Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Suburbia

In Which Chuck Marohn and I Talk to Exurban Minnesotans on the Radio

By Tanya Snyder | May 22, 2012 | No Comments

Charles Marohn — our planner/engineer friend from Baxter, Minnesota and Strong Towns — and I appeared on a Minnesota Public Radio show on Friday about “the death of the exurbs.” The starting point of the conversation was the article I wrote last month about the new census numbers and what they tell us about the shifting […]

Study Predicts “Resilient Walkable” Places Will Lead the Housing Recovery

By Tanya Snyder | May 18, 2012 | 10 Comments

This morning, a Minnesota Public Radio host asked me if the exurbs, whose growth rate flattened when the recession hit, are going to come back. Lots of people from far-distant suburbs like Blaine and Farmington called in, saying they like the way of life out there – they like having acres of trees buffering them […]

Mixed-Use Development Delivers Huge Public Returns Compared to Sprawl

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 24, 2012 | 5 Comments

Walkable development pays — that’s the conclusion of a study recently outlined in Planetizen. For cities and towns facing tight budgets — just about everywhere in the United States right now — the smart way to boost tax revenue is to encourage mixed-use, walkable development, as the above graphic amply illustrates. The for-profit development company […]

Conservative Pols Hate Government Subsidies, Unless They Subsidize Sprawl

By Tanya Snyder | Jan 5, 2012 | 10 Comments

UPDATE 1/5/12: Corrects the Congressional district outline. At a recent meeting of the city council in Celina, Ohio, members considered a request to extend sewer lines to six homes that are currently outside the city’s boundaries. Extending the sewer line 800 feet to the houses would cost the city $40,000. A new water line was […]

Transforming Tysons Corner: A High-Stakes Suburban Retrofit

By Tanya Snyder | Oct 27, 2011 | 7 Comments

“That strip mall just got rezoned for high rise buildings.” “These auto dealerships are going to disappear.” Those aren’t words you hear very often in suburbia, but if you’re hanging out in Tysons Corner, Virginia, you’d better get used to it. This office enclave, which sits dead center between Washington, DC and Dulles International Airport, […]

The Incredible Shrinking Megastore: Retailers Think Outside the Big Box

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 15, 2011 | 11 Comments

They lord over empty parking lots in Hazard, Kentucky; Twinsburg, Ohio; and Lewiston, Washington like the ruins of a lost civilization. Vacant Walmart stores are slowly decomposing in more and more American towns these days. More than 100 of them have been memorialized as part of the group Flickr pool known smugly as “They Sold […]

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