Why Burb?
“We need a new set of clichés,” Nicholas Lemann once wrote about the suburbs. They are here. New “smarter” communities are spreading on the desert floor outside Phoenix, in fields near Princeton, N.J., and across former dairy land in Florida, bearing the promise of a new “nation of villages,” in the words of New York Times columnist David Brooks. The new suburbanites are pioneers of community living, full of an optimism driven by sheer necessity: 70 million new Americans will be added to our population by 2028, most of whom are expected to gravitate to suburban environments. In response, social and architectural innovation will need to be for the coming century what technology was for the last.
These are new clichés, but they are still clichés. Those Americans who live in the suburbs—and that is more than two-thirds of us--know that if the suburbs have taken the lead in the culture, they have also inherited plenty of the familiar problems of the cities. Poverty moved to the suburbs decades ago. The suburbs have become the frontline of immigrant assimilation. Those new suburbs in the desert are out ahead in dealing with water and energy concerns that will eventually visit every place in the country. The old ring of first suburbs, having fired American prosperity for a generation, are now exhausted, searching for ways to grow without developing their last open spaces. Their politicians, more comfortable in the proverbial smoke-filled room, have become blue-sky environmentalists.
The suburbs, in short, are the American mainstream. Our major writers, dating back to Updike and Cheever, have focused on decoding suburban life, and today Richard Ford, Chang Rae Lee, Rick Moody and others continue that work. Suburban megachurches are the engine of American Protestantism. Eminem is a suburban boy, and a suburban phenomenon, as are the “soccer moms” and “soccer dads” fought over in the last few elections.
Yet for those who live there, the suburbs can be a bewildering place. Urbanites who have moved out for more space and better schools gaze out the kitchen window into their new garden paradise and ask, “Now what?” Children of the suburbs return to find their sleepy burbs utterly transformed by commercialization. Those on rural routes watch in dismay as farms and tiny towns are supplanted by mass developments and strip malls. All of these people have common problems and solutions, from commuting to child care to what to put on the side of a house. Burb is for all of them.
We talk about “the suburbs” as an state of mind, but only now have real connections begun to be made among the suburbs of even a single city, never mind nationally. Burb is proposed as a place where mutual recognition and the single purpose that comes from it might be achieved.
These are new clichés, but they are still clichés. Those Americans who live in the suburbs—and that is more than two-thirds of us--know that if the suburbs have taken the lead in the culture, they have also inherited plenty of the familiar problems of the cities. Poverty moved to the suburbs decades ago. The suburbs have become the frontline of immigrant assimilation. Those new suburbs in the desert are out ahead in dealing with water and energy concerns that will eventually visit every place in the country. The old ring of first suburbs, having fired American prosperity for a generation, are now exhausted, searching for ways to grow without developing their last open spaces. Their politicians, more comfortable in the proverbial smoke-filled room, have become blue-sky environmentalists.
The suburbs, in short, are the American mainstream. Our major writers, dating back to Updike and Cheever, have focused on decoding suburban life, and today Richard Ford, Chang Rae Lee, Rick Moody and others continue that work. Suburban megachurches are the engine of American Protestantism. Eminem is a suburban boy, and a suburban phenomenon, as are the “soccer moms” and “soccer dads” fought over in the last few elections.
Yet for those who live there, the suburbs can be a bewildering place. Urbanites who have moved out for more space and better schools gaze out the kitchen window into their new garden paradise and ask, “Now what?” Children of the suburbs return to find their sleepy burbs utterly transformed by commercialization. Those on rural routes watch in dismay as farms and tiny towns are supplanted by mass developments and strip malls. All of these people have common problems and solutions, from commuting to child care to what to put on the side of a house. Burb is for all of them.
We talk about “the suburbs” as an state of mind, but only now have real connections begun to be made among the suburbs of even a single city, never mind nationally. Burb is proposed as a place where mutual recognition and the single purpose that comes from it might be achieved.
posted by burb at 11:14 AM
1 Comments:
I just came across your blog, and I very much appreciate your balanced perspective on the suburbs. There's so much out there that vilifies and demonizes suburbia, rather than seeking to truly understand it on its own terms, for good and for bad. I've been glad to see Bruegmann's Sprawl as another mitigating voice in these discussions.
One question - this initial post mentioned that two-thirds of us (Americans?) now live in the suburbs. Where did you come across this statistic? Most things I've seen in my research put estimates at a little more than half the population being specifically suburban, with a quarter in urban centers and less than a quarter in rural environments. I suppose including outlying micropolitan areas into suburban-exurban estimates might bring the aggregate up to around 60%, but I hadn't seen anything arguing for two-thirds.
At any rate, thank you for your contributions, analysis and links. Much appreciated.
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