JAMES KUNSTLER TO DISCUSS
"THE CITY IN MIND: THE COST OF LOUSY PLANNING"
AT MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – James Kunstler, the author of "The Geography of Nowhere" (Simon and Schuster, 1993), "Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-First Century" (Simon and Schuster, 1996), and "The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition" (The Free Press, 2001), will speak at Mount Holyoke College Wednesday, April 10, at 7 PM in Gamble Auditorium. The lecture "The City in Mind: The Cost of Lousy Planning," will discuss the development and consequences of the American landscape and share how we might compose a more meaningful and sustainable one. It is free and open to the public, and the auditorium is wheelchair accessible.

Questioning and changing our built environment means challenging traditionally American notions of individualism, Kunstler argues. It requires thinking about centers of humanity, not just centers of business, designing with an eye to (and respect for) what’s going on next door, considering property as public realm or social resource rather than individual commodity or civil liberty, and ending an economy based on unrestrained auto use and land development. Such shifts will be difficult but necessary in solving the "crisis of place in America," Kunstler says, warning that "a land full of places that are not worth caring about will soon be a nation and a way of life that is not worth defending."

"Generally, the public discussion now taking place in our nation is incoherent, even among the educated and politically progressive," said Kunstler. "I assume that Mount Holyoke will produce its share of cultural leaders. I hope they are prepared for the decades ahead, which I believe will be difficult for us in America. I'm confident that most of the audience will ‘get’ it, and that they will never look at their town the same way again."

The lecture is sponsored by Mount Holyoke’s Center for Environmental Literacy (CEL)

James Kunstler was born in New York City in 1948. He moved to the Long Island suburbs in 1954 , returning in 1957 to the city where he spent most of his childhood. He graduated from the State University of New York, Brockport, and worked as a reporter and feature writer for a number of newspapers and "Rolling Stone" magazine. Author of eight novels, including "The Halloween Ball", and "An Embarrassment of Riches", he is a regular contributor to the "New York Times Magazine" and op-ed page, and a lecturer at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, MIT, the University of Virginia, and many other colleges and professional organizations.