Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Suburbia

Cities Stake Claim to Being America’s ‘Best Places to Live’

By Ben Fried | Jul 17, 2008 | 5 Comments

In a story about the housing downturn, BusinessWeek had some numbers crunched to see where home prices have remained most stable and where they have declined most precipitously: The results are fascinating. Annual price changes in most of the largest metro areas, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle, Baltimore, Washington D.C., […]

Historic Town Chooses to “Retain Its Charm” By Enabling Sprawl

By Ben Fried | May 12, 2008 | 23 Comments

On Friday, Streetsblog looked at how northern Virginia can’t get enough road widening. As a follow-up, Gary Toth of Project for Public Spaces directed us to another example of how smart growth faces hurdles in the places that need it most — in this case, the Trenton suburb of Bordentown, New Jersey (right: the main […]

Northern Virginia Locked In to Congested Roads

By Ben Fried | May 9, 2008 | 11 Comments

Suburbanites in northern Virginia are finding their streets more clogged with traffic than ever, and, as the Washington Post reported earlier this week, they aren’t about to get bailed out by road-widening projects. Here’s the crux of the problem, told from the Post reporter’s decidedly windshield perspective: Thoroughfares like Rolling Road are the blood vessels […]

Today’s McMansions, Tomorrow’s Tenements

By Aaron Naparstek | Feb 22, 2008 | 19 Comments

This weekend’s must-read article is "The Next Slum?" by Christopher B. Leinberger in the Atlantic Monthly. He posits that the suburban American dream that was launched at the 1939 New York City World’s Fair appears to be running out of gas. Emerging in its place is the growing desire of many Americans to live in […]

“My Other Car Is a Bright Green City”

By Brad Aaron | Feb 13, 2008 | 6 Comments

As attention turns to the next federal transportation bill, and livable streets fans scan the platforms of presidential candidates for glimpses of what to expect from Washington over the next four years, Alex Steffen, editor and CEO of the blog WorldChanging, has posted an essay-in-progress called "My Other Car is a Bright Green City." Steffen […]

Guess-the-Suburb Winner Is: Matt

By Aaron Donovan | Aug 11, 2006 | 5 Comments

Remember Wednesday’s guess-the-anonymous-suburb contest? I’m very impressed: You all knew the right region — the northeast United States. (Was it the Ames sign? The trees? The first comment suggesting that this was a place "north of the city"?) Runner-up prizes consisting of official "Street Cred" go to Bill and Karla (your first attempt was closer!) for guessing […]