Little Boxes, Big Slums
So what happens when McMansions all over the country are downgraded in status and price to the dollar menu? According to an article in The Atlantic, it means we’re witnessing a huge shift in where Americans are choosing to live. The piece, by Brookings Institution fellow/Arcadia Land Company honcho Christopher B. Leinberger, racks up fact…
So what happens when McMansions all over the country are downgraded in status and price to the dollar menu? According to an article in The Atlantic, it means we’re witnessing a huge shift in where Americans are choosing to live. The piece, by Brookings Institution fellow/Arcadia Land Company honcho Christopher B. Leinberger, racks up fact after fact to support the theory that the suburbanization of the U.S. has run its course:
For 60 years, Americans have pushed steadily into the suburbs, transforming the landscape and (until recently) leaving cities behind. But today the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and there are many reasons to believe this swing will continue. As it does, many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and ’70s—slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay.
Leinberger argues that as cities have increased in cachet over the past decade or so, builders have gone gangbusters on the suburbs, leading to overdevelopment in non-urban areas and huge price premiums in our cities. One demographer he cites forecasts a “likely surplus of 22 million large-lot homes forecasts a likely surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (houses built on a sixth of an acre or more) by 2025—that’s roughly 40 percent of the large-lot homes in existence today.” There are plenty of good reasons to believe cities—and manufactured, urban-esque “lifestyle centers” outside of cities that include walkable streets and retail clusters—will only continue to grow in popularity. For example, Leinberger notes that by 2025 there will be an equal number of single-person households as families with children. The whole article is well worth a read, though it oddly doesn’t address the possible racial ramifications of a suburbia-as-slum/cities-of-gold cultural shift. Still and all, it’s a sobering look at how the McMansion developments of today may be the poverty-stricken badlands of tomorrow.
The Next Slum? [The Atlantic]
Photo by bob.
5:41, interesting info on Itzak I guess, but try not to be such a total jerk. My point remains the same. The little cities in the burbs are getting full of good interesting restaurants and theaters, which makes the burbs more vital. Why are you all so threatened by the idea that there might be a decent restaurant somewhere other than Smith street?
Don’t you people read the restaurant reviews online? White Plains has a slew of 4 star restaurants now. Try reading the NY Times instead of getting all your information from Brownstoner.
Brownstones were “crafted” using the cheapest methods available to create a ‘luxury’ product for the upper-middle and merchant classes – exactly the same as McMansions today. (except without maintenance, a Mcmansion with a pitched roof will outlast a flat-roofed brownstone any century – Flat roofs=leaks)
And just like the rich gilded class laughed at the “then” crappy immigrant built Brownstone construction and today you laugh at the McMansion – the luxury pre-fab manufactured unit owner of the future will have to hear how the cira 2005 McMansion was crafted lovingly with hand-nailed studs, and shingles and hand installed moldings and individually layed tiles.
Time marches on..try to accept it.
Every summer my husband and I go to the outdoor musical concerts in Wetchester. There are a number of series–the one in Sommers and the one at Caramoor in Katonah are my favorites. The musicians are superb and the music is excellent. And they are always sold out. We also go to the Shakespeare festivals in Westchester. It is a great way to get out of the city on a summer weekend. You should try it.
does anyone know the language or dialect 5:44 speaks with?
Interestingly enough, the two times I’ve heard the Westchester Philharmonic, there were about 400 people in the audience and rarely have I ever been to the New York Philharmonic when it isn’t sold out (I go about 10-15 times a year).
Guess people in the burbs don’t like the classical music too much.
Unless you can bring snacks, they aren’t into it.
does any one know the age the brownstones in europe?
“I overheard coworkers who live in the suburbs in Westchester talking about going to “all the new restaurants in the city.” ”
Yeah, I did hear Cheesecake Factory makes a mean lasagna.
“Itzack Perlman took over the westchester philharmonic”
Speaking as someone who works in the office of Itzak’s manager, I would not brag about that. And your info is off.
He is there because they are paying him a large sum to be there and advise. NOT take over. Paul Lustig Dunkel is the Music Director of the Westchester Philharmonic. Know him? Want to brag that he lives in “the city?”
There are community orchestras in Queens with a higher caliber of playing than the Westchester Philharmonic.
And Itzak lives in “the real city” not in White Plains.