The Horrors of Suburbia

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My archnemisis is suburbia. It is the enemy to my genious, bane of my existence. I plan to dedicate my efforts to its destruction through prudent urban planning. Let us look at how this abomination of Human civilization came to be.

Suburbia began in the 1920's when the rich sought to leave cities that were packed with polluting industries and the poor they attracted. This flight was assisted with the automobile, which made it easy to travel back and forth between the city and its outlying areas. In the 1930's and 1940's programs like Fanny Mae in the US, copied in many other Western states, facilitated a similar move for the middle class. The cheap cost of realestate and the equally cheap cost of getting mortgage loans (since Fanny Mae insured banks against default for mortgages, making bank loans for this purpose virtually risk free) attracted the middle class. An element of class division in the city also helped drive the wealthy and middle class out since there were fears of violence, mobs, and social impurity inside city cores. Over the succeeding decades, highways were built, more automobiles were produced, and more houses were constructed to facilitate the move of wealth from cities to the outer rim, in areas we now call urban sprawl.

Meanwhile, the 'community' of suburbia broke from traditional Human modes of interaction and trade. Strip malls, big-box stores, and housing subdivisions succeeded in ensuring that fewer people interacted on a daily basis than ever before, despite being so close. The anti-social behaviour created by suburbia has contributed to many ills, particularly amongst suburban children.

The result of this great movement was countless subdivisions sprawling from major urban centres in all directions. It's like the middle class vomited all over the landscape. No two houses are all that different, and their attenuating strip malls and highways have only served to further uglify the scene. Suburbia destroys the very thing it sets out to create: a spacious community away from urban ills in a natural and rural setting. The space becomes roads, highways, and lanes. The community becomes a bunch of hermits who only see each other when they mow the lawn or shovel snow. The urban ills are intensified by the diversion of property taxes to newly developed subdivisions. Large areas of nature are destroyed through development, pollution, and intrusive suburbanites. Take for example a subdivision named 'Deer Creek'. You'll never see a deer in the area again, and the creek was diverted to manage stormwater while being polluted by runoff from lawn fertilizers and pesticides. Funny that.

Suburbia both is a product, and encourages the consumption, of the automobile. The physical isolation of suburban developments separates living spaces from jobs and services. This is called zoning law. As a result, to do anything, buy anything, or work anywhere, you have to be both able and willing to drive out of your neighborhood to the desired location. Walking there? Forget about it. There are so many lots between you and the mall you might as well gnaw your legs off. You could ride your bike, but well, that doesn't work well in the winter. It's just too damn easy to just drive somewhere. Why? It's designed to be that way. This physical isolation also separates people. Even if they are right next door, they aren't that close. More than likely you and your neighbor's have nothing in common, if they aren't jerks. All of your friends are in other suburbs, and your fellow workers scattered all along the major arteries towards the city where all the jobs are. The result is that you have to drive to your friend's place, which can become tiresome if it's even close enough to begin with.

You also have to be able to drive. That automatically excludes those under 17, who don't have their license. Suburbia is a little club, and you have to be able to drive to participate in its benefits. If you have a license, you need to pay for car, insurance, gas, and increasingly, maintenance. The price of each seems only to increase. It's expensive, and getting worse. And need we remember that the automobile is the largest source of air, water, and land pollution?

Suburbanites, on average, travel at least 30 minutes in their cars to their place of work, and an equal amount back. That's on a good day. Sometimes accidents, congestion, or weather can take up more time. Over a long period of time, the amount of time spent in a vehicle for suburbanite commuters is ridiculous. The great commute also gets people up nice and early, depriving them of sleep, just so they can make it to work on time from their distant home.

Admittedly certain conditions within the city have not helped these conditions. The absurd price of realestate in the inner city would drive away any middle class worker. The close proximity to impoverished areas simultaneously engineers fear in the mind of the middle class family. Ok the counter argument: Realestate prices are set by the bank at speculative values. The presence of some public housing would cut down the price as well as mixing social classes. Which brings us to the second point. Crime has always been higher in the cities because - get this - there are more people in a city at any given time than a rural area. People commit crime because they need resources, or because there are no government programs to help these people, or because there is no opportunity. THE ONLY TRUE POVERTY IS THE POVERTY OF OPPORTUNITY! Well when the affluent leave and take their tax dollars to suburbia, the city loses those dollars and is no longer able to support programs for the alleviation of poverty. Public housing and the return of the middle class would solve both of these problems.

There is also an ideological basis for suburbia. Think of the pretty picture from the 1950's of the white two-story home with the white picket fence, the dog, and the 2.5 children beside the giant Buick. What mother wouldn't want to raise their children within the protection of this little neighborhood of equally loving parents, and the privacy of a fenced backyard? In reality, this environment is a farce, a lie. And its effects should be a crime to children. Crime and creeps are equally likely to roam suburban streets as in the city. Subdivisions have no history, and so cannot have a community. By seeking privacy within a home, the suburbanite seeks to separate himself from the world, ignore it and its people, and fortify himself against a much wider array of Humans.

Sure, there is a buttressing effect to individualism in suburbia. Every man's home is his castle. Well, castles were designed to isolate, keep out, and entrench. By following individualism to this conclusion, the suburbanite individualizes himself outside of the community, a sort of self-ostracization. It's easy to be free when you're alone.

As for children, sure a fenced backyard seems like a good idea to protect them from the horrors of the outside world. It's good for pets too. But the kids develop social problems because they don't encounter very many other kids their age to interact with. They grow up bored, which results in destructive, introverted, and/or disrespectful behavior. The child becomes dependent on the home for entertainment, all other forms being so physically far away. This results in further introversion. Television, video games, and computers only assist this process. Without social opportunities and environments, parents have brought their children up in an environment that is detrimental to their integration into the real world once they leave their insulated subdivision.

Economically, suburbia is a wasteland. It does not create jobs within itself for the youth that are forced to endure it. Any jobs in the area are likely to be minimum wage service jobs which subject the youth to a servile position to their vacuous suburbanite neighbours. There are no jobs for adults. The resources wasted in creating, sustaining, and traveling to and from suburbia are incomprehensible. No wonder North American roads are in such terrible shape. There are just too damn many to maintain, and suburbanites would rather their little streets repaired over inner city thoroughfares. The cost of infrastructure to sprawling suburban areas has diverted tax dollars to otherwise important programs. The savings for all would be enormous if the middle class returned to concentrated urban areas.

Environmental destruction. More and more cars, which seem to be getting bigger and bigger, making more trips all over the place. Lots of pollution. Sprawling subdivisions eat up fields and forests, pollute waterways, and encourage the use of cars. Roadways, made from tar-based asphalt, spread in all directions to facilitate the further use of cars and the extension of the suburban sprawl, as well as contributing chemical runoff, cutting up areas and preventing walking. The ease of using cars has contributed to individual travel, which increases vehicle use and discourages public transit which would be far more environmentally sound and sustainable.

While living in suburbia, people become isolated from one another, and from other classes of people. Suburbanites will hardly ever come across poor people, so they never have to feel sympathy for them. Suburbanites don't care about poor people and vote accordingly. The suburban attitude is one of 'me'. These people vote to keep poor people away, to spend tax dollars on more roads to suburbia, and become only concerned with the problems facing their little communities. They don't see other class groups, so they don't have to worry about them. By increasing exposure to other classes, people would once again become concerned and charitable.

Suburbia is not quiet. The constant drone of cars on nearby roads can get pretty loud. On some nights the highway can be heard from great distances. The jerk next door, ignorant of the science of noise diffusion, will have talkative family gatherings through the night. Meanwhile, some bored suburban kid will race up and down the street in his hotrod (because mom and dad provide room and board, so he can spend his McDonalds money on a car) blaring jarring music from the open windows.

Suburbia is a form of segregation. Remember the Civil Rights Movement in the 60's? It's an expression of the white values that created racial segregation. Suburbia seeks to set up a little fiefdom separate from other social classes. The institutions within this fiefdom reflect only the interests of those within it. This is expressed in the quality of the schools within the district. Wealthier districts are separated from poorer ones, and wealthier districts have better schools. Since the poorer kids get lower quality schools, they can never hope to advance in life.

On the line of segregation, guess what? Suburbia seems to be primarily composed of white people. Surprise surprise. It's their little preserve. Little white kids in suburbia will probably never meet someone from a different ethnic background, and will most likely end up considering them 'foreign' or 'other' and grow up thinking that separation from 'other' is appropriate.

Still not convinced? Wait! There's more! Suburbia is so visually unappealing that it makes baby Jesus cry. These cookie-cutter houses with vinyl siding all look the same to me. The little streets and total lack of trees and other landscaping look desolate, and sometimes quite like the streets of some third world city. The architecture is less than inspired and the layout looks like it was created by a rubber stamp. The materials used in construction were cheap and so no neighbourhood has succeeded in creating the illusion of an old-style Victorian community. The overall effect is somewhat depressing, especially in the winter.

What was there before? Probably a scenic field, or a majestic forest full of life. Maybe a traditional farm? Then in come the bulldozers followed by the ugly uniformed houses, SUVs, Wal Mart, strip malls, and spoiled children.

Since it's easier to drive everywhere, the appreciation of nature is lost. From the garage, a person can get into a car, drive to another garage, and enter his place of work. All without leaving the comfort of the indoors. Without being outside, one loses the appreciation of the natural world. Also, this constant driving, as opposed to walking or cycling, results in obesity since suburbanites tend to eat poorly and avoid exercise.

Suburbia has the effect of impoverishing older working communities in towns and cities. Our old glorious cities and small towns have been destroyed by converting them into thoroughfares for suburban automobiles. Cars are parked everywhere and the streets are dangerous to cross. Cars have taken precidence over Human beings. Old structures are destroyed to make way for parking lots and roads. We are slaves to our automobiles, just as we are slaves to oil. The cities have become associated with pollution because of all the suburbanites driving to and from it every day. Mass transit sucks because even if suburbanites use it once they get into the city, the tax base is only on city constituents. Suburbia does not pay for inner city transit. Since cities have become places of work, they do not have as large a role in living and entertainment as they once did. The people who work in the city do not spend much money in the city, so the city collects less taxes and generates less revenue, creating financial difficulties.

So, environmental, financial, urban, and social destruction. The dream proved to be a lie, and it has cost us billions of dollars. As a social experiment, suburbia has created three generations of spoiled, bored, underemployed kids who grow up with the same attitudes as their parents. More than likely the trend will continue for another 50 years before people catch on.

Suburbia will be the slums of the future, as oil prices rise and the cost of living outside of the centre of production skyrockets. Perhaps then we can dismantle our folley and reuse the building materials to construct a better model of living.