Escape From the Sunlit Prison of the American Dream is the basis for Good Human Habitat. I completed this 84,000-word creative nonfiction book in April 2023. It was never published.
The story focuses primarily on America but is written from the perspective of a US/Canadian citizen raising a family in Canada over two decades. Contrasting urban life in Canada and the US, the book explores how urban sprawl and slavery’s legacy intertwine to undermine quality of life.
In contrast, Good Human Habitat focuses equally on Canada and the United States as described in the About section.
Many people are less enamored with the drive-everywhere culture that previous generations embraced. Nielsen—considered the top market research firm in the world—surveyed millennials and found that 62%, want to live in vibrant, walkable cities. This translates to 51 million people in just one generation alone. As an urban planner and a parent who has lived with children in cities both Canada and the U.S., I clarify why many Americans have a hard time finding such a place.
The book examines interrelated two problems. First is the endless production of bad human habitat, which fractures us socially and is disastrous for us environmentally. Second is a tragic racial history that mars the present in a way that affects not only black Americans but all Americans.
I explore these problems through the lens of personal experience and family history. For example, as an urban planner, I conceived of a major redevelopment policy that incentivized pedestrian-oriented development. I then witnessed how the political process rendered this policy impotent, leaving urban sprawl to prevail. Regarding our tragic past, I’m named in honor of a first cousin (4 generations removed) who formulated a racial doctrine to extend slavery westward. Implementation of this “Cass doctrine” in 1854 triggered the creation of the Republican Party and produced a civil war.
With this book, I take measure of what we’ve lost in an auto-dependent country where variants of slavery have been practiced for 80% of the time that American culture has been forming (through 1941). In the end, it’s a book about how we feel about places, what we value, what we fear, and what we hate.
