Suburbanization - and even ever greater sprawl - must be accepted as the future. Attempts to stomp out or control outward movement, as Portland tried, have not only failed but have driven settlement even further out beyond the areas of control.
I have been an avid proponent of ’smart’ growth and continue to believe in the ‘evils’ of suburbia but Joel Kotkin makes a reasonable argument for accepting suburbia and in fact for making it better. Yup! if you can’t beat it, join it.
August 09, 2006
hey pratik, interesting observation but I had another point to add.
Another reason for the rise of suburbia is the decline of big industry, that has caused a rush to the suburbs. Point in case: Detroit and the decline of the the big 3 in the 70’s.
Their demise has left detroit a shell of what it was.
August 10, 2006
Of course, changing trends in the economy has affected settlement drastically. The move from manufacturing to services has largely dispersed housing and made aggregation less of a necessity.