If we are to bash sprawl, our reasons for bashing it must be based on facts about it's harmful effects, such as environmental degradation, car-dependency, etc. RTH is right that sprawl is bad and there's a lot of factual information to back that up. There's no question about that.

What ISN'T productive is people judging the character of people who are ideologically attracted to the suburban environment. When you let your ideological hatred for suburbs get in the way of the real issues of sprawl, it makes your argument seem a lot less credible. Look at James Kunstler for instance. He once stated that because America builds spaces that people don't care about (monotonous and privatized suburbia), Americans don't have a nation worth defending.

The comment I was responding to was coalminecanary scoffing at someone because they "find life across from Future Shop so fulfilling". It struck me as the typical kind of arrogant comment that gets spouted off by urban elitists. Because y'know, we suburbanites are all the same. We are all drones who drive SUVs, vote conservative, shop at Walmart, and spend the rest of our time sitting in drive-thru line-ups at Tim Hortons . It's like me saying that all urbanites do is sit around and drink lattes all day. I said what I said for illustrative purposes. The downtown Hamiltonians who turn their nose up at Waterdown aren't really too different from the Waterdowners who turn their nose up at downtown Hamilton.