Suburbia
Violent Crime Up in the Suburbs, Down in Big Cities
A result of better city policing? Or a symptom of suburban decline?
January 10, 2013
Will Cities Hold on to Younger Residents as They Have Children?
Many American cities are proving to be more resilient than suburban areas thanks in part to the shifting preferences of today's young people. But as USA Today reported in a talked-about article earlier this week, the cohort that has flocked to cities is now reaching a stage of life which, historically, has been more closely associated with suburbia.
December 6, 2012
In Philly, Housing in Walkable Places Held Up Better Than Suburban Housing
It's been a bad few years for homeowners around the country, and those in greater Philadelphia are no different. But people who owned houses in Philadelphia's center city or suburban areas near a walkable town center fared better than others.
November 9, 2012
In Which Chuck Marohn and I Talk to Exurban Minnesotans on the Radio
Charles Marohn -- our planner/engineer friend from Baxter, Minnesota and Strong Towns -- and I appeared on a Minnesota Public Radio show on Friday about "the death of the exurbs." The starting point of the conversation was the article I wrote last month about the new census numbers and what they tell us about the shifting patterns of housing development.
May 22, 2012
Study Predicts “Resilient Walkable” Places Will Lead the Housing Recovery
This morning, a Minnesota Public Radio host asked me if the exurbs, whose growth rate flattened when the recession hit, are going to come back. Lots of people from far-distant suburbs like Blaine and Farmington called in, saying they like the way of life out there – they like having acres of trees buffering them from their nearest neighbor -- and people won’t want to stop living in communities like that.
May 18, 2012
Mixed-Use Development Delivers Huge Public Returns Compared to Sprawl
Walkable development pays -- that's the conclusion of a study recently outlined in Planetizen. For cities and towns facing tight budgets -- just about everywhere in the United States right now -- the smart way to boost tax revenue is to encourage mixed-use, walkable development, as the above graphic amply illustrates.
January 24, 2012
Conservative Pols Hate Government Subsidies, Unless They Subsidize Sprawl
UPDATE 1/5/12: Corrects the Congressional district outline.
January 5, 2012
Transforming Tysons Corner: A High-Stakes Suburban Retrofit
“That strip mall just got rezoned for high rise buildings.” “These auto dealerships are going to disappear.”
October 27, 2011
The Incredible Shrinking Megastore: Retailers Think Outside the Big Box
They lord over empty parking lots in Hazard, Kentucky; Twinsburg, Ohio; and Lewiston, Washington like the ruins of a lost civilization. Vacant Walmart stores are slowly decomposing in more and more American towns these days. More than 100 of them have been memorialized as part of the group Flickr pool known smugly as "They Sold for Less."
September 15, 2011
Civil Rights Group Demands End to Car-Centric Transportation Policies
“This is the civil rights dilemma: Our laws purport to level the playing field, but our transportation choices have effectively barred millions of people from accessing it.”
August 15, 2011