The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream Is Moving (30 page)

Zappos, the online shoe giant
:
Leigh Gallagher, “Tony Hsieh’s New $350 Million Startup,” Fortune.com, January 23, 2012.

In keeping with the findings of
:
Glaeser found that, for example, that innovation happens faster in cities because proximity to others breeds creativity. Ideas, Glaeser said in his book
Triumph of the City
, “cross corridors and streets more easily than continents and seas.” He writes of a contagion or osmosis effect that occurs when people work in close physical proximity to others in their field. He writes that studies of patents bear this out, showing that patents have a tendency to cite other patents that are geographically close. Productivity is higher in cities, too: doubling density rates, Glaeser found, raises overall productivity anywhere from 6 to 28 percent.

For most of the 1970s, the trend in stadium construction
:
David Dobkin, “Fair or Foul?: Ballparks and Their Impact on Urban Revitalization,”
Panorama
, 2011. All of the information in this paragraph comes from Dobkin, including the informal list he put together for me of ballparks built since 1990.

It was a seminal moment in sports
:
Mark Byrnes, “The Islanders’ Move: A Harbinger of Suburban Decline?” theatlanticcities.com, November 9, 2012.

as early as 2005, the suburban poor
:
Alan Berube and Elizabeth Kneebone, “Two Steps Back: City and Suburban Poverty Trends, 1999–2005,” Brookings Institution, 2006.

“We think of poverty as a really urban phenomenon”
:
Tami Luhby, “Poverty Pervades the Suburbs,” CNNMoney.com, September 23, 2011. Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube,
Confronting Suburban Poverty in America
(Brookings Institution Press, 2013).

nearly three-quarters of suburban nonprofits
:
Scott W. Allard and Benjamin Roth, “Strained Suburbs: The Social Service Challenges of Rising Suburban Poverty,” Brookings Institution, October 7, 2010.

In Grand Rapids, Michigan
:
Theresa Everline, “Surviving Suburbia,”
Next American City
, no. 27, 2010.

In Long Island’s Suffolk County
:
“Struggling in the Suburbs,”
New York Times
, July 7, 2012.

“Soaring poverty rates threaten”
:
Lisa McGirr, “The New Suburban Poverty,” nytimes.com, March 19, 2012.

In 2012 federal prosecutors in northern Virginia
:
Pierre Thomas and Marisa Taylor, “Gang Members Arrested on Charges of Sex Trafficking Suburban Teens,” abcnews.go.com, March 31, 2012.

After a tragic gang rape
:
Aliyah Shahid, “Girl, 11, Lured into Park Bathroom in Moreno Valley, Calif. and Gang Raped by 7 Teens: Cops,”
New York Daily News
,
March 29, 2011.

While overall homicides
:
Cameron McWhirter and Gary Fields, “Crime Migrates to Suburbs,”
Wall Street Journal
, December 30, 2012. Many of the nation’s highest-profile shootings have occurred in the suburbs as well, from Columbine to Aurora, Colorado, to, of course, the horrific shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012. The urban scholar Richard Florida studied data from mass shootings in recent years and found that, while the data does not cover every single episode and the geographic information is limited, the “wide majority” of such shootings, and especially mass school killings, have occurred not in urban centers of large cities but in the “small towns, burgs and villages of our suburban and rural areas.” (See “Gun Violence Is an Everywhere Issue,” theatlanticcities.com, December 15, 2012.) The data shows that like other kinds of crime, gun violence is as much a suburban problem as an urban one.

Only one enclosed indoor shopping mall has opened in the United States since 2006
:
Kris Hudson and Vanessa O’Connell, “Recession Turns Malls into Ghost Towns,”
Wall Street Journal
, May 22, 2009.

Cleveland’s Galleria at Erieview
:
Stephanie Clifford, “How about Gardening or Golfing at the Mall?”
New York Times
, February 5, 2012.

Ellen Dunham-Jones
:
See Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson,
Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs
(Wiley, 2011). Also see Dunham-Jones’s TED talk on the subject at ted.com.

The number of restaurants
:
William Neuman, “Slicing Costs, and Still Serving,”
New York Times
, December 27, 2011.

crop prices had soared . . . Don England Jr.
:
Robbie Whelan, “U.S. Farmers Reclaim Land from Developers,”
Wall Street Journal
, November 14, 2011.

In a seminal article published in 1987, the Poppers argued
:
Deborah Epstein Popper and Frank J. Popper, “The Great Plains: From Dust to Dust,”
Planning
magazine, December 1987.

The controversy around their idea inspired
:
Richard S. Wheeler,
The Buffalo Commons
(Tor Books, 2000); Anne Matthews,
Where the Buffalo Roam: Restoring America’s Great Plains
(University of Chicago Press, 2002);
The Fate of the Plains
(Nebraska Educational Television, 1995);
Facing the Storm: Story of the American Bison
(PBS, 2010).

started endorsing their idea
:
“New National Park Could Save High Plains in Kansas,”
Kansas City Star
, November 15, 2009.

Now the Poppers also study shrinkage
:
Deborah E. Popper and Frank J. Popper, “New England and the Subtracted City,” Communities & Banking, Spring 2011; Deborah E. Popper and Frank J. Popper, “Planning on Shrinking,”
Shelterforce
, Spring 2011.

Buffalo, they point out
:
Deborah Popper and Frank Popper, “Smart Decline in Post-Carbon Cities: The Buffalo Commons Meets Buffalo, New York,” in
The Post Carbon Reader Series: Cities, Towns, and Suburbs
, edited by Richard Heinberg and Daniel Lerch (Watershed Media Press, September 2010), p. 3.

Justin Hollander
:
Justin B. Hollander et al., “The New American Ghost Towns,”
Land Lines
, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, April 2011.

In California’s San Bernardino County
:
“9 Worst Recession Ghost Towns in America,” Thefiscaltimes.com, August 3, 2011.

Wall Street giants like Blackstone Group
:
Janet Morrissey, “Big Money Bets on a Housing Rebound,”
New York Times
, December 8, 2012.

As of this writing, we have a 4.4-month supply
:
National Association of Realtors.

In the late 1990s, when measured per square foot
:
Christopher B. Leinberger, “Now Coveted: A Walkable, Convenient Place,”
New York Times
, May 25, 2012.

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE FUTURE

“With your head full of brains . . .”
:
Used with permission from Random House.

Joel Kotkin
:
Joel Kotkin,
The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050
(Penguin Books, 2011). Also see Kotkin’s writings on the topic of demographics and migration patterns at joelkotkin.com and newgeography.com.

A recent public radio story
:
“The Changing Face of Suburbia,”
The Takeaway
,
July 14, 2010. To read the many entertaining comments, see thetakeaway.org (or: http://www.thetakeaway.org/2010/jul/14/start-conversation-whats-good-about-suburbs/).

“I can get to the city when I need to”
:
David Dobkin, a recent urban planning graduate whom I enlisted to read my manuscript, noted in the margins that this benefit is particularly one-sided: “Who ever said, ‘I can get to the suburbs when I need to’?”

In Prince George’s County
:
Lori Aratani, “Effort to Bring Whole Foods to Prince George’s Highlights Complexity of Process,” Washingtonpost.com, April 28, 2012.

In Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, meanwhile, during a debate
:
Inga Saffron, “Changing Skyline: Suburbia’s Outer Ring Losing Shine, Some Economists Say,” philly.com, January 6, 2012.

single-family housing starts had climbed
:
U.S. Census Bureau, new residential construction statistics.

new home sales were on track
:
National Association of Realtors data.

One of the hottest areas is in multifamily
:
U.S. Census Bureau, new residential construction statistics.

The number of renters surged by more than five million
:
“The State of the Nation’s Housing, 2012,” Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, p. 1.

Toll Brothers’ recent plans
:
This came from my conversations with Toll, but also see coverage including Jeff Clabaugh, “Toll Brothers Plans Bethesda Condos,”
Washington Business Journal
, January 16, 2013.

In 2010,
Travel and Leisure
:
Daniel Derouchie, “Coolest Suburbs Worth a Visit,”
Travel and Leisure
, August 2010.

In a recent travel section write-up
:
Jeff Heilman, “Road Trip: Delaware County,”
New York Daily News
, September 30, 2012.

these neighborhoods’ smaller-scale houses
:
To get an idea of what these suburbs look like, picture the neighborhood where Bradley Cooper romanced Jennifer Lawrence in
Silver Linings Playbook
, filmed mostly in Ridley Park, an inner-ring Philadelphia suburb not far from where my father grew up in inner-ring, grid-planned Drexel Hill. The Llanerch Diner, where Cooper and Lawrence go on a date, is down the street from my father’s childhood house. After the movie came out, flocks of tourists went to the area on the weekends, visiting sites from the film.

In Pittsburgh, the former rust belt inner-ring suburbs
:
Mike Madison, “Rust Belt Chic Goes Mainstream, or Hip and Hipsters in Lawrenceville,” Pittsblog.com, August 13, 2011.

Pittsburgh
magazine proclaimed it as
:
Christine H. O’Toole, “City Guide: Best of the ’Burbs,”
Pittsburgh
magazine, August 2011.

In their book
Megapolitan America
:
Arthur C. Nelson and Robert E. Lang,
Megapolitan America: A New Vision for Understanding America’s Metropolitan Geography
(American Planning Association/Planners Press, 2011).

America 2050, a think tank arm
:
See america2050.org under “Megaregions” (don’t skip the maps).

Some foreclosed McMansions in exurbs are finding
:
Barbara Kiviat, “Reinventing the McMansion,”
Time
, September 28, 2009; Patricia Leigh Brown, “Animal McMansion: Students Trade Dorm for Suburban Luxury,”
New York Times
, November 12, 2011; Norimitu Onishi, “Foreclosed Houses Become Homes for Indoor Marijuana Farms,”
New York Times
, May 6, 2012.

Some creative underwater owners
:
Alyssa Abkowitz, “Room for Rent—in a Mansion,”
SmartMoney
, February 14, 2011.

INDEX

The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. To find the corresponding locations in the text of this digital version, please use the “search” function on your e-reader. Note that not all terms may be searchable.

Adams, James Truslow, 65

Adolescents

driver’s license decline among, 110–11

limitations of suburbia for, 90, 98

and suburban crime, 179

African Americans

loans/housing discrimination, 43

in redlined areas, 42–43

Aging population

aging-in-place, 148–49

community services to, 148–49

in suburban communities, 143–45, 147–150

Alexandria, Virginia, 41

Alfandre, Joe, 121

Alfonzo, Mariela, 131

Americana at Brand, Glendale, 132

American Dream

of home-ownership, 65–66, 76–77

original concept of, 65

and suburbia, 9–12, 25, 36, 61, 64–69

Anton, Frank, 25

Arcade Fire, 51, 79

Arcadia Land Company, 36, 49, 69, 134, 135

Arlington Crossings, Illinois, 128

Arquitectonica, 116

AT&T Bell Telephone Laboratories, 44

Austintown, Ohio, 143–44, 147, 149

Automobiles.
See also
Commuting

accidents and suburbs, 82–85

decreased use (2004- ), 107–12

decreased use, future view, 106–7

dependence and health, 86–89

dependence and suburban living, 79–81, 85–86, 89–91

energy efficient, 105, 108

millennials rejection of, 20

pollution and, 46, 99, 108

and suburban design, 32–34

and suburban development, 32–34, 41–42, 81–82

use, beginning of, 32

walkable communities and use, 133–34

Baby boomers, 145, 148, 160

Baby bust, 145

Baches, Demetri, 203–4

Banks, repossessed homes, reuse of, 186–87, 205–6

Barclays Center, 176

Beacon Hill, Boston, 29, 41

Beazer Homes, 24

Belmar, Colorado, 181

Bernstein, Scott, 99–102, 205

Best Buy, 45, 172

Best Buy Mobile, 172

Big-box stores

emergence of, 44–45

scale-down for cities, 18, 172–73

Birth rate, decline of (2011), 144, 158

Blackstone Group, 187

Bloomberg, Michael, 159

Boccaccio, 27

Boston, renewal and growth (2011), 168

Brant, Gary, 144

Brooklyn Heights, 29

Buffalo Commons, 184

Buffett, Warren, 72

Bush, George W., 66

Butler, Win and William, 51

Calthorpe, Peter, 19, 52, 119, 120, 209

Cambridge, Boston, 29, 111–12

Camden Yards Sports Complex, 176

Caruso, Rick, 132, 198

Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, 8

Celebration, Florida, 126

Center City Philadelphia, 17–18

Charleston, South Carolina, 40

Chester County, Pennsylvania, 13

Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, 41

Chicago

corporation relocations to, 173

early suburbs of, 30

renewal and growth (2011), 167

Children

automobile dependence of, 81, 85–86

cities as enrichment for, 112, 170–71

obesity problem, 88–89

population decline in suburbs, 145–47

street play, lack in suburbs, 81, 90

Cicero, 27

Cities

big-box store formats in, 18, 172–73

children, benefits to, 112, 170–71

corporation relocations to, 173–76

crime, past view, 44, 167, 168, 179

decline (1970s), 44, 168

developments by suburban developers, 6, 18, 23, 163–66

empty nesters return to, 172

exodus from.
See
History of suburbia

historical view, 28–29

home-building boom in, 6, 16

home value increase in, 15, 188

as millennials’ residence choice, 19–20, 157–59

population growth in, 14

renewal and growth (2011), 167–69

shrinkage, alternatives to, 185

smaller/Top Tier Towns, 204

sports stadiums in, 176–77

urbanism, books in favor of, 166–67

wealth, resurgence in, 17–18, 163–177, 187–88

young families’ preference for, 111–12, 151–52, 169–172, 204–5

City (store), 18, 172

City replicas, 127–28

Civil Rights Act (1964), 43

Clayton Homes, 72

Clinton, Bill, 65–66

Colony Capital, 187

Community Growth, Crisis and Challenge
(film), 39

Commuting, 94–99

average time spent, 94

commuting paradox, 98

costs of, 5–6, 21, 99–101

extreme commutes, 94–97

longer distances, and housing boom, 68–69, 71, 74–76, 104

necessity and suburbs, 5, 13, 46

physical/mental problems related to, 97–99

Compound concepts, 157

Concept homes, configuration of, 6–7

Condominiums, developments by suburban developers, 163–66

“Confessions of a Recovering Engineer” (Marohn), 57, 63

Congress for New Urbanism, 52, 113–15, 140

Conservatives, suburbs, support by, 62–63

Cooper, Gary, 194–95

Coors Field, 176

Corporations

relocation to cities, 173–76

relocation to suburbs, 44

Cortright, Joe, 15, 132

Crime

in cities, past view, 44, 167, 168, 179

reduction in cities (2011), 169, 188

in suburbs, 17, 179, 206

Critics of suburbia

adolescents, negative factors for, 90, 98, 179

anti-sprawl movement.
See
New Urbanism; Walkable communities

auto accident increases, 82–85

automobile dependence, 79–81, 85–86, 89–91

commuting issue, 94–99

crime, rise in, 17, 179, 206

early critics (1950–60s), 38–39, 46–48

on financial structure of communities, 58–60, 77–78

lifestyle criticism, 79–81

of mortgage interest deduction, 74–76

natural environment destruction, 47–48

neighborhood satisfaction factors, 91

neighbors, lack of interaction, 91–92

in popular culture, 39, 51, 53, 79, 91, 144

racial homogeneity, 42–43

single-use zoning issue, 41–42, 63

social interaction deficits, 91–92, 125

of sprawl, 45–46, 60, 82

transportation costs, 99–101

wasteland descriptions, 50, 52

Cul-de-sacs, 32–33, 41–42, 49

Curbside Chat, 57–58

Cusato, Marianne, 134

Daily, Bethany, 170

Davis, Alexander Jackson, 31

Davis, Robert, 116, 135

Demographics.
See
Population

Demographic winter, 145

Denver, renewal and growth (2011), 168

Depopulation, reuse methods, 185–87

Doig, Will, 129

Donovan, Shaun, 23, 102

Dormont, Pittsburgh, 202

Dorney, Diane, 122–25

Dorsey, Jack, 93

Dover, Victor, 81

Drivable suburbia, housing market in, 199

Duany, Andres, 52, 115–18, 130.
See also
New Urbanism

background information, 115–17

on Pensacola Parking Syndrome, 63

post-disaster planning, 126

reactions to ideas of, 193–94

on sprawl, 40

on suburban benefits, 191–92

on teens in suburbia, 90

Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ), 116–17

Duckworth, Jason, 36, 49, 62, 69–70, 135

on adolescent car independence, 110

on appeal of suburbia, 49

city, move to, 171

on Duany, 117

on McMansions, 69–70

Duckworth, Joe, 135

Dumbaugh, Eric, 83–84, 106–7

DUMBO, Brooklyn, 18, 163–64

Dump the Pump, 109

Dunham-Jones, Ellen, 103, 180, 181

East Passyunk, Philadelphia, 117–18

Edge cities, 45–46

Ehrenhalt, Alan, 166

Eisenhower, Dwight D., 38

Eisner, Michael, 197

Emerging adulthood, 153

Empty nesters, in cities, 172

Energy costs.
See also
Oil prices

energy-efficient cars, 105, 108

and suburban excess, 21–22

England, suburban development in, 28

England, Don, Jr., 183

Environment

destruction and suburban development, 47–48, 68

farmland, developments built on, 38, 68, 182

pollution and automobiles, 46, 99, 108

Euclid, Ohio, 40

Euclidean zoning, 41

Extell Development Company, 151

Families.
See also
Adolescents; Aging population; Children

children in suburbs, decline of, 145–47

demographic factors.
See
Population

elders in suburbs, 143–45, 147–150

empty nesters, 172

in “first ring” suburbs, 202–3

free time, in walkable communities, 133, 170–71

helicopter parents, 153–54

multigenerational, 152–55

suburban move-up buyers, 7, 189–190

young, preference for cities, 111–12, 151–52, 169–172, 204–5

Family size

decrease in, 5, 19, 144–47

millennials-parents living together, 152–55

multigenerational homes, 156–57

Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, 187

Farmland

buying back by farmers, 106, 182–84

developments built on, 38, 68, 182

Federal-Aid Highway Act (1956), 38, 62

Federal government, and suburban development, 35, 42–43, 61–63, 65–67, 192

Federal Housing Administration (FHA), 35, 40, 42, 61, 126, 206

Federal Housing Finance Agency, 187

“First ring” suburbs, 202–3

Floral Avenue, Illinois, 141–42

Florida, Richard, 92, 127, 166

“Fonzie flats,” 156

Ford, Gerald, 168

Ford, Henry, 32, 82

Foreclosures

and housing bust, 73–74

new versus foreclosed home buying, 208

repossessed homes, reuse of, 186–87, 205–6

Fort Point, Boston, 168

Free time, in walkable communities, 133, 170–71

Frey, William, 150, 180

Fullerton, California, 38

Futurama, 64

Future communities.
See
Walkable communities

Garages, none, 123, 137

Garreau, Joel, 45

General Electric (GE), 44

Generations.
See
Aging population; Baby boomers; Gen Y; Millennials

Gen Y, 144, 152, 153

Georgetown, Washington, DC, 40, 121, 125

Germantown, Philadelphia, 29

GI Bill (1944), 35

Gibson, Denise, 200–201

Gibson, Steve, 178

Gillen, Kevin, 15, 131

Glaeser, Edward, 75, 92, 158–59, 166, 175

Glen, The, Illinois, 128

Gore, Al, 21

Grand Central Station, 30

Granny flats, 156

Great Depression, 32, 34, 76

Great Plains, 184

Great Recession

birth rate decline during, 145

home-building bust, 3–4, 182

home-related disaster, 72–75

minimalist mentality emerging from, 138–39

mortgages, cheap in, 66

suburban poor, rise of, 177–79

Greenwich Village, New York City, 29

Gruen, Victor, 48

Gwinnett County, Atlanta, 68

Hampstead, Alabama, 121

Haskell, Llewellyn, 31

Haussmann, Baron, 118

Health

healthier communities, features of, 87

problems, automobile dependence, 86–89, 97, 99

walking, benefits of, 93–94

Helicopter parents, 153–54

Henshaw, Jim, 143–44

Highways, 34, 62

Hill, Graham, 139

Hipsturbias, 129–130, 202

Hira, Nadira, 153–54, 158

History of suburbia, 27–52

automobile in, 32–34, 41–42, 81–82

bedroom communities, 31

cities, decline of, 29

corporation relocations to, 44

England, 28

federal master-plan in, 35, 42–43, 61–63, 65–67, 192

housing boom (2000s), 66–72

McMansion era, 69–71

malls/big-box stores, 44–45

marketing of suburbs, 64–69

mass-produced communities, 37–38, 46, 70

post–World War II expansion, 35–38, 41, 65

racial homogeneity, 42–43

single-use zoning, effects of, 39–42, 63

socioeconomic status in, 28

sprawl/edge cities, 45–46

and transportation advances, 29–34, 62

urban migration into (1970s), 44

villages, early design, 30–32, 40–41

Hoboken, New Jersey, 193

Hollander, Justin, 185–86

Home-building decline

farmland, reversion to farming, 106, 182–84

and Great Depression, 34–35

and Great Recession, 3–4, 72–73

zombie subdivisions, 182

Home-building increase

housing boom (2000s), 66–72

post–Great Recession, 197–98

post–World War II, 35–38

urban developments, 18, 23, 163–66, 172, 190

Home-building industry

cities, development in, 163–66

compound concepts, 157

future uncertainties, 159–162

home size decrease, 22, 136–140

millennials’ impact on, 155–59

multifamily construction, rise in, 6, 16, 18, 198

multigenerational homes, 156–57

shifting market activities, 6–7, 16

Home Depot, 45

Home ownership

as American ideal, 65–66, 76–77

housing boom (2000s), 66–72

minorities, lower percentage, 43

Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), 42

Home size

decrease in, 22, 136–140

McMansions, 69–71, 136, 205

median ideal size, 136

small-home movement, 138–140, 159

Home values

and community physical design, 131–32

decline in suburbs, 15–16, 21, 111

increase in cities, 15, 188

old versus new homes, 200

in walkable communities, 111, 130–32

Hsieh, Tony, 92, 174–76

IBM, 44

Immigrants, settling in suburbs, 177–78