Aim: Why do suburbs have distinctive problems?

Do Now: What are the benefits of living in the suburbs?

What was the American dream

in the 1950s?

Overview of Suburbanization

• World intraregional migration trend: rural to urban

• U.S. intraregional migration trend: urban to suburban

• Suburban population in U.S. has grown much faster than the overall population

Overview of Suburbanization

Year Percent Urban

Percent Suburban

Percent Rural

1950 40% 20% 40%

2000 30% 50% 20%

What were the causes of

suburbanization?

World War II Era

• Pre-WWII: Great Depression • During WWII: growth of jobs/stimulation of

economy• Post WWII:

– Veterans return– Baby Boom (1946-1964)– Shortage of housing– Consumerism (automobiles)

Veterans return from WWII

Government Intervention

1. Housing– Americans previously suffered from financial

constraints such as ten year mortgages and 80% down payments

– Federal Housing Authority: allowed thirty year mortgages and approve mortgages with only 10% down

Government Intervention

2. G.I. Bill– Provided numerous

opportunities for veterans to transition to civilian life

– Subsidized tuition, fees, books, educational materials for veterans desiring college

– Provided low interest loans to veterans for the purchase of single family homes

Government Intervention

3. Transportation– National Interstate and Defense Highways

Act (1956): provided massive federal funding for construction of 41,000 miles of interstate highways

The Levitt Brothers

• Took advantage of new market for houses• Purchased land once used to grow potatoes and

constructed in Hempstead, Long Island the first of three Levittowns (later Pennsylvania and New Jersey)

• Applied Fordist approach and mass produced houses to reduce costs

• Later added amenities such as baseball fields, shopping centers, schools, parks, and churches to neighborhoods

Peripheral Model

The central city is surrounded by a beltway or ring road. Around the beltway are suburban residential areas and nodes, or edge cities, where consumer and

business services and manufacturing cluster.

The Peripheral Model

• An urban area consists of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road

• Suburbs (peripheral areas) lack inner-city problems, but have to deal with sprawl and segregation

• Edge cities: nodes of consumer and business services around the beltway

Where are shopping

malls located in relation to highways?

Edge cities sometimes

called galactic

cities

Suburbanization of businesses

1. Suburbanization of retailing

a. Small shopping centers

b. Shopping malls

2. Suburbanization of factories and offices

a. Factories

b. Warehouses

Is the American shopping mall dying?

Trend: Shopping malls moving from urban to suburban

Early factories

Modern factories

Suburbandowntowns, oftenlocated near keyfreewayintersections, oftenwith:- office complexes- shopping centers- hotels- restaurants- entertainment facilities- sports complexes

Edge Cities

Figure 11.3 (p. 305)

Philadelphia's Edge Cities

Tyson’s Corner, Virginia

Edge Cities of New York City

• Yonkers, New York

• New Rochelle, New York

• White Plains, New York

• Purchase, New York

• Pearl River, New York

• Huntington, New York

• Melville, New York

• Nyack, New York

• Haverstraw, New York

• Union City, New Jersey

• Wayne, New Jersey

• Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey

• Rutherford, New Jersey

• Fort Lee, New Jersey

• Paramus, New Jersey

• Mahwah, New Jersey

• Hoboken, New Jersey

• Morristown, New Jersey

• Woodbridge, New Jersey

• New Brunswick, New Jersey

• Princeton, New Jersey

• Iselin, New Jersey

Prefab Construction

• Housing kits: parts of houses are built in factories and then assembled on site

Density Gradient

• Density gradient: change in density in an urban area; the number of houses per unit of land diminishes as distance from the center city increases

• However in recent years:– Less people living in center city– Less density difference within urban areas

Cost of Suburban Sprawl

• Sprawl: progressive spread of development over the landscape; not contiguous

• Undesirable traits:– Wastes land– Higher taxes and home prices

• Greenbelts: rings of open space (London, Birmingham)

New housing in the U.K. is likely to be in planned new towns, while in the U.S. growth occurs in discontinuous developments.

Unrestrictedgrowth ofhousing,commercialdevelopments,and roads overlarge expansesof land, withlittle concern forurban planning.Henderson,Nevada

Urban Sprawl

Urban Sprawl

Is this progress?

Suburban Segregation

• Residents are separated from commercial and manufacturing activities that are confined to compact, distinct areas

• Housing in a given suburban community is usually built for people of a single social class

• Zoning ordinances: a law that limits the permitted uses of land and maximum density of development in a community– Encouraged spatial separation

Northampton, United Kingdom

Contribution of Transportation to Suburbanization

• Urban sprawl makes people more dependent on transportation (work, shopping)

• Motor vehicles had led to large scale development of suburbs; more flexibility

• U.S. government has paid 90% of the cost of limited access high-speed interstate highways

• ¼ of land of city is roads and parking lots

Contribution of Transportation to Suburbanization

• Rush-hour commuting: heaviest traffic because large numbers of people are reaching small areas of land at the same time

• Public transportation is cheaper, less polluting and more energy efficient

Average American loses 36 hours per year sitting in traffic jams and wastes 55 gallons of gasoline

Contribution of Transportation to Suburbanization

• The public transportation heavily used is rapid transit (subways, streetcars)

• Subways have been modernized across the country

• Not everyone without a car has access to public transportation (especially if live in city, but have suburban job)

Popular Culture

Effects on Landscape: Creates homogenous,

“placeless” landscape Complex network of

roads and highways Commercial Structures

tend towards ‘boxes’• Planned and Gated

Communities more and more common

Urban Realms

• Originally the peripheral land was added to city organization and surrounding areas benefitted from city services (water, sewage, streets)

• Today, periphery wants to be independent of city and have their own services/taxes

• Urban realm = independent entity with its own downtown or commercial center

Urban Realms Model

• Developed by Vance based on San Francisco Bay area and metropolis

• Describes spatial components of modern metropolis• Includes independent suburban downtowns (aka edge

cities) within the sphere of influence of the central city and CBD

• Depends on:– Overall size of metropolitan region– Amount of economic activity in each urban realm– Topography and major land features– Accessibility of each realm

Includes a central business district, central city, new downtown, and

suburban downtown

Edge City

Local Government Fragmentation

• Makes it difficult to solve regional problems of traffic, solid-waste disposal, and building affordable housing

Long Island

• 90 miles east of NYC• 800 local governments• 2 counties• 2 cities• 13 towns• 97 villages• 127 school districts• 500 special districts

Metropolitan Government

• Council of government: cooperative agency consisting of representatives of the various local governments in the region– Federations– Consolidations

Smart Growth

• Legislation and regulations to limit suburban sprawl and preserve farmland

New Urbanism

• New urban planning movement developed in the 1990s

• Considers environmental impacts of urban planning

• Tries to prevent sprawl and create walkable neighborhoods

• Mixed-use development: combination of different types of land use within a neighborhood (retail, residential, offices)

New Urbanism

Mixed use development

Environment friendly

• http://persquaremile.com/2012/02/15/americas-suburban-future/

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT_A9PFOY18&feature=related

Definition of boomburb

• Rapidly growing suburbs – most are in the south

• Population greater than 100,000• Not the largest city in their metropolitan area• Have had double digit growth for several

decades• In suburbs or periphery of the largest

metropolitan entity• Often develop along interstate beltways that

ring large US cities

Bellevue, Washington

Arlington, Texas

Coral Springs, Florida

Tempe, Arizona

Figure 11.2 (p. 304)

Transportation and urban morphology