Yeah, we know: seen this story before. And yet the suburbs keep growing.
But this series from Business Insider is more about how the suburbs are changing than how they’re dying – though some elements, like malls and golf courses – actually are.
Really, the story is this:
The line is blurring between city and suburb
Urban and suburban areas are becoming less distinguishable as modern populations value convenience and location over size.
The line between city and suburb has already started to blur, Fadi Masoud, an urban-planning professor at the University of Toronto who contributed to a forthcoming book called “Infinite Suburbia,” told Business Insider’s Leanna Garfield. …
Urban planners across America are rethinking how suburbs are designed. Towns like New Rochelle, a suburb of New York City, are evolving to focus less on space and possession and more on walkability and environmental impact.
McMansions are out
The cheaply constructed mansions of old are plummeting in value as homebuyers are more discerning.
In an article in August 2016, Bloomberg cited data from the real-estate site Trulia that showed that the premiums paid for McMansions have declined significantly in 85 of the country’s 100 biggest cities. …
Suburban malls are in crisis
As anchor-store behemoths like Macy’s, Sears, and JCPenney close hundreds of locations, the future of malls is in jeopardy.
The commercial real-estate firm CoStar estimates that nearly a quarter of malls in the US, or roughly 310 of the nation’s 1,300 shopping malls, are at high risk of losing an anchor store. …
The roads that connect suburbs to city are falling apart
“In suburbs, the big challenge is repairing the existing highway system,” Christopher Leinberger, chair of the center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis at George Washington University, told Business Insider. “Ideally, there won’t be any new highway capacity built because we can’t afford to maintain what we have.” …
Golf courses are shutting down
Over 800 golf courses have shuttered across the US in the past decade, and data from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association has shown that millennials between the ages of 18 and 30 lack interest in playing the game.
Casual dining is in crisis
For many years, suburban residents sought the treat of going to casual-dining chains. But as more people choose to make their food at home, the restaurant industry is in crisis.
The weakest link in the industry was casual dining, which was the bottom performer in all but two months of the year. Most of these restaurants are in the suburbs.
Series starts here.
I’m reminded of this article from 2009 in the Washington Post on the pained future of an old suburban country club in Pennsylvania –
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/20/AR2009052003790.html
There’s nothing wrong with cooking at home.
Many Vancouverites would do well to cook at home and save bundles of money.
Even “casual” restaurants like Earls and Milestones will cost you more than $20 for a meal. A home-cooked meal would cost less than $5.
I wouldn’t travel to a place where everyone cooks at home. I wouldn’t want to live in a place where everyone cooks at home all the time. I like the vitality of places where people go out. Tired of the “home is my castle” mentality that demands bigger and more elaborate private spaces while shunning everything about public space.
I like the European cities where people live in modest apartments but use public space as their own. Neutral territory – makes for better conversation too. No worries about offending the host.
I want to move to a suburb.
In a recent column for the FT the architect and writer Edwin Heathcote talks about how suburban sprawl is frowned upon, yet the garages in suburbia have produced some important developments, as well as provided retreats for artistic and other creative endeavours.
Heathcote draws some of his commentary from the self-published book by artist Olivia Erlanger and architect Luis Ortega Govela, ‘Garage: Hate Suburbia’.
Reminders too are the garage bands of Kurt Cobain and Gwen Stefani.
One question asked is: What do Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Disney, Google and Amazon have in common? Every one of them started in a suburban garage.
Frank Lloyd Wright was the first to incorporate a garage into the design of a house (the Robie House). We are reminded of its importance.
I have to admit, being in a garage band in the burbs was a lot more creative and stimulating than mall crawling in the early 70s, hearing loss excepted.
But that was then. This is now.
In some parts of the world the word shed is used somewhat interchangeably with garage. In Australia there is a shed association. Some consider tinkering in a shed, or a garage, is essential and contributes to mental well being.
To try and accommodate this need for a workshop and a sanctuary many condo high-rises now incorporate, or have created, workshops for people to tinker in.
http://mensshedphotography.com.au/
One would be hardpressed to find a suburb in Canada that falls under the dire descriptions given in the article. Anyone care to try?
My parents never once took us to a restaurant – not even a coffee shop. I remember my dad marvelling at the cost of a cup of coffee.
Before I made my own family, I did go to restaurants with friends, but it was infrequent, and didn’t spend big. Paradoxical, because for several years I made my living working in them.
Our family pretty much never eats in restos – it’s enough to pick up a bbq duck, or char sui once in a while.
Cooking is more than a bit of a grind, even for someone accomplished in the kitchen, and it would be nice to not have to – but the spread between what it costs to eat out vs at home is a chasm. Plus the food is generally inferior. With the add-ons of tax and tips, it’s five times the price. It’s better to make the effort and use the cash to pay the mortgage.
Dragon’s Den guy Jim said that in Mexico only 15% of the population can afford to eat out. It’s probably the same here.