According to an increasing number of theorists, modernist planning and urban renewal practices have produced nothing but an overly simplified, paternalistic urbanism that has in time proved unable to mirror the complexity of urban life.
Though, if modernism is dead, the physical signs of its long-lasting influence are still permeating our daily lives, in the US as well as in Europe. The most visible signs of an "antisocial urbanism" (Simon Richard) that relies on car-dependency and individual atomism are still to be seen in the U.S. suburbs, and in the characteristic way of life they helped produce.
According to Michael Thompson's article "The Suburban Assault on Democracy", featured in the latest issue of "The Urban Reinventors", "suburbs provide a spatial pattern of social life that [ ] actively erodes the interactive social foundations of everyday life [thus leading] to an erosion of democratic sensibilities and democratic forms of life." It is the missing city that, in Thompson's words, makes people anti-social: "Whereas urban environments are characterized by diversity, a density of social interaction, and a constant exposure to difference and newness capable of spawning a sense of openness and constant sense of newness, and ways of innovating and exploring what Georg Simmel referred to as "the technique of life," suburban life is characterized by an isolation from those very activities and external forces [ ] it is the spatial manifestation of the liberal political and cultural utopia: to be able to separate public and private at one's own whim and be able to live unencumbered by the various obligations of public and social life."
But Thompson's argument goes even further, correlating the geography of suburbia with specific political behaviors: "One way of looking at the relation between space and political values and ideology is through the spatial pattern of voting behavior [ ] The more acute political analysts of the past two American presidential elections could see - when they broke the electoral map down by counties instead of merely by states - that liberal-democratic votes were cast almost exclusively in urban or heavily metropolitan counties; all else was a sea of republican and varying degrees of conservative sentiment."
A comparable conclusion was first developed by political scientist Robert Putnam, when in "Bowling Alone – The Collapse and Revival of American Community" (2000), he associated sprawl and suburban settings with a reinforced atomistic individualism and a lessening of "social capital".
Thanks to Alessandro Busa'
FULL STORY: The Suburban Assault on Democracy

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

Ohio Forces Data Centers to Prepay for Power
Utilities are calling on states to hold data center operators responsible for new energy demands to prevent leaving consumers on the hook for their bills.

MARTA CEO Steps Down Amid Citizenship Concerns
MARTA’s board announced Thursday that its chief, who is from Canada, is resigning due to questions about his immigration status.

Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant
A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Caltrans
City of Fort Worth
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie