Suburban Nation

 One thing I have confirmed from commuting by car to work in the past, is that the worst traffic is found not downtown but in the surrounding suburbs as is pointed out in this book. With the increase of people in the City during the summer months and the sprawl of residents trying to get home after work it sometimes took me an hour just to get out of the city itself. Traffic is perfectly smooth and operational downtown, it’s when you get on the collector road that everything becomes congested. The unfortunate reality of why I drove an hour to work every day was because I had to. My family was a victim of sprawl which requires a mandatory purchase of one car per adult. Both parents have to have their own car, then when the kids turn sixteen, the parents buy them a car as well so that they can have their lives back again. Suburbia not only places a burden on the poor “soccer mom”, but produces bored teenagers who will likely be in a severe car accident before they even graduate high school like I was, and elderly people who become stranded after they can’t drive anymore which extinguishes their pride.

A few years ago I read a book called, “Suburban Nation” by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck which painted cities and traditional towns in a new light for me. As an architecture student the book shows how the design of new places should be modeled on old places that work. Architectural style therefore doesn’t really matter sometimes, as it can be the absence of such style and diversity that makes neighborhoods thrive. It reiterated that growth cannot be stopped and that we must learn to shape it into a form which is healthier. We have to get people (middle class) who actually work in the jobs in the city to want to live in the city. This will increase the tax base, which is insignificant if you only have people living in the city that have no other choice. For a healthier community we shouldn’t create any more housing subdivisions, shopping centers, office parks, or highways, as these are all things which destroy it.