Mark Hinshaw calls an end to the use of the term "suburb" to describe the communities ringing Seattle, and the inferior connotations attached to it. It's a term that he thinks has outlived its usefulness.
For Hinshaw, "suburb" connotes "nighttime havens of mostly white families, often with a stay-at-home mother and a commuting father", the opposite of the changes he's observed over the last 20 years in the Seattle region.
"Almost while we weren't looking, towns around Seattle have acquired a range of people, goods, and services that belies the idea of the snooty, isolated, and exclusionary suburb of popular and professional literature. "
For Hinshaw the attraction of density, diversity, a mix of uses, and non-motorized transportation is a foregone conclusion for many residents of the Seattle area.
"Walkable places, livable places, and places of cultural diversity are now to be found throughout the Puget Sound area. Not something "lesser" or "sub," they are simply cities and towns, albeit of different sizes and types."
Read the full story: Time to stop snubbing the suburbs?
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