Introduction

We’ve already touched on suburbanization as a critical component in many of our learning modules, especially the last two — models of urban land use and transportation. This module treats suburbanization on its own.

Readings

We have two assignments this module: one reading and one TED Talk.

The reading assignment is Suburbanization in the United States after 1945 out of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia on American History^[1] . It splits US suburbanization into two time periods: from 1945 to 1970 (the era of mass suburbanization) and 1970 to present (growth and diversification). “Present”, by the way, is relative to the article’s publication date of 2017. Keep that in mind. There is a lot packed into this reading — real estate development, social life, culture, inequality, race, etc. You’ll soon find out that suburbs in reality are quite different from the way they are portrayed in the media.

The Ghastly Tragedy of the Suburbs is a TED Talk by James Howard Kunstler. As you might guess by the title, Kunstler is a critic of U.S. suburban development. He calls it “the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world”. Kunstler is not subtle. It often seems like he’s yelling instead of lecturing. He curses. Often. He references mass shootings and teen prostitution.  Despite his unique style, he’s an important voice in the debate surrounding our suburbs, so I wanted you to hear him.