American Culture and American Suburbs
Last night, over a few beers, some classmates and I talked about what the suburban life meant within American culture. Culture is a huge word, so I will not get into that here, but overall we did (mostly) agree that the suburbs breed complacency, but also create a feeling of safety and casualness that the city does not allow.
We talked about how the occupy Wall Street movement would not have happened in the suburbs because there is no place for the people to meet and protest. The visible complacency does not come from the type of people that live in the suburbs; complacency can be directly traced back to the type of environment people live in. The suburbs lack accessible civic infrastructure and that is their downfall.
We also talked about how the problem with the suburbs is not the lot size or the house design. In fact, there really isn't anything wrong with the suburbs at all - so long as the suburbs are truly a sub-urban area right outside a city.
A problem arises, however, when the suburbs overtake the city, like in Anderson. The suburbs have survived the downtown and the businesses have been developed into strip malls and parking lots, all the same scale as the neighborhoods they serve. My problem with suburbs stems from cities that are made up entirely of them.
I think that cities like Charlotte, NC, do an excellent job with the balance between suburban and urban. The urban core, Uptown, is the business center of the city and is dead after dark because everyone leaves to go back to the suburbs. BUT, each suburban area, which surround Charlotte like spokes of a wheel, are large enough to have there own small, dense urban areas where nightlife and culture prevail. Each spoke on the wheel has its own personality and feeling, attracting different crowds to them. But the next day, all of these diverse people meet back again in the urban core and go to work and make their money. That is the American culture; the ability to think however you choose and live where you want and still make your livelihood.
We talked about how the occupy Wall Street movement would not have happened in the suburbs because there is no place for the people to meet and protest. The visible complacency does not come from the type of people that live in the suburbs; complacency can be directly traced back to the type of environment people live in. The suburbs lack accessible civic infrastructure and that is their downfall.
We also talked about how the problem with the suburbs is not the lot size or the house design. In fact, there really isn't anything wrong with the suburbs at all - so long as the suburbs are truly a sub-urban area right outside a city.
A problem arises, however, when the suburbs overtake the city, like in Anderson. The suburbs have survived the downtown and the businesses have been developed into strip malls and parking lots, all the same scale as the neighborhoods they serve. My problem with suburbs stems from cities that are made up entirely of them.
I think that cities like Charlotte, NC, do an excellent job with the balance between suburban and urban. The urban core, Uptown, is the business center of the city and is dead after dark because everyone leaves to go back to the suburbs. BUT, each suburban area, which surround Charlotte like spokes of a wheel, are large enough to have there own small, dense urban areas where nightlife and culture prevail. Each spoke on the wheel has its own personality and feeling, attracting different crowds to them. But the next day, all of these diverse people meet back again in the urban core and go to work and make their money. That is the American culture; the ability to think however you choose and live where you want and still make your livelihood.
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