Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Early Addition
The Atlantic is asking if today's McMansions are tomorrow's tenements in an article titled The Next Slum. It seems suburban developments nationwide are seeing the same problems the city streets are: druggies, homeless, grafitti, gang activity, broken windows, stray bullets, and even in Pleasantville copper wire is a commodity.
Suburban decay is on the rise, making them a far cry from what they were presented as at the New York World’s Fair of 1939 and ’40. The Highways and Horizons (aka Futurama) exhibit was the fair's most popular, and for the past 60 years Americans have fled the city for the McMansions in the 'burbs. But times they are a changin', now The Atlantic reports "the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and there are many reasons to believe this swing will continue. As it does, many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and ’70s—slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay."
The presentation of suburbia at the Worlds Fair was followed by GIs returning home and families decamping to the city outskirts. By 1981 the trend hit the big screen in Escape From New York, showing the world an abandoned Manhattan (which became a maximum security prison). But soon after, the shift began to reverse, and with shows like Seinfeld, Friends and even Sex and the City portraying a new New York, urban allure was back. Today television and movies use the suburbs to portray soullessness and moral disrepair.
If the shift that's taking place continues, "the world of tomorrow" falling apart could actually be a good thing. With Main Street, USA morphing into a walkable urban area -- the population and environment will benefit. The Atlantic states that "if New York City were its own state, it would be the most energy-efficient state in the union; most Manhattanites not only walk or take public transit to get around, they unintentionally share heat with their upstairs neighbors."
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
Good good and more good. I hate the suburbs. Hate hate hate hate.
The prophesied Tipping Point, has been fulfilled.
Thank. You. God.
I'm glad I escaped the suburbs. Suburbs are where people move to grow old and die.
Any of the outer boroughs is a nice compromise (Except Staten Island).
Nothing succeeds like seceding. Go New York city!
If the economy goes south and I mean really south, people who can afford to flee the city will...again. Those of us who grew up here might stay while the transplants run back to the suburbs or smaller cities, which might be one of the few benefits of a failing economy along with lower rents and fewer, if any "luxury" condos/apts going up which are currently increasing the density of my neighborhood & nearby neighborhoods, choking the subway lines.
Of course we could all be optimistic and believe that the party will never end, but when you grow up in this city, you tend to be a realist.
i hate the suburbs too such a waste of space. cities and density is good for the environment.
southern cities have the spread out philosophy and they've turned into mostly decapitated shit holes. Look at Houston, New Orleans, Durham, and Jackson. The are all examples of cities that are spreading out and filled with horrible nasty areas that used to "suburban".
this stuff has been going on for decades.
I've always viewed the 'burbs as thinly veiled "white-flight" resorts that had nothing going for them besides "right-on-red" and parking at the 7/11s. All of the most compelling COPS episodes are in 'burbs (well, there are the trailer park episodes, but really...).
Man, there's nothing funnier than city-folk slamming the burbs in attempt to justify their lifestyle.
Hmm.. if NYC was its own state, it's need to import all of its water, all of its food, nearly all of its energy... Interetsing. It's easy to be efficient when you don't create your own infrastructure.
I hope everyone knows without New York State, New York City doesn't have a water supply.
If you want to meet any REAL New Yorkers they live in the suburbs now or down in Florida and the Carolinas. New York City is filling up with the hipsters, transplants and immigrants now.
New York City has been filling up with "transplants and immigrants" for 399 years. I'm not enough of a historian to know when the hipsters started arriving, but I'd guess for the last century or so.
Riprap,
So, I suppose now you will name a suburb that makes it's own water, food, and energy?
Right. Didn't think so.
Cities are more efficient than suburbs. Accept the fact.
ixvnyc. There are suburbs like that in Rockland, Orange and Northern Westchester counties.
The fact is city life is good for people in their 20s and 30s who are single. Suburban life is good for settling down and having a family.
Steven,
Gee, I wonder how the rest of the world raises their families without our American suburbs?
Seriously, there is nothing inherently family-friendly in the suburbs. It's just that wherever rich people choose to live and pay taxes, the public services will be better. So far, they've been choosing the burbs, but as they move into Park Slope and Upper West Side, those places are getting more family-friendly too.
Oh, and communties where people live and grow their local food and use their local water are called villages, not suburbs.
The many villages in Westchester,Rockland and Orange counties aren't suburbs then?
Look at what happened to Queens it's being fulled with Asian people now. Brooklyn is being fulled with Russians. Just take a look at Brighton Beach. The area used to be all Jewish and Italians about 15 years ago.
what's in the suburbs?
People on JackAss and people who want to be on Jackass.
Looks like we may need to start up some community gardens if the economy keeps up.
thankfully Pb is still cheap.
Steven,
I am not familiar with Westchester and Rockland, but if you are talking about Orange, California, I know that place well and I can tell you this: the local Outback Stakehouse isn't getting their beef from no fuckin' Orange County Herd.
Villages, if there are any left in this country, are self-sufficient. People who live in the villages eat primarily their own food, and they work primarily on their land.
Cities are not self-sufficient, but the point is that they don't waste the resources as much as the suburbs do. Try spreading out the 8 million people living in New York City mid-western suburban style, and you'd have to pave over the entire New York State. We'd have to kiss good bye all our food and water then.
If the rest of the country could pull itself into city highrises and subways like we do here, we'd have more clean water, good land, hunting grounds, etc.
ivxnyc, you are such a fucking moron it is unbelievable. gain a little life experience, learn a little georgraphy, and then get back to us.
Who knew ignorant people talking past each other could be so fascinating! Steven has no clue that immigrants have always been filling NYC and ixnyc is using an early 19th century definition of a "village" that he's picked out of thin air to support his arguments. Fun!
steve, Brighton Beach 20 years ago was a black neighborhood, no Italians whatsoever. But, luckily or unluckily, was taken over by jews form USSR.
Did you say you are native NYer?..
Doza is right. Brighton Beach was always a Jewish neighborhood ('Radio Days'?), then Russian Jews started moving to Brighton Beach in numbers around 1980. I have a lot of respect for them, they really turned Brighton Beach around. They brought in businesses, got involved with improving the school system and made it a nice place to live. Other than Bensonhurst, there hasn't been many Italians in South Brooklyn since the early 1980's, everyone moved to Staten Island or Jersey to raise kids. The whole 'South Brooklyn is all Italian' thing is one of the most common myths I hear again and again from people who probably haven't ever even seen the Verrazano.
The surrounding New York suburbs (this includes Parts of north Jersey, Westchester and southwestern Connecticut) are actually an example of pretty well laid out suburbs. Most have access to high speed mass transit (Westchester has three major lines running through it alone) which allow easy navigation to to the polis/CBD (Manhattan) while giving numerous options for traveling to 3 out of the other 4 boroughs with ease (SI being the only exception, although people from Jersey can get there easily).
Some of you need to stop blowing all that vitriol out your asses and actually look at a map sometime.
Now if we're talking about the prototypical tract housing sprawl that one finds in just about every southern state, not to mention out west, then you're talking. THAT is badly planned suburbia.
I think the stark difference comes from when these areas were built out. Most of the suburbs of NYC (not exurbs, suburbs) were built a long ass time ago.
The surrounding New York suburbs (this includes Parts of north Jersey, Westchester and southwestern Connecticut) are actually an example of pretty well laid out suburbs. Most have access to high speed mass transit (Westchester has three major lines running through it alone) which allow easy navigation to to the polis/CBD (Manhattan) while giving numerous options for traveling to 3 out of the other 4 boroughs with ease (SI being the only exception, although people from Jersey can get there easily).
Some of you need to stop blowing all that vitriol out your asses and actually look at a map sometime.
Now if we're talking about the prototypical tract housing sprawl that one finds in just about every southern state, not to mention out west, then you're talking. THAT is badly planned suburbia.
I think the stark difference comes from when these areas were built out. Most of the suburbs of NYC (not exurbs, suburbs) were built a long ass time ago.
I'm not justifying my lifestyle, I'm just saying the suburbs suck and I hate them and I'm glad I've always lived in the city.
you guys know brooklyn was the first suburb of new york and america? the difference is that brooklyn was designed for pedestrians and trolley lines thus the close proximity of everything
what are you talking about doza!?
Brighton Beach was never a black neighborhood.
dr zippy,
just because the definition of a village i gave is not "modern american", does not mean it's "19th century". it's worldwide, and the point of the article is the analysis of changes in modern american styles of living.
to the moron who called me a moron,
calling someone a moron without refuting their arguments is just an empty insult that makes you look stupid. see how i just called you a moron and explained why? it's much more effective.
I hate yards .. if I lived in the suburbs I would have to maintain them which I feel is mostly a waste of resources. But there are people who love gardening; they love privacy; they want to be able to see the sky and not be imprisoned by tall buildings on all 4 sides. There are people who would love for their kids to run around the neighborhood and play in their 1/2 acre lot. My problem isn't with the idea of suburbs per se but with sprawl where you have to drive everywhere and there is no place within walking distance for people to gather and socialize.
For those people here who are narrow-minded and therefore never been 100 miles outside of NYC, most suburbs consist of a mix of the poor, the rich, and the middle class.
holy crap, the suburbs is 100 miles from midtown manhattan now? what is that a two hr one way trip door to door? or commuting from the poconos?
Suburbs code word for a majority white neighborhood, see commuter railroad.
the suburbs is 100 miles from midtown manhattan now?
Um I was thinking more of the suburbs of like Atlanta or DC or SF ... you know like outside of the tristate area ... parts of America where the majority of Americans live? Have you ever been anywhere outside of the tristate area?
Suburbs code word for a majority white neighborhood,
If anything, they tend to have a smaller or non-existant ghetto area which statistically means less blacks. That the majority is white is probably because most Americans are white. So what's your point?