Suburbs
Orange County, China
The extent of China's embrace of American-style suburbanization is best illustrated by one of its newest gated communities, which is actually called Orange County.
Housing Prices Drop Lower as Commute Distances Rise
Homes farther out from the central city and with longer commutes are being hit harder by the downturn in the housing market. Those located close to city cores and transit are faring better, according to this report from NPR.
Is Suburbia Avoiding Reality?
Michael Gecan uses the Chicago and New York City areas as examples of the challenges facing mature suburbs, examines the ways many are avoiding reality, and draws a series of conclusions.
'Slumburbia': Exurban Decay Spurred By Mortgage Crisis
The mortgage crisis is devastating many communities far from urban centers, while 'inner cities', regionally speaking, are weathering the financial storm far better thanks to their urban form that makes them attractive to those that can afford them.
Suburban Detroit Builds Up, Not Out
The suburban Detroit town of Wixom is looking to lure in residents by creating dense downtown living.
Cities Don't Need Special Treatment
This opinion piece from The Boston Globe calls for an end to the special treatment and unfair taxes levied on city residents.
Canada's Ready for Urban Shift
The age of the suburbs may be coming to an end in America, and conditions in Canada are even more ripe for this transition to urban density.
The Rise of the 'Reverse Commuter'
A rise in the amount of jobs available in the suburbs has more city dwellers in New York doing the "reverse commute" and traveling from home in the city to work in the 'burbs.
Top Ten Reasons...
Over the past three months, my girlfriend and I have made three trips to the suburbs of Miami. Twice to the Whole Foods we desperately lack on Miami Beach (Yes, Wild Oats is okay, but for us food snobs it just does not compare) and once to the brand new, soul-killing, 283,000 square foot IKEA to partially outfit our 450 square foot South Beach studio apartment.
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Green Lawns, Black Neighborhoods: African American Middle-Class Suburbs and Planning
I first visited the African American suburb of Country Club Hills, south of Chicago, as an interviewer for a research project. It seemed as though only race had been reversed: The Maryland suburbs I had grown up in were 80 percent white, these were 80 Black, but otherwise they were so utterly familiar, right down to the floor plan of the split-level ranches, that I knew the layout of every home before I went in.
In research I’ve begun on other Black, middle-class suburbs, however, it turns out that more than color has been reversed. In fact, race reverses many of the things planners have come to see as inevitable.
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Madrid’s Alternate Suburban Universe
Houston or Holland? The rapidly growing suburbs of Madrid uncomfortably (and instructively) amalgamate some of both. I was lucky to receive a recent tour from David Cohn, a long-time colleague and 20-year resident of Madrid; Sylvia Perea, a post-doctoral student and, until recently, an editor at the journal Arquitectura Viva, and Emilio Ontiveros, a young architect of the local Research Group on Social Housing.
