Da Bears, Da Bulls, Da Cubs, Da BURBS

I think at this point it is news to no one that I grew up in the Chicagoland suburbs, but I surprisingly have found myself defending the suburbia lifestyle more than expected in the readings, class lectures and even conversations outside of zoom with other classmates.

For me, growing up in the suburbs was the way to go, it is all anyone knows from back home. Although I completely agree that the suburb is completely an environmental determinism, I think it is something that plays a key role in my life, and specifically the cycle of the city of Chicago. Sure the architecture includes only regimented and homogenous populations, I could even go as far as saying that because every house around the cul-de-sac looks identical, it shapes identical inhabitants as well. Applying this theory to my own experience, it is pretty accurate. My parents, similar to every other neighbor, picked a lot they wanted, were able to select between three different brick colors and two different front porch roof pitches. This determined my suburban childhood home. But that is allowable and completely necessary if you take a step back and understand the presence of suburbia in the stages of life.

Being a big suburbia advocate, I find that this is more of a choice during a point in life rather than a way of life. The typical Chicago cycle goes as follows: starting career while living in the city in a far too pricey apartment with a busy lifestyle, then you start a family and move further from the city in the suburbs where housing is affordable, schools are safer and the pace of life supports raising children, these children grow up and move off to college, then return back to the city to repeat this pattern. Because of this intertwined system, the sense of community and pride is prevalent throughout each phase. The access to the city and the suburbs goes both ways and never feels restricted or undesirable. The outlier in this system isn't that the suburb shapes communities without identity or architecture without various characteristics, its that the idea of suburb versus variety shapes incorrect notions of living. Suburbs appropriately apply to communities that they serve, they provide a sense of grounding at the point in life when we are establishing our place in society. This is the complete opposite of the idea that the suburb breeds monotonous architecture and communities, the suburb is the place that sets us on our feet and allows us to strengthen our individual sense of what it’s like to be a part of a bigger whole.