Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Suburbia

Crawlable Urbanism: Cities Are for Kids, Too

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 13, 2013 | 143 Comments

All of a sudden, I feel like all anyone is talking about is whether it’s a good idea to raise kids in the city. I’m raising a kid in the city. I feel great about it when she has a blast on the back of the bike, or makes friends on the bus, or gets […]

Strong Towns’ Chuck Marohn: Why Suburban Growth Is a Ponzi Scheme

By Clarence Eckerson Jr. | Jul 22, 2013 | No Comments

Chuck Marohn cofounded the non-profit Strong Towns in 2009. Since then he has steadily built an audience for his message about the financial folly of car-centric planning and growth. The suburban development pattern that has prevailed since the end of World War II has resulted in what Marohn calls “the growth Ponzi scheme” — a system that […]

Suburbanization of Poverty Isolates a Growing Number of Americans

By Tanya Snyder | May 21, 2013 | 12 Comments

Poverty is no longer a predominantly urban problem — and the suburbs are no longer the refuge of the upper classes. There are now almost 3 million more poor people living in suburbs than in cities, according to a new book, “Confronting Suburban Poverty in America,” by Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube of the Brookings […]

Violent Crime Up in the Suburbs, Down in Big Cities

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 10, 2013 | 4 Comments

A result of better city policing? Or a symptom of suburban decline? The Wall Street Journal reports that over the last 10 years violent crime has spiked in the suburbs while tapering off in cities. Using data from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Brookings Institution, WSJ reporters found that suburban homicide rates increased 16.9 […]

Will Cities Hold on to Younger Residents as They Have Children?

By Angie Schmitt | Dec 6, 2012 | 37 Comments

Many American cities are proving to be more resilient than suburban areas thanks in part to the shifting preferences of today’s young people. But as USA Today reported in a talked-about article earlier this week, the cohort that has flocked to cities is now reaching a stage of life which, historically, has been more closely associated […]

In Philly, Housing in Walkable Places Held Up Better Than Suburban Housing

By Angie Schmitt | Nov 9, 2012 | No Comments

It’s been a bad few years for homeowners around the country, and those in greater Philadelphia are no different. But people who owned houses in Philadelphia’s center city or suburban areas near a walkable town center fared better than others. According to a new report from the Congress for the New Urbanism, the homes in greater […]

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