New Census figures show that U.S. urban growth is slowing, “as a bulge of late-20s Americans reaches prime homebuying age and high urban real-estate costs are making suburbs and exurbs more attractive.” Good!!
Welcome to the Neighborhood: The Rise (and Rise) of Suburban Poverty
President Obama's State of the Union Address in January was the highest-profile moment of post-Recession recovery bluster. As Obama noted in soaring rhetoric, "we've seen the fastest economic growth in over a decade, our deficits cut by two-thirds, a stock market that has doubled, and health care inflation at its…
Paris Reckons With Plan to Connect Itself to Suburbs
Long before the Charlie Hebdo shootings last month, Paris struggled with its identity. But the attacks have spurred uncomfortable conversations about the city's large—and often segregated—population of immigrants. According to the New York Times, one step forward is new plan that will be undertaken in the following…
Heart of Blandness: A Walking Tour of Silicon Valley
Walking is the only pleasant form of traveling by land. You need no special equipment, training, money, e-tickets, antidepressants, or Twitter followers. Whatever clothes you're wearing will do fine; a hat and shoes are optional. When I've got a few days to spend somewhere, I spend them walking around. So I spent a…
All Suburban Totems Crumbling Away
Shopping malls are disappearing. Office parks are disappearing. Mcmansions are disappearing. Garages are disappearing. And now, suburban corporate headquarters are dying. Soon, there will be nothing left of the suburbs but a single Little League field, watered with tears. [Photo: AP]
Ban Lawns
As the Great American Suburban Experiment comes to an ignominious end, some of the suburb's most destructive totems are falling out of fashion. Garages are far less popular than they used to be, thank god. And now, it is time to take on the other suburban monstrosity that afflicts this great nation like a plague:…
You Will Never Be Able to Escape Your Suburban Office Park
As demographic changes push America's suburbs into a new life as homes to the poor, one of the obvious infrastructural consequences— along with dead malls— is the potential for a plague empty and unwanted office parks. Ugh, nothing could be more depressing. Except for the solution to unwanted office parks.
Slumburbia Is Real
For years now, affluent (mostly white) Americans have been moving back into our nation's "inner cities," those once-scary locations populated only by forgotten minorities and a distinct lack of quality condo development. And poor people, in turn, have been decamping for the suburbs, those once-deluxe bastions of white…
Did Teen Skate Rats Attack Man Or Heroically Fight Off Old Creep?
America's unwanted teen boys are generally exiled to "skate parks," and it was at Huntington Beach's Murdy Park where four kids beat the hell out of an innocent adult Friday night ... or bravely fought off a madman trying to stab them all with a screwdriver.
Urgent New York Times Trend News: Middle-Aged White People Have Jobs, Move Out of the City
The Sunday Styles section of the New York Times exists to make folks mad, to be sure (and to sell handbag ads), but it is not really worth getting mad about this past weekend's paired section-front irritants—a profile of BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith, and a trend piece about people forsaking Brooklyn to …
The End of the Age of Suburbs
The ongoing slumification of America's suburbs is a slow motion train wreck that it is preferable to observe far away from the slumburbs themselves. Good, because people are moving back to cities now. Goodbye, The Age of Suburbs! And good riddance.
The Slumburbs of Our Future
It is not hard to explain the prevailing demographic trends in America over the past decade or so: the inflating bubble caused Americans to rush further and further out into the far-flung suburbs in order to purchase homes, to live the American dream; construction and lending skyrocketed along the way; when the bubble…
'Occupy McMansions,' Proclaim Sell-Out College Kids
Though the great American dream of McMansion ownership is gone forever, the scaled-down American dream of McMansion renter-ship is still within reach. In California, for example, "thousands" of sell-out college kids are occupying McMansions to cut down their housing costs and study in hot tubs.
The Suburban Slum Era Has Arrived
It's been apparent for a number of years now that—due to widespread demographic and economic trends—the suburbs, once the idyllic home to upper middle class members and aspirants, are becoming the new slums. How's that trend developing? Just fine, thank you.
Dangerous Rapper Sparks Suburban Food Court Uprising
Young suburban rapper Machine Gun Kelly started a Flash Mob™ at a mall in Ohio on Saturday, and was ejected along with some friends by police. At one point, MGK even stood up on a food court table! That's some hardcore shit. You can watch the Official MGK Flash Mob™ version here.
The Horror of Homeowners' Associations
Homeowners' associations were supposedly created by Real Estate God to fundraise for and oversee neighborhood maintenance, and to help developers to efficiently manage and market their properties. But it often seems that their true purpose in life is to drive homeowners insane.
Old People Are Clogging Up the Suburbs
Demographic analysis is not all that hard, if you think about it. Young white kids are flooding into our nation's cities; the crumbling suburban wasteland, therefore, is welcoming an influx of formerly urban black people. This could be seen as a reasonably fair trade, except for one key factor—the old people are still…
Comment of the Day: New York Is the Suburbs
Today we once again waded into the ever raging debate of whether or not the suburbs suck. All you New York-dwelling cityphiles came out hot-to-trot on city living, but one commenter suggests that you don't even know where you live.
The Suburbs Still Suck, All Signs Indicate
In the mid-90s, fancy Swiss bank UBS ditched Manhattan and moved its headquarters to Stamford, Connecticut. They did this because... (ed: check this). The point is, they fucked up, because the suburbs suck, so let's stop kidding ourselves.
Black People Moving to Suburbs as White People Move to Cities
Data from the 2010 U.S. census continues to trickle out, and with each new set of numbers, a fuller picture of our terrifying changing nation emerges. We need a whole new set of stereotypes, for chrissake. Today, we learn the shocking flipside to the trend of white kids overrunning our nation's cities: there are not…
