Suburbs

Greg Beato looks at self-expression via the front lawn. In places that lack homeowners associations, he suggests, individualized lawns have great potential to strengthen the surrounding community.

An exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art offers an unbiased, "awestruck" exploration of America's suburbs.

Homelessness is on the rise in metropolitan Vancouver, but the numbers are most significant in the suburbs.

The suburbs draw on Americans may be dwindling, according to this column from Neal Peirce. But, he argues, this shift doesn't mean the end of suburban living.

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, the MPO for the Philadelphia metropolitan region, has introduced an innovate way of making people aware of the benefits of older, established suburbs: market them.

Rising energy prices and falling home values are bringing many exurban dwellers closer to the city core. In this commentary, Keith Schneider argues that central cities and inner-ring suburbs need to work with each other to stay afloat.

The economic decline of the suburbs could flood cities like New York with "suburban economic refugees". This commentary from the New York Post warns that this is bad news for cities.

Next American City reflects on the changing face of suburbia.

Joel Kotkin's recent LA Times Op-Ed is critiqued by Bill Fulton of the California Planning and Development Report. Fulton argues the suburban areas Kotkin defends are actually urbanizing, whereas true suburbia show signs of becoming the new slums.

Joel Kotkin once again leaps to the defense of the suburbs as a choice, and says that urbanists who are hoping that Americans will rush back into the cities are sadly mistaken.

This segment from NPR looks at what's behind the trend of house prices falling more sharply outside of cities.

This article from City Journal looks at the anti-modernist architect Leon Krier's plan for remaking suburbs into self-contained towns.

In order to respond to the changing climate and economy, many say suburbs need to start acting more like cities.

A peaceful suburb wanting to preserve its tranquility is pitted against a large rail company attempting to lessen freight congestion around Chicago by running its trains through it and other suburbs on an existing rail line it hopes to purchase.

The suburbs are becoming the inner-city, according to recent studies that are showing a shift in suburban demographics from predominantly white to incredibly diverse.

Gina Olszowski's first book focuses on the personal stories of rural residents impacted by sprawl.

A campaign is underway in Wales to revive the "Garden City" concept, first brought to life in 1898. This time, supporters are claiming the radial, suburban plan is a sustainable alternative to cities.

The areas hardest-hit by the subprime mortgage crisis are not just low-income and minority communities, but also outer-ring suburbs.

After forty years in the statistical doldrums, what does Milwaukee make of a sudden, slight increase in population? Local expert and urban enthusiast Dave Steele reports.

The extent of China's embrace of American-style suburbanization is best illustrated by one of its newest gated communities, which is actually called Orange County.