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."
- Login or register to post comments
- Email this page
- Using Adaptive Reuse to Scale the Urban Future - Feb 08, 2012
- Why Tea Party Criticism Should Matter to Planners - Feb 08, 2012
- Saving the Mall By Returning to Its Ideals - Feb 07, 2012
- Ranking Housing Affordability in America - Jan 25, 2012
- In Defense of the Grid - Jan 23, 2012
Planetizen picks
Contribute
- The Rise of Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing
- What the Feds are Doing to Connect Housing Policy to Health Policy
- Why the Politics of Climate Change Matter
- Waste Disposal Becomes Sexy
- Murky Future for Two of D.C.'s Architectural Gems
- The Story Behind One of the Most Controversial Buildings in the Country
- The Benefits of Creating Hybrid Zoning Codes
- The Appeal of In-Town Big Box
- The Growing Appeal of Drinking From the Toilet
- How and Why Does an Architect Become Famous?
My Storm, Managing the Recovery of New Orleans in the Wake of Katrina is required reading for planners
U Penn Press
Feb 13, 2012
Volunteerism Plays Critical Role in Reaching World’s Millennium Development Goals
Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
Feb 10, 2012
www.flickr.com
|
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.