Different Definitions of Suburbia

In May of 2008, an article from The Economist called “An Age of Transformation- America’s Suburbs” really interested me because it discussed the topic that we have been talking about in class except this author’s point of view was quite different than those of Suburban Nation. The main idea in this article was that suburbs are changing to be more like cities and are very different than how they used to be when the first suburb was built. Cities are losing population to the suburbs, and therefore, according to the author, the diversity of the cities is transferring to the suburbs. The old stereotype of the monotonous population of the suburbs in no more. He attributes this change in the decrease in people showing obvious racism, so people of different races and sexual orientation are more accepted and feel comfortable to live in the suburbs. The author’s of Suburban Nation make suburbia seem very dull discussing the outlay of the architecture, but they never discuss the statistics of the new population growth moving into the suburb. I really liked this article because it gave me a new outlook on the whole traditional neighborhood verses sprawl debate. To see every side is to truly understand.
Molly Waller