George Leventhal: The suburbs were "a mistake" and are "killing our planet" (Video)

Let's go to the videotape! Finally, we have the infamous "The Suburbs Were a Mistake" monologue rant by Montgomery County Councilmember George Leventhal. He's denied saying it. I've been referring to it for almost three years. But here it is folks, as someone has finally pulled the tape of Leventhal's remarks on July 2, 2013.

In this excerpt from an even-longer monologue, Mr. Leventhal declares the suburbs to have been "a mistake." Your suburban lifestyle is "killing our planet." It's official, soccer moms - you are killing the planet! Renowned environmental scientist George Leventhal has declared it so!

Killing our planet!

Leventhal criticizes your belief that you can live away from the noise, crime and other unpleasantness one associates with cities. He chastises your desire to drive down "tree-lined parkways" when you could be surrounded by concrete and graffiti instead under his plan. Even the "quiet," "lush and verdant" environment you paid extra for in the suburbs fails to escape his condemnation. He compares suburban Montgomery County to Paris and New York City, two of the largest metropolises in the world. And he professes his confidence in a MCPS forecasting regime that brought us 6 classroom trailers outside of a brand new Wood Acres Elementary School just a few years after it opened.

Mansplaining

By the end, Leventhal is in full condescension mode, mocking his constituents for their opposition to urbanizing the suburbs, an attitude he displayed during the Westbard worksessions. It's quite a bizarre display, considering that Mr. Leventhal has chosen to run for office in the suburbs, and the majority of his constituents reside in suburban neighborhoods.

"We've got to change"

"What harm could it cause?" Leventhal asks of urbanizing the suburbs. Well, in the particular case of Westbard in Bethesda: How about buildings towering over single-family homes? The environmental impact of 3550 more people being stuffed into a 1.5 block area? Increased auto emissions of 2618 additional cars being added to already-congested River Road every rush hour? Loss of jobs and services, requiring even more auto emissions to be expended and "kill our planet?"

Or maybe higher crime, noise, illegal parking of overflow vehicles in adjacent neighborhoods, paid and permit parking, overcrowded classrooms, further decline in already-declining public schools (on his watch), worse traffic, and a continued budget deficit and unfunded infrastructure costs requiring tax increases on his constituents (the latter point having even been acknowledged by Leventhal himself during a Westbard worksession)?

What harm indeed?