suburbs
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The best show on TV right now is about living carless in the suburbs
Donald Glover's new FX show is a perceptive picture of America's growing problem of poverty and sprawl.
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Just living close to Walmart makes you fat
A new study finds that people living near big box stores have higher rates of obesity and diabetes. What's the connection? Look at the streets.
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New walk-scoring tool finally acknowledges that walking in the suburbs sucks
At Atlantic Cities, Sarah Goodyear puts her finger on a truth universally acknowledged by everyone in the world except WalkScore: “A mile in an American suburb is a lot longer than a mile in Rome.” In other words, walking 10 city blocks is very different from walking a mile up the side of a highway […]
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Farming the ‘burbs
Suburban farmers might just have the best of both worlds: A captive audience hungry for hyper local produce and the space to grow more food than their city counterparts.
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Sick of the suburbs: How badly designed communities trash our health
There’s no way around it: The suburbs make us sick. One brave researcher has set out to spread the word -- and suggest healthy alternatives.
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Merry Bikesmas: A 1970s Schwinn livens up a family holiday
Photo: Joe Penniston This year, as we have in years past, my wife and I packed up the kids and flew across the country to spend the holidays with her family in suburban Baltimore. Christmas at the Thomas house is always a festive affair: crab soup, wine by the bottleful, quality time with grandma and […]
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How Baby Boomers doomed the exurbs
Homes and strip malls in America's outer-ring suburbs, which contained most of the country's most expensive homes in the 1990s, are now worth less than what it cost to build them. And the land beneath them is worth effectively zero, says Brookings Institution senior fellow Christopher B. Leinberger, in a powerful op-ed arguing that the […]
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Ten years of car commuting could cost you $125,000
A lot of home buyers are pushing out into the exurbs because the houses are cheaper there -- but long commutes come with hidden costs that could seriously dent any money you might save on a mortgage. A personal finance blogger with the trust-inspiring nom de plume of Mr. Money Mustache (okay, so he's a mustache, but it's a MONEY mustache!) has calculated that a two-car commute of 19 miles each way would cost a couple $125,000 over 10 years. That makes a $250,000 home into a $375,000 home, but all you get for your extra money is a tension headache.
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Stranded in suburbia: Why aren’t Americans moving to the city?
It's going to take more than wishful thinking to convince Americans to move back to the urban core.