Suburbia is sublime; why try to become a big city?

A columnist for The Virginian-Pilot, Kerry Dougherty, loves her suburbia. She is living in the right place: Virginia Beach, a city with 430,000 people, is currently about 95 percent suburban in form. City officials, thinking that maybe the city needs a little diversity in its housing and development, are planning eight mixed-use transit-oriented developments along a proposed light rail line. Dougherty contends that a Virginia Beach resident who doesn’t love to live in a suburban housing development can move somewhere else. “I unapologetically love suburbia,” she says. “If I didn’t, I’d move.”

Plus, urban places are havens of crime, congestion, stress, polution, and inconvenience, she says. And, new urbanists hate cars — they can't even understand anyone who doesn't hate cars — says Dougherty.

What do you want to bet that she's never been in a car with a new urbanist?