Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Choices and Options

The purpose of posting up two neighborhood pictures wasn't to say "my neighborhood rulezz" and "this neighborhood suxxor." I don't actually believe that most people secretly want to live in Manhattan, or an urban neighborhood like mine, and would do so if they could afford to. I've long been quite convinced that a big reason that we have so much suburban development is that lots of people really like the suburbs. Good for them!

But I also think a lot of suburban development is just dumb, both internally and in how it sits in relationship to surrounding development. And while developers are to some extent just giving people what they want, what people want is dependent on their budgets and their menu of available options. Buying a house is also buying into a basket of local public services (including schools), and proximity to other things such as jobs. Developers, too, are responding to what's available; they don't build highways and SUPERTRAINS.

People like cars. People like suburbs. Suburban development is inevitably going to be automobile-centric, though urban development and redevelopment in places similar to where I live should not be. However, being automobile-centric and being designed in a way which almost entirely excludes the potential for other modes transportation are very different things. The car and the light rail can coexist. Sidewalks can run to areas with retail. One could even allow a corner store and a pub within a residential neighborhood! Maybe, just maybe, there can be small corridors of street level retail without giant parking lots, small town style. Places like this do exist, mostly but not just in older suburbs.

Perhaps my vision of suburban paradise is wrong and it isn't what people want. Then fine, you can have your highways, just build me some more damn SUPERTRAINS (subways and light rail/trolleys) in my area.