Aim: Why do suburbs have distinctive problems?

1. Aim: Why do suburbs have distinctive problems? Do Now: What are the benefits of living in the suburbs?

2. What was the American dream in the 1950s?

3. Overview of Suburbanization • World intraregional migration trend: rural to urban • U.S. intraregional migration trend: urban to suburban • Suburban population in U.S. has grown much faster than the overall population

4. Overview of Suburbanization

5. What were the causes of suburbanization?

6. World War II Era • Pre-WWII: Great Depression • During WWII: growth of jobs/stimulation of economy • Post WWII: • Veterans return • Baby Boom (1946-1964) • Shortage of housing • Consumerism (automobiles)

8. Veterans return from WWII

10. Government Intervention • Housing • Americans previously suffered from financial constraints such as ten year mortgages and 80% down payments • Federal Housing Authority: allowed thirty year mortgages and approve mortgages with only 10% down

11. Government Intervention 2. G.I. Bill • Provided numerous opportunities for veterans to transition to civilian life • Subsidized tuition, fees, books, educational materials for veterans desiring college • Provided low interest loans to veterans for the purchase of single family homes

14. Government Intervention 3. Transportation • National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (1956): provided massive federal funding for construction of 41,000 miles of interstate highways

17. The Levitt Brothers • Took advantage of new market for houses • Purchased land once used to grow potatoes and constructed in Hempstead, Long Island the first of three Levittowns (later Pennsylvania and New Jersey) • Applied Fordist approach and mass produced houses to reduce costs • Later added amenities such as baseball fields, shopping centers, schools, parks, and churches to neighborhoods

21. Peripheral Model The central city is surrounded by a beltway or ring road. Around the beltway are suburban residential areas and nodes, or edge cities, where consumer and business services and manufacturing cluster.

22. The Peripheral Model • An urban area consists of an inner city surrounded by large suburban residential and business areas tied together by a beltway or ring road • Suburbs (peripheral areas) lack inner-city problems, but have to deal with sprawl and segregation • Edge cities: nodes of consumer and business services around the beltway

23. Edge cities sometimes called galactic cities Where are shopping malls located in relation to highways?

24. Suburbanization of businesses • Suburbanization of retailing • Small shopping centers • Shopping malls • Suburbanization of factories and offices • Factories • Warehouses Is the American shopping mall dying?

25. Trend: Shopping malls moving from urban to suburban

26. Modern factories Early factories

27. Edge Cities Suburban downtowns, often located near key freeway intersections, often with: - office complexes - shopping centers - hotels - restaurants - entertainment facilities - sports complexes

28. Philadelphia's Edge Cities Figure 11.3 (p. 305)

29. Tyson’s Corner, Virginia

30. Edge Cities of New York City • Yonkers, New York • New Rochelle, New York • White Plains, New York • Purchase, New York • Pearl River, New York • Huntington, New York • Melville, New York • Nyack, New York • Haverstraw, New York • Union City, New Jersey • Wayne, New Jersey • Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey • Rutherford, New Jersey • Fort Lee, New Jersey • Paramus, New Jersey • Mahwah, New Jersey • Hoboken, New Jersey • Morristown, New Jersey • Woodbridge, New Jersey • New Brunswick, New Jersey • Princeton, New Jersey • Iselin, New Jersey

31. Prefab Construction • Housing kits: parts of houses are built in factories and then assembled on site

33. Density Gradient • Density gradient: change in density in an urban area; the number of houses per unit of land diminishes as distance from the center city increases • However in recent years: • Less people living in center city • Less density difference within urban areas

35. Cost of Suburban Sprawl • Sprawl: progressive spread of development over the landscape; not contiguous • Undesirable traits: • Wastes land • Higher taxes and home prices • Greenbelts: rings of open space (London, Birmingham)

36. New housing in the U.K. is likely to be in planned new towns, while in the U.S. growth occurs in discontinuous developments.

37. Urban Sprawl Unrestricted growth of housing, commercial developments, and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for urban planning. Henderson, Nevada

38. Urban Sprawl Is this progress?

39. Suburban Segregation • Residents are separated from commercial and manufacturing activities that are confined to compact, distinct areas • Housing in a given suburban community is usually built for people of a single social class • Zoning ordinances: a law that limits the permitted uses of land and maximum density of development in a community • Encouraged spatial separation

41. Northampton, United Kingdom

42. Contribution of Transportation to Suburbanization • Urban sprawl makes people more dependent on transportation (work, shopping) • Motor vehicles had led to large scale development of suburbs; more flexibility • U.S. government has paid 90% of the cost of limited access high-speed interstate highways • ¼ of land of city is roads and parking lots

43. Contribution of Transportation to Suburbanization • Rush-hour commuting: heaviest traffic because large numbers of people are reaching small areas of land at the same time • Public transportation is cheaper, less polluting and more energy efficient Average American loses 36 hours per year sitting in traffic jams and wastes 55 gallons of gasoline

44. Contribution of Transportation to Suburbanization • The public transportation heavily used is rapid transit (subways, streetcars) • Subways have been modernized across the country • Not everyone without a car has access to public transportation (especially if live in city, but have suburban job)

45. Popular Culture Effects on Landscape: Creates homogenous, “placeless” landscape • Complex network of roads and highways • Commercial Structures tend towards ‘boxes’ • Planned and Gated Communities more and more common

46. Urban Realms • Originally the peripheral land was added to city organization and surrounding areas benefitted from city services (water, sewage, streets) • Today, periphery wants to be independent of city and have their own services/taxes • Urban realm = independent entity with its own downtown or commercial center

47. Urban Realms Model Developed by Vance based on San Francisco Bay area and metropolis Describes spatial components of modern metropolis Includes independent suburban downtowns (aka edge cities) within the sphere of influence of the central city and CBD Depends on: Overall size of metropolitan region Amount of economic activity in each urban realm Topography and major land features Accessibility of each realm

48. Edge City Includes a central business district, central city, new downtown, and suburban downtown

49. Local Government Fragmentation • Makes it difficult to solve regional problems of traffic, solid-waste disposal, and building affordable housing

50. Long Island • 90 miles east of NYC • 800 local governments • 2 counties • 2 cities • 13 towns • 97 villages • 127 school districts • 500 special districts