in my opinion. While New Urbanism is rooted is some great concepts the end results tend to be a little twee.

In the end though the film does make you think about how we need to develop our urban centres in New Zealand. We can’t continue to expand endlessly into green field land development given the strain on services and transport. What path will New Zealand take?

PS: You may also be interested in the documentary The End of Suburbia. Not nearly as good as Radiant City but still an OK documentary on Peak Oil and the effects of suburbia.