Australia's Suburban Success Story

22 June 2006 - 10:00am

Globalization and suburbanization have boosted Sydney's economy, despite the protests of "enemies" of such trends.

"There is surprisingly little acknowledgement that, overall, the transformation of suburban Sydney in the wake of globalisation has been a success story. Over the last twenty years, the middle to outer suburbs adapted to volatile domestic and international environments, as well as technological change at breakneck speed, with an effective model of economic development. The key point is that this had more to do with the interplay of space and mobility than good planning.

By no means was this inevitable. Sydney could have succumbed to the downside of what urban theorists call the 'world city' phenomenon."

"Environmentalists and planners -- two increasingly interchangeable categories -- are oblivious to the prospect that their creeping regulations and imposts, and misallocated resources, could unravel the suburban economy."

Source: The New City (Australia), June 19, 2006
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New Suburbanism is not a new design paradigm that seeks to compete with or discredit principles of New Urbanism. Instead, our perspective represents a broad-based attempt to find the best, most practical ways to develop and redevelop suburban communities.