Suburbs: Snap out of if
By
DW Hamilton
In
regards to suburbia, I wish I
could tell the American public to
just “snap out of it.” Many, many
voices are saying it is time for a
new American dream, and Americans
are worn out trying to keep
up with that lifestyle’s demands.
We know this. It is ironic that
many Europeans come to America
critical of this lifestyle, but
end up adopting it as well. But
unfortunately, this is
understandable, because there is a
real lack of appropriate in-city
housing choices for families, even
in the progressive Pacific
Northwest.
Seattle, with its rise of hip new
neighborhood centered projects
mixing retail, office and
residential use is still not a kid
friendly place. Choosing to live
near where you work means limited
career opportunities. Parking
spots are expensive, and it is a
demanding environment for anybody
relying on public transportation
(and ours is better than most
American cities). Affordable
grocery stores within walking
distance are few and far between
(let alone hardware stores).
People I know living near the
freeways must keep air purifiers
going 24-7, and find a fine black
residue of smog on their
windowsills. Those are just some
of the challenges facing single
folks living here. Imagine these
logistics with a child or two.
Only a
negligent parent would let his or
her child roam Seattle’s streets
or parks unescorted. Schools are
caught in a budget whirlpool,
while the nicer neighborhoods get
the better schools. Houses or
condos in the city with more than
2 bedrooms start in the upper
$200,000 range, while much more
space is available for the same
money in the suburbs. Let’s face
it, most families need some room
to spread out. So, right now,
the city is not yet a healthy
place to raise a family.
The
suburbs began as a noble precept
that people ought not live
directly in the shadow of
soot-spewing factories, that, plus
that fact that most American
cities grew and developed within
the last half-century in tandem
with the rise of the automobile,
means that our choices are
structured by our zoning
ordinances. At the time, tracts
of detached single-household
dwellings seemed like a nice
escape from the evils of the city,
and for many, despite their
cultural isolation, they still do.
American cities do not have
thousands of years of history
behind them like those in Europe.
Up until the twentieth century,
cities in Europe centered on
pedestrian life, resulting in
pedestrian friendly plazas, wide
human scaled sidewalks, high
density centers of commerce and
culture — the type of things urban
planners are now referencing when
implementing new zoning and
development here. Seattle’s
neighbor to the north, Vancouver
BC has had great success along
these lines, and Seattle is
looking both there and to Europe
for inspiration as we address the
issues of livability.
So
there is some hope that we will
overcome our mainstream family’s
dependence on suburbia, but
ultimately, it may mean that the
people in the suburbs will want to
reconsider their own zoning to
allow mixed-use multi-story
residential, retail and office
parks within walking distance of
their own homes. Instead of
dragging the suburbanite back to
the city, perhaps it is time to
export what is best about the city
to the suburbs. But one wonders,
are American suburbanites really
ready to wake from their slumber
and rejoin their neighbors on the
street?
©
2006 All content property of European Weekly unless where otherwise
accredited
