The Season of Green

Suburbs may be by definition a rum deal for the environment (see last item). Or maybe green-ness is just something that occurs later in a suburb's life cycle. In Levittown, N.Y., often called America's first suburb, local authorities are pushing the owners of the village's 17,000 once-identical houses to improve the energy efficiency of the aging burb one house at a time. Few of Bill Levitt's one-story capes look at they did when they went up in the 1940s amid Long Island's potato fields. But it's estimated that more than a third have their original boilers; replacing them would save as much as 1.5 million gallons of fuel oil annually. Under the aegis of Green Levittown, which hopes to convince every homeowner to make some upgrade, discounts and low-interest loans will be offering for residents upgrading appliances, heating systems, even lightbulbs.

Levittown isn't the only town to come to its environmental senses in middle age. Around Washington, D.C., some areas have begun to reform themselves around newly erected Metro stops and their attendant, walkable shopping districts. Critics point out that making individual homes more eco-friendly won't save the planet, and that the greenest communities are those that are planned that way from the start. But focusing on the money and resources that can be saved while giving older burbs necessary may be an easier sell than asking developers of new areas to forego profits.

Dublin's Not So Fair Suburbs

The Lonely Planet guide reports in its latest issue that Ireland is losing the battle to remain green. The culprit, of course, is the car. Ireland has taken admirable measures, says the hipster guidebook's 8th edition, to encourage recycling with its tax on plastic grocery bags and is a leader in organic farming and eating. But the sustained economic boom from the 1980s onward drove housing prices in Dublin out of reach while putting the price of a new car into workers' pockets. That's the recipe for suburban development, which in turn deepens the car culture. Lonely Planet also bemoans the collateral decline in public transportation in a country where the bus and train networks were top notch.

It's not like the Irish didn't try; one of the most depressing conclusions to be taken from their experience is that the boom-to-burb cycle is almost unavoidable. In the early '80s, efforts were made to contain Ireland's economic rave-up by redeveloping inner-city areas of Dublin and restricting growth to the "western towns." But the profits to be had in building low-density sprawl made sure the urban renewal programs largely failed. But restrictions, it seems are not enough. Commuters and other landscape despoilers need positive reinforcement to stay in town and build and ride smart outside it.

Palaces of the Week

With the real-estate market in such disarray and the word recession pounding in our ears lately, you might expect the realty pages of the local newspapers to tone down their House of the Week features. But maybe there's something in an economic downturn that makes a mansion that much more gawkable. The Courier-Journal of Louisville is touting the Leichleiter home in Mockingbird Valley, just east of Kentucky's biggest city. The Valley has the highest per capita income in Kentucky, and the tenth highest in the United States. Fittingly, the Leichleiters' is a 5,200-square-foot colonial where personal space is the focus of the design. The elder daughter's room, gushes the C-J, is "pure girl"--purple and pink with white wrought-iron twin beds and a fuchsia chaise. The master of the house, the CEO of a healthcare company, keeps a library with leather-covered walls that "exude masculinity."

The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, offers a Spanish colonial filled with "old California charm." On the block at $15 million, this 10,116-square-footer has 23-foot ceilings. Outside are a pool, barn, and paddock.

Homes like these are more House of the Year than House of the Week. Or maybe House of the Boom that Was.