Exurbs Are Dead, Long Live The Exurbs
Business Week explores whether higher energy prices signify the beginning of the end for exurban development, or whether exurbs have become an integral part of the American economic system.
"While many of America's biggest cities continue to lose population, and inner suburbs are suffering symptoms of old age, out in the exurbs it's a different world. Between 2000 and 2004 exurbia accounted for 17 of the 20 fastest-growing counties in the nation with more than 10,000 people.
But with energy costs soaring and a hike in interest rates likely in the months ahead, all of a sudden the Exurban American Dream is looking a whole lot tougher for many.
...The economic consequences of a slowdown in exurban exuberance is difficult to measure. Clearly the exurbs' rapid growth has been one of the main engines of U.S. economic expansion in recent years. Consider all the homebuilding plus the malls, box stores, restaurant chains, fire departments, and schools that have popped up on cheap farmland beyond the suburbs."
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Exurbs is just a euphemism for sprawl
Expectedly, Business Week seems more focused on the sprawl industry than on sprawl's victims. Long before recent increased in gasoline prices, many sprawl residents learned the hard way about unexpected costs of the sprawl lifestyle besides high household car costs, including becoming time-poor - little time for family, healthy activity or being an engaged citizen.