Unsustainability of suburban sprawl

[MustachianInTraining]

I thought this was an interesting article on time.com

http://time.com/3031079/suburbs-will-die-sprawl/

Longtime civil engineer's path towards realizing that suburban sprawl (expensive infrastructure) relies on debt and expansion to pay for itself.

[RFAAOATB]

As denser cities become more popular due to the suburban distaste, and the poor are priced out to once were desirable locales, they can deal with the fact their new communities have no way to keep themselves funded without a tear it down and make it denser, we're starting all over approach.

America has found away to screw the poor coming and going.

[nordlead]

It seems like his version of suburban is more like what I would call rural. I base this on the section that says

“The fact that I can drive to work on paved roads where I can drive fifty-five miles an hour the minute I leave my driveway despite the fact that I won’t see another car for five miles,”

I consider my area suburban, and you can't make it a mile before hitting a road with hundreds of cars traveling down it every hour.

Too bad the article doesn't say what he believes the population density needs to be to be sustainable.

[dragoncar]

I'm a contrarian, so I think once those gen-y'ers gentrifying the city finally have babies in 10 years, they will move back out to the suburbs.  Rural, maybe not.

[soccerluvof4]

yeah its unfortunate there wasnt more data as to what the numbers would need to be. I as well live in Suburpia and though there was pause its moving again and I dont see many roads you can go 5 miles let alone a mile without traffic on it. I do see as the poor advance forward in the major city here that its being built right back up behind it as well but not denser.

[rocksinmyhead]

As denser cities become more popular due to the suburban distaste, and the poor are priced out to once were desirable locales, they can deal with the fact their new communities have no way to keep themselves funded without a tear it down and make it denser, we're starting all over approach.

America has found away to screw the poor coming and going.

yeah, it is scary. not to mention that most suburbs have almost NO public transportation, which so many low-income people are dependent on.

[Tempe]

I found the article interesting. Thinking of the widening roads, the city once rounded the corner of our property because too many people were speeding around the corner and crashing. They rounded it out so now people can speed even faster around it and kill any animals on the road and themselves. If they had rounded it out when we were kids I'm sure someone would have nailed us on our bikes.
In my head I think of suburban sprawl similar to creep in starcraft, it spreads out and does icky things around it.

[Scandium]

Not a fan of the hating on suburbs. I like having trees and trails around my house, and neighbors a decent distance away. I live there to get away from people, I don't want to live in an inner city full of idiots. I want to walk somewhere without tripping of other people's crap (sometimes literally), or spending 50 minutes finding parking every day (yes, yes I could bike. Sometimes you have to drive though). And the noise, and no yard. And all the other reasons why cities suck. But maybe that's just from growing up in a small town.

Are they unsustainable? (whatever that marketing word means now). Maybe. But I'll be dead by the time that becomes a problem anyway

[rocksinmyhead]

to each their own. I'm not a fan of apartments or the "inner city" either, my ideal is a city neighborhood with a just big enough house and a small but pleasant fenced yard, mature trees, sidewalks and a park in the neighborhood. if I spend too much time in suburbia (which to me means car-dependent, primarily chain businesses and chain restaurants and strip malls, big parking lots which make walking anywhere unpleasant and also people look at you like you're a homeless weirdo if you bike or walk) I feel nauseous and depressed. kind of like when I spend too much time in air conditioning, which is probably related. good thing there's something for everyone :)

actually, I really like the suburb I grew up in and would also like to live somewhere like that again. it's a little different because it started life in the 1800s as a lake/vacation town for the city, and only later as the city grew became an actual suburb. so it has a cute downtown with local businesses, and surrounding neighborhoods that are actually walkable and bikeable, and older houses with character... and a lake with a bike path and beaches... man I love that place :)

[Jack]

actually, I really like the suburb I grew up in and would also like to live somewhere like that again. it's a little different because it started life in the 1800s as a lake/vacation town for the city, and only later as the city grew became an actual suburb. so it has a cute downtown with local businesses, and surrounding neighborhoods that are actually walkable and bikeable, and older houses with character... and a lake with a bike path and beaches... man I love that place :)

Yep, there are suburbs and then there are Suburbs. There is a marked difference between the old pre-WW2 suburbs that had relatively small lots, commercial districts at walkable scale, and grid street patterns (with relatively small blocks), and the post-WW2 suburbs that had larger lots, two-car garages, and "subdivisions" with dendritic street patterns (where the "blocks" are defined by arterial roads only).

You can even see it on a street map of any large city: the older parts of the city will be in a regular, rectangular grid, then a little farther out the grid will go "curvy" in some 1910s-1930s planned suburbs (e.g. Inman Park or Ansley Park in Atlanta), then even farther out it will transition to arterial roads and subdivisions with cul-de-sacs.

IMO, pre-WW2 "neighborhoods" are much preferable compared to post-WW2 "subdivisions."

[Scandium]

to each their own. I'm not a fan of apartments or the "inner city" either, my ideal is a city neighborhood with a just big enough house and a small but pleasant fenced yard, mature trees, sidewalks and a park in the neighborhood. if I spend too much time in suburbia (which to me means car-dependent, primarily chain businesses and chain restaurants and strip malls, big parking lots which make walking anywhere unpleasant and also people look at you like you're a homeless weirdo if you bike or walk) I feel nauseous and depressed. kind of like when I spend too much time in air conditioning, which is probably related. good thing there's something for everyone :)

actually, I really like the suburb I grew up in and would also like to live somewhere like that again. it's a little different because it started life in the 1800s as a lake/vacation town for the city, and only later as the city grew became an actual suburb. so it has a cute downtown with local businesses, and surrounding neighborhoods that are actually walkable and bikeable, and older houses with character... and a lake with a bike path and beaches... man I love that place :)

sure, I hate a lot of those burb symptoms too, but then I go into downtown Baltimore.. Suddenly I think "yeah, this is awful, I actually like where I live". Not that Baltimore is as crime-infested as it's reputation, its fine, but just too much crap. Too many people. Yes you can walk/bike to stuff, but nobody does! So it's a mess.