What do you think of the "demise of Suburbia"?

[StageLeft]

Linky link

The downturn has accomplished what a generation of designers and planners could not: it has turned back the tide of suburban sprawl...The demand for suburban homes may never recover, given the long-term prospects of energy costs for commuting and heating, and the prohibitive inefficiencies of low-density construction...The suburb has been a costly experiment. Thirty-five percent of the nation's wealth has been invested in building a drivable suburban landscape.

I never even knew, until gas prices got high last year and commuting became very expensive, that some people actually, well, hate Suburbia. I think the points in this article are just mostly silly, like pointing at full car dealership lots now as evidence that people are going to stop using cars or something. I think that where there is room, people will always opt for a larger house and back yard. There are some arguments for this anti-suburban theme but ultimately I think it's tripe.

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Linky link

The downturn has accomplished what a generation of designers and planners could not: it has turned back the tide of suburban sprawl...The demand for suburban homes may never recover, given the long-term prospects of energy costs for commuting and heating, and the prohibitive inefficiencies of low-density construction...The suburb has been a costly experiment. Thirty-five percent of the nation's wealth has been invested in building a drivable suburban landscape.

I never even knew, until gas prices got high last year and commuting became very expensive, that some people actually, well, hate Suburbia. I think the points in this article are just mostly silly, like pointing at full car dealership lots now as evidence that people are going to stop using cars or something. I think that where there is room, people will always opt for a larger house and back yard. There are some arguments for this anti-suburban theme but ultimately I think it's tripe.

I agree surburbia is not dead

 

[MovingTarget]

Suburbia isn't dead, nor will it ever be. Nobody wants to live in an urban area in what amounts to a "people pod" apartment given the opportunity (for the most part). With decent public transportation, even suburbs could be reasonably easy to live in given high gas prices. Heck, look at many of the "park and ride" systems for today's light rail systems or even the streetcar systems of old. You used to be able to go from any one suburb to another surrounding a major city for pennies on the dollar compared to transport by car. (See Birmingham prior to WW2...) What we need is a renewed investment in public transport to rebuild and extend these systems.

 

[n yusef]

Suburban sprawl is good. It keeps the boring conservative white people away.

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: MovingTarget
Suburbia isn't dead, nor will it ever be. Nobody wants to live in an urban area in what amounts to a "people pod" apartment given the opportunity (for the most part). With decent public transportation, even suburbs could be reasonably easy to live in given high gas prices. Heck, look at many of the "park and ride" systems for today's light rail systems or even the streetcar systems of old. You used to be able to go from any one suburb to another surrounding a major city for pennies on the dollar compared to transport by car. (See Birmingham prior to WW2...) What we need is a renewed investment in public transport to rebuild and extend these systems.

i for one would like to live in a major city center. fuck the suburbs

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: n yusef
Suburban sprawl is good. It keeps the boring conservative white people away.

And that is exactly why many of them live there.

 

[sandorski]

Let it die. Not that I think it will, but I think it will shrink substantially for the very reasons mentioned. It is a waste of Resources, especially Land and Energy. That Land is often Fertile Land that could be growing Food locally increasing Efficiencies considerably.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Gentrification

It may happen if gas prices climb again to twice what they are now and stay there.

 

[desy]

Suburbs will exist as long as there is cheap energy to move people about and heat their homes.
At what point does that become unreasonable? 2 4 6 10 bucks in gas?
When will we get to that, will there be alternative transport for commuting?

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: bobsmith1492
Gentrification

It may happen if gas prices climb again to twice what they are now and stay there.

When the Economy recovers, $70-80 will be the Normal Price of Oil. Todays' $40 is the '90's $10.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Suburban sprawl is good. It keeps the boring conservative white people away.

Urban consolidation is good...it keeps all the elitist liberals isolated to small geographic areas

 

[Zedtom]

I live in suburbia inside the beltway. I have always lived in the city up until when I bought this house.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...

There is crazier stuff going on in the suburbs than I ever saw in the city. I've seen hookers, crackheads and gang bangers in the 'burbs that are less visible than in the city. This is because no one walks in the suburbs. The teenagers in the city are streetwise, while the suburban teens really think that they can get away with anything since daddy's lawyer will save their asses.

 

[n yusef]

Originally posted by: Starbuck1975

Suburban sprawl is good. It keeps the boring conservative white people away.

Urban consolidation is good...it keeps all the elitist liberals isolated to small geographic areas

I think this is a win-win situation.

 

[BarneyFife]

Originally posted by: Zedtom
I live in suburbia inside the beltway. I have always lived in the city up until when I bought this house.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...

There is crazier stuff going on in the suburbs than I ever saw in the city. I've seen hookers, crackheads and gang bangers in the 'burbs that are less visible than in the city. This is because no one walks in the suburbs. The teenagers in the city are streetwise, while the suburban teens really think that they can get away with anything since daddy's lawyer will save their asses.

You must live in the ghetto.

 

[LS8]

Originally posted by: n yusef
Suburban sprawl is good. It keeps the boring conservative white people away.

I see you're doing your part to divide as many people as you can.

 

[cwjerome]

I'd rather see the demise of the urban core.

 

[alien42]

Originally posted by: cwjerome
I'd rather see the demise of the urban core.

wooohooo, let's hope the heart of free market capitalism fails. is that you Rush?

 

[Moonbeam]

I find it curious that people just naturally assume they are capable and actually exercise intelligent unbiased thought never realizing they are a unique and easily identified product of their culture, identifiable by their similar and sheep like modes of thinking. In Africa people are big on village life and in Japan people rather like cities. Regardless of where you live, if you don't see this you live in a mental prison. To be attached to your stupid opinions simply makes you a disaster waiting to happen. You will love this and hate that and live like a yo yo responding to irrelevancies.

 

[MikeMike]

Ive lived in Suburbia since i was young... I now live in a not so great city... I dont know if i could ever go away from allowing my kids the ability to play football, baseball, drive golf balls, etc. all in my own yard... Hell, i can walk out back and go drive golf balls without a care in the world.

 

[Siddhartha]

I live in downtown New Haven, CT and I enjoy it. But I would not want raise my children here.

Suburbia might cost more but for me it would be worth it.

 

[gingermeggs]

I think growing up in a denser populated area enlightens you to many facets of society not available first hand to those growing up in the burbs'
The burbs tend- as a generality- to have a conservative, ivory castle, materialistic mentality.
A place for ostriches to stick their heads in the sand like mike illustrates.
I think common wall terrace houses with a garage underneath, 3 bedrooms with a en suite master, to be a better use of land and service provision to the average family. After the housing boom, I think its high time for regulation of the real estate sector and rental management also.

 

[gingermeggs]

Originally posted by: desy
Suburbs will exist as long as there is cheap energy to move people about and heat their homes.
At what point does that become unreasonable? 2 4 6 10 bucks in gas?
When will we get to that, will there be alternative transport for commuting?

light rail is the answer- trams with a human conductor and driver.

 

[babylon5]

Suburbia lifestyle comes at a great cost to our environment, sucking out precious natural resources and pollute ourselves at the same time:

"The single most irrigated crop in the United States is?(drum roll please) lawn. Yep, 40 million acres of lawn exis"t across the Land of Denial and Americans collectively spend about $40 billion on seed, sod, and chemicals each year. And then there?s all that water. If you include golf courses, lawns in America cover an area roughly the size of New York State and require 238 gallons of (usually drinking-quality) water per person, per day. According to the EPA, nearly a third of all residential water use in the US goes toward what is euphemistically known as ?landscaping.?

"Lawn mowers produce several types of pollutants, including ozone precursors, carbon dioxide, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (classified as probable carcinogens by the CDC). In fact, operating a typical gasoline mower produces as much polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as driving a car roughly 95 miles. Since some folks are legally required to maintain a lawn (more about that shortly), here?s a suggestion or two: human-powered mowers or try using your bicycle.

Besides the air and noise pollution of mechanized mowers, there?s another form of toxicity directly related to America?s lawn addiction. ?Lawns use ten times as many chemicals per acre as industrial farmland,? writes Heather Coburn Flores, author of Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community. ?These pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides run off into our groundwater and evaporate into our air, causing widespread pollution and global warming, and greatly increasing our risk of cancer, heart disease, and birth defects.?


link

 

[JEDIYoda]

The demise of what???

 

[cwjerome]

Originally posted by: alien42

Originally posted by: cwjerome
I'd rather see the demise of the urban core.

wooohooo, let's hope the heart of free market capitalism fails. is that you Rush?

What does Rush have anything to do with this? Oh, nothing... you're just a twat.

This is a post-industrial nation of 300 million people. Free market capitalism can exist anywhere. Look at Europe... very dense yet packed with smallish towns where a real sense of community exists and they thrive culturally and economically.

I've always had a "Jefferson-esque" attitude that people need space and need to have some connection to the land. There's just something unnatural about packing so many bodies into a tight space. It's a philosophical preference.

Anti-Suburbia snobbery aside, I don't want to see the urban core die. People are different and should be free to choose their lifestyle. But if I had to pick one to go away...