What Happened To Suburbia?

Many of this nation's suburban neighborhoods are facing a state of decline due to rapidly rising gas prices and a troubled housing market. Ben Tracy reports on the potential end of America's utopia.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• suburbia
• ben
• tracy
• america
• gas
• prices
• housing

[beingme009]

I hate how most people seem to think the "American Dream" consists of only a suburban home with a car a backyard etc. Just like there are many types of people, there can be multiple types of "dreams."

[TenderTrap86]

The answer to high gas prices is high density housing and walkable neighborhoods. It's pretty simple. Suburbs are only a recent development of the past 60 years. Before that, people only lived in the city or the country, not a hybrid no-man's-land somewhere in between. It's common sense.

[TomLennox24]

i think most people will still live in the suburbs if they can....urban life cant provide teh fresh air, open space, and privacy of suburban and rural areas and lower density simply is more comfortable who wants to rub shoulder to shoulder with ppl everywhere? however I DO think that we should promote more fuel efficient vehicles and alternative energy sources

[nuclearthreat545]

America is fucked

[LexusLawyer]

I hate suburbia. Fat people, box stores, fast-food, fossil-fuel-burning SUVs, 2-hr traffic, pre-fabricated homes and McMansions - all of which has led to the collapse of America.

Prior to suburbanization, people in this country dressed with style, public transportation was world-class, obesity wasn't a national concern, our homes had personality and it was common to go for a promenade in the park, as opposed to hanging out in some shady suburbia parking lot. Thank you, suburbanites!!!

[SilentMott]

I'll tell you what happened to suburbia. Its dying like the fucking plague it is. Good riddance. Shitty dime-a-dozen boxes and inefficient vehicles and blandscapes and 20 mile parking lots all gone for good I hope. Who the hell dreams of that?!

[xanadu247]

Hmmm, maybe Nicole shown driving her SUV in the video spending 800 dollars in gas and cant afford it should get a vehicle with better MPG's?

[AlfredSwearengen]

@xxx2397 Damn right I am. No apologies.

[xxx2397]

@AlfredSwearengen well it's obvious that you're a racist

[xxx2397]

@nataliegenco so you're saying that even though, for thousands of years, most people have lived in cities (or the countryside) all of a sudden people are gonna move to the suburbs. WTF?

[Gabbo2010]

@beingme009

Most people around the world live in dense living conditions. Most Americans came from Europe, if you have ever been there you will notice that Europe is far more densely populated than the US. Space is it a premium, a large American home is impossible to own. Europe's wars were a result of a lack of lebensraum. Its uniquely American to live in a big comfortable home. Well maybe not, the average Australian home is now bigger than the American one fyi.

[weacoo7]

In my opinion, there is no end in sight to sprawl. Houston is a prime example. The suburbs are continuing to expand west even with gas prices over 3$, I am seeing it with my own eyes. Why else would a new 170 mile long ring road be built?

[chadberry75]

i notice bowling alleys and restaurants are dead..

[nataliegenco]

People don't want to live in cities. They are being forced to because of a bad economy. Inner cities will become slums. The suburbs will not. Look at history. It tends to repeat itself.

People want out of cities and want a better life for their children and themselves. They will leave as soon as the economy and their finances improve.

We live in the suburbs and my worst nightmare would be to have to return to the city with my family. I don't think I need to list the reasons why.

[SirCharlesWatson]

Shoot, i'll move into those houses once everyone dips out and then just ride my bike :D

[bmp456]

the solution to this problem is simple, knock down the house and build the city in its place

[atlasshrugged2u]

@AlfredSwearengen What is this the 50's...Negro? LOL!! Damn! Some things never change.

[atlasshrugged2u]

@pavilionking06 That's what I say.

That commute is mistake no#1

No husband or roomate helping out is mistake no#2

Buying into the fact that there's a such thing as "The American Dream" is mistake no#3.

It's America's turn to suffer.

The whole world is in a crisis (and always has been) while wev'e been buying $5.00 cups of coffee and going into debt after Xmas!!

We have been brainwashed to think that we could continue living and wasting like that...it was bound to happen.

[atlasshrugged2u]

@AlfredSwearengen You sound like a total idiot dude.

Please go and take an economics class and try not to embaress yourself on purpose.



[atlasshrugged2u]

It was never "yours" Nicole. That's a fantasy that people bought into that lasted for a time and...now it's all over. I know things are bad and the Gov't SUCKS but this has really made people come closer together, rediscover family, cut back on meaningless spending, and take our debts (that could've been paid when we DID have an income) more seriously.

The media is a liar, do not trust it, do not believe it. They will tell U what U want to hear; give U false hope. don't spend unless necessary

[AlfredSwearengen]

@Nightmonkey17 The short simple truth of it is that blacks muck EVERYTHING up--urban, suburban, rural--wherever they go. Blacks are a cancer on civilization. As White population decreasing black pop increasing = EVERYTHING will degrade and become more unstable. An unappetizing prospect. Some predictions are that when USA collapses it will fragment and reform into 3 or 4 new nation-states. Every empire falls, nothing stays the same, and change is occurring at an accellerated pace.

[Nightmonkey17]

@AlfredSwearengen

You don't understand urbanism at all. Sorry, but you fail.

More white people in the inner cities means higher land values and higher rents which most racial minorities won't be able to afford. Those who remain thanks to low-income housing laws will be forced to conform to white culture. The suburbs will be the future ghetto of America.

[pavilionking06]

Ditch suburbia.... Why would you want to live in a place where your dependent on the car, and held hostage to the prices of gas? Inner city living is way more convenient.

[StoneyX213]

In France the suburbs are the ghettos and the cities are desirable. The only reason it's the opposite here is because black people moved to the cities first, whereas in France, the cities were already too expensive for them by the time they arrived (Paris, after all, was developed centuries before DC.)

[StoneyX213]

Now American cities have become so trashed up and worthless that their inhabitants are moving out to the suburbs...but no one wants to live near them, so white people are moving back to the cities or even further out (into what are sometimes known as "exurbs"

[ThothX]

White people have been taught that they should have less children while nonwhites (Third Worlders) have been PAID welfare by the government to have more. This destruction of America was engineered, and it was done deliberately by the Jews who control the federal government.

We have our 'reward' for freeing them from Hitler when he was going to put an end to their bullshit once and for all.

[chadberry75]

60 yrs ago..i dont think there waz 2 many 500lbs ppl walking around...2 day thats the norm....things change.. i wish house prices would drop...u can dream.