The Suburbs: Post-Levittown
In this article from The Wall Street Journal, Joel Kotkin discusses the history of suburban development, and looks at how they have changed in the years since Levittown.
"Suburbs absorbed a remarkable 84% of the nation's population increase during the 1950s. And the pattern has not much changed. We remain an increasingly suburban nation. Despite a strong uptick in residential growth in some core cities, during the first five years of the new millennium suburbs and exurbs accounted for slightly more than 92% of the total growth in our metropolitan areas."
"The tradition of suburb-bashing among intellectuals like Richard Wilbur continues today in the writings of James Howard Kunstler and urban critic Paul Knox, who denounces suburbia as "vulgaria." Such hostility is based on everything from the aesthetics of the communities to claims that their car-dependent culture helps to expand the nation's waistlines. And now suburbs have come under fire from environmentalists, who hector them for their alleged contributions to global warming."
"But places like Fort Bend County, Texas, and Walnut, Calif., are not your father's suburbs. They boast some of the most diverse populations in the nation. Today's Levittown, N.Y., is still only 10% nonwhite, but Willingboro, N.J., another Levittown development (in the Philadelphia suburbs), is now majority black. Indeed, more than one in four suburbanites nationwide is a minority-group member. Along with immigrants and their offspring, African-Americans have been consistently moving to the suburbs; the percentage of blacks living in the periphery has risen to well over one in three."
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Suburbs are not really suburbs anymore...
What Kotkin also fails to mention, in all of his writings, is that suburbs, in the pure sense, are not really suburbs anymore. I live in Costa Mesa, what is Costa Mesa a suburb of? All of Orange County is one giant suburban community, just as all of LA is. Additionally, we actually have the dreaded mixed use and high density housing, even spots of TOD, in all of these so-called "suburbs" that Kotkin loves so much. Time for a re-tooling of our definitions, Mr. Kotkin, and a true examination of what really exists in your suburban paradise.
Kotkin Fights The Iconic Battle Of The 1950s
As Kotkin defends suburbia by defending Levittown against Lewis Mumford and Jane Jacobs, I have to ask: what century is this guy living in?
Levittown is no longer the only paradigm for suburban design. Levittown was the iconic suburb of the 1950s, and Celebration was the iconic suburb of the 1990s, representing a new generation of walkable, new urbanist suburbs.
If Levittown were the only model for suburbs, then Kotkin would be right to say that James Howard Kunstler continues the "tradition of suburb-bashing." But we all know that, in reality, Kunstler admires New Urbanist suburbs.
Kotkin says "no one will mistake contemporary Levittown, or the San Fernando Valley neighborhood where my family now resides, for New York's SoHo or San Francisco's North Beach" - as if these were the only alternatives.
In reality, the people in Celebration and in other New Urbanist suburbs moved there because they want to live in suburbs. They don't want to live in an urban neighborhoods like Soho, but they also don't want to live in a sterile, auto-dependent suburb like Levittown. Fortunately, they have another alternative.
Wake up, Joel Kotkin. It is not the 1950s, and Levittown is no longer the only model for suburbs.
(PS: Maybe Kotkin actually has gotten as far as the 1960s, since he defends sprawl suburbs by saying they are more ethnically diverse than they were in the 1950s. But he certainly has not gotten into the twenty-first century, since he defends the auto-dependency of sprawl suburbs without a thought of global warming. Keep it up, Kotkin, and you will turn your San Fernando Valley into the San Fernando Desert.)
Charles Siegel
Kotkin's iconic persuasion battles.
Wake up, Joel Kotkin. It is not the 1950s, and Levittown is no longer the only model for suburbs.
True Charles, and simplistic mischaracterizations make it easy to get the reader's head to nod 'yes', which is the purpose of these essay types.
When you start nodding your head 'yes', you are more likely to receive the other, more subtle messages buried in this piece.
Best,
D