Someone help the Suburbs

Where I grew up, I had to commute everywhere: 40 minutes to school, 30 minutes to sports practice, 20 minutes to groceries, 20 minutes for a decent park, 30+ minutes to anything fun (movies, bowling, shopping). With the highway running through town, you were an idiot to even think of leaving your neighborhood on summer weekends with the beach traffic. So much so, it’s a huge criterion for after graduation that I won’t have to commute. I understand the idea of retrofitting suburbia because I grew up in an area that desperately needs it. The downtown is dead, there was an empty grocery store for over a decade that has just recently become an okay brewery. I’ve seen local coffee and craft shops try and fail along the abandoned outlet mall time and time again, but hey at least we have two McDonalds on both sides of the highway. So many people I grew up with got out and moved to more urban areas like Annapolis, Baltimore or somewhere out of state and never looked back.

I also understand the aversion to “instant cities.” They may feel quickly thrown together, cheap, fake, or instantly overcrowded. It can feel like a standalone city, awkwardly placed in the middle of suburbia. These are factors that need to be considered when retrofitting suburbia. But also, access is key. What good is a new hub if you can’t comfortably get to it? So, private and public transportation also must be factored in. I don’t ever plan on going back to stay in my hometown for pretty much every spot on reason in the reading, but I know they’re on the verge of trying, and I’m excited to see if/how they retrofit it.