I think Mr. Morrill made some excellent points, but also missed a major macro-trend. Global energy sector insiders now concede we passed ‘global peak oil’ sometime around 2006. This means we have consumed more the half of the earth’s one-time endowment of oil, and are now on the downhill slope of oil supply. Yet, oil consumption is increasing.

At current consumption rates, it is estimated there is about a 40 year supply of oil left in the world, including tar-sands and shale, which may not even be economically viable to produce, because it takes almost a barrel of oil to produce a barrel of oil.

Nifty pictures of futurist vehicles aside, transportation issues will to huge 2040. You think gas is expensive now?! It will likely be over $25 a gallon in 2040, if we can even get it. The days of cheap transportation will be over. The outlying suburbs of today will slowly become the ghettos of tomorrow. People of means will continue to want to live close to economic, and cultural centers, where walking or riding a bike to work, the store/market, and entertainment is viable and easy.

Bringing food from distant regions of the US, and even distant country’s, will be less and less economically viable. There will be a renewed interest in preserving, and actually using our productive farmland, that in recent years have been plowed and paved over to create new suburban communities, and warehouse and distribution centers. Private yards with grass will become a luxury, many will not, or cannot afford. More people will start to remove their lawns to grow food to supplement expensive, and possibly even scarce local food supplies.

Our economy’s will become more local out of necessity, as will our reliance single occupant vehicles. More workers will work from home - at least those that are work in jobs that lend themselves to this, which are likely the higher paying jobs. Boeing will be in its death throws. With the prospect of little to no oil in the near future (beyond 2040), airlines will be keen on buying new, expensive planes, and the general public will not be able to afford commercial flight soon anyway.

Kirkland is in a good position to survive the coming era of declining oil, especially if we make smart choices with this future in mind. Pugetopolis will be a different place than it is today. If our leader’s starts thinking about issues like this that are in our future, they may make very different decisions today.

One of the major themes in the article is that people are going to live where they want to live and feel comfortable living - even if it means a longer commute. This idea is reinforced in the book The Big Sort by Bill Bishop: http://www.thebigsort.com/home.php
His theory is that people will choose to live with people who think like them. This is leading to a very segregated country and I think this article shows that as well.

Urban planners need to start taking these realities into account more than they currently do and try to create communities that will allow people to live in denser, more sustainable areas closer to where they work - but in order to do so they are going to have to look past the physical aspects of the planning and really analyze the demographics. Hard to do, but I think critical if we want to create more livable communities.