Are High Rise Suburbs To Blame For Civil Unrest?

Were the riots in France caused by the design of its high rise suburbs?

1 minute read

November 28, 2005, 8:00 AM PST

By jandrew76


"In the old days, the argument runs, a person with a working-class identity could live in "working-class housing." But today people have housing careers that vary as much as their professional ones. When they are young and not terribly bothered by noise, they might choose small, functional places close to cultural attractions and nightlife. They can move to larger, quieter ones when they have families and then trade space for comfort when their children leave home. Corbusier-style city planning shows no evidence of having considered this. If you don't vary the housing units in a given neighborhood - if you fill entire quarters of the city with standard-issue monoliths - you condemn upwardly mobile people to constant movement. The only people who develop any sense of place are those trapped in the poverty they started in."

Sunday, November 27, 2005 in The New York Times

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