suburbia
-
American Lung Association study shows that smart growth could save lives
If doctors designed communities, says the American Lung Association in California, there would be a lot less sprawl and a lot fewer people driving cars.
-
If we want kids walking to school, grown-ups have to get a move on
Recent research suggests that the simple act of walking to school can reduce children's stress levels and improve their lifetime cardiovascular health. So why don't more parents do something to make it possible?
-
Virginia man is murdered after dispute over traffic calming
Stephen Carr wanted his street in suburban Virginia to be safer. He lobbied the state to have a speed hump installed. He was successful. And it may have gotten him killed.
-
Friday music blogging: Arcade Fire
You can bet an artist is grappling with questions of place and home and belonging when she belts out a line like, "Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small / that we can never get away from the sprawl ... Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains / And there's no end in sight."
-
Retrofitting suburbia: The task at hand?
“The big design and development project of the next 50 years is going to be retrofitting suburbia,” architect Ellen Dunham-Jones says in an interesting TED talk. Much of that work will be repurposing shuttered retail spaces — redeveloping dead malls and big box stores and turning empty parking lots back into wetlands, she says. For […]
-
White flight and the urban-suburban switcheroo
Suburban ChicagoCourtesy Scorpians and Centaurs via FlickrThe idea of racially diverse American cities ringed by mostly white suburbs is essentially flip-flopping, according to the Brookings Institution’s big new demographic report, “The State of Metropolitan America.” The report draws on 2002-2008 census data to find that young, educated whites are moving into cities in record numbers. […]
-
Coming soon to a cul-de-sac near you: farming!
A new way forward for suburbia?Suburban sprawl was a dreadful mistake–and not one brought on by “consumer choice,” but rather by a specific set of government policies. Let’s hope sprawl’s forward march can now be stopped–the bursting of the housing bubble no doubt helped with that. But existing sprawl isn’t going away. It’s our […]
-
New homes are cropping up in cities, not suburbs
Today in conventional wisdom–busting news, we learn that grimy old cities are attracting more residential construction than the bright suburban frontier. Urban redevelopment is outpacing fringe sprawl by a solid margin, according to a new EPA study of the nation’s 50 largest metro areas. It’s a “fundamental shift in the real estate market,” says the […]
-
Nothing will drive the suburbs away
Photo: FrankMaurer FlickrThe news that GM will cease production of Hummers revived the brewing argument that suburbia is in fatal decline. Hummers are the perfect corollary to McMansions, symbols of excess, leftovers from the roaring aughts that now seem outlandish, indulgent and environmentally offensive. No buyers for Hummers plus no buyers for homes in far […]