What Suburbia Teaches Us

D.J. Waldie examines the Los Angeles suburb of Lakewood as it celebrate its 50-year anniversary as a city.

1 minute read

December 22, 2004, 1:00 PM PST

"In Sacramento, state Senate leaders are willing to pit environmentalists against low-income homeowners by weakening California regulations to speed new residential construction. Proposed legislation also would preempt local land-use authority and mandate greater density in existing suburban neighborhoods. Burning the suburbs or legislating away their charm in the name of some other land-use ideal is a failure of the imagination. So is labeling everything built since 1950 as "dumb growth."

The newest owners in the older suburbs are overwhelmingly immigrant people of color. Despite the gulfs of language and ethnicity, their hopes for the suburb where they live, from my experience in Lakewood, are no different from those of my parents 50 years ago. With the possible exception of hip pioneers settling the region's suddenly residential downtowns, we all live in suburbia in Los Angeles. We're all the rueful beneficiaries of half a century of sprawl."

Thanks to Chris Steins

Read the full story: What L.A.'s Suburbs Can Teach Us

Wednesday, October 26, 2005 in The Los Angeles Times

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