Suburbia: A Growing Problem

New vs. Old (Not my house)

When I think of suburban areas, two things that come to mind are cheap and lack of character. I live in a historic district less than a mile from main street. My house was built over 60 years ago, and while small has lots of little things that make it unique (including the arched front door). Houses in suburban areas are far different than the area that I live in. During the past few summers I have worked construction in Greenville, and have spent most of that time in the suburbs fixing houses that are less than 15 years old. The houses were built by greedy developers and builders who cut corners and the consequences are just starting to show. These houses will not last nearly as long as the house I live in without serious maintenance. But, people like big and cheap right now. That equates in a developer’s mind to “all the same, low quality.”

So, we keep building these monstrosities as fast as we can clear land. What will these neighborhoods be like in 50 years? I doubt they will be anywhere near as desired as they are now. People buy them because they offer exorbitant amounts of interior space for a fraction of the cost and they then deal with the long drive to work. One major problem with building these so fast is that the road system cannot keep up. We take a 2 lane country road and then building one subdivision off of it with no major problems, however we keep building and then we have 50 off of that one small road. They have developed so fast, the road has not had time to expand and we have horrible traffic problems. New developments must be planned, slowed down, and take longevity into account. We have already created a huge problem that we cannot undo, but now we must stop continuing the problem.