Archinect - News2024-12-23T19:46:59-05:00https://archinect.com/news/article/150318374/on-the-potential-second-draft-of-the-american-suburbs
On the potential 'second draft' of the American suburbs Josh Niland2022-07-28T13:29:00-04:00>2022-07-28T13:43:24-04:00
<img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/5a/5aa43ebcd12581087ade4ee235e8074c.jpeg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>It could look like another round of flight from the city. Or what we may be witnessing is a “second draft” of the American suburbs.
Many communities that were once white, exclusionary, and car-dependent are today diverse and evolving places, still distinct from the big city but just as distinct from their own “first draft” more than a half-century ago.</p></em><br /><br /><p>The American suburbs are continuing to diversify and <a href="https://www.axios.com/2019/09/25/hipsturbia-millennials-suburbs-cities-cost-of-living" target="_blank">gain millennials</a> and increased numbers of immigrants, two groups that have traditionally been confined to cities. More mixed-use and affordable developments are being delivered in suburban areas where single-family constructions have long dominated. Considerations for <a href="https://archinect.com/news/article/150305451/utah-s-vaunted-walkable-city-still-has-tens-of-thousands-of-parking-spots" target="_blank">car-free and walkable </a>communities are also becoming more popular in planning circles, joined by taller buildings, improved restaurant culture, and nightclubs. As Addison Del Mastro noted in the <em>Vox</em> piece, “the makings of a suburban transformation are here.”</p>
<p>Indeed. Home builders are currently attempting to meet a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/23/business/housing-market-crisis-supply.html?smid=url-share" target="_blank">perplexing demand challenge</a> by going smaller and cheaper, leading to a 7% <a href="https://archinect.com/news/article/150317608/declines-in-u-s-building-sectors-see-a-5-fall-in-june-construction-starts" target="_blank">decrease in single-family starts</a> in June. ADUs are also starting to <a href="https://archinect.com/news/article/150257277/a-possible-future-for-adus-and-its-growing-familiarity-factor" target="_blank">present themselves</a> as affordable solutions, along with more <a href="https://archinect.com/features/article/150042590/co-living-2030-are-you-ready-for-the-sharing-economy" target="_blank">newfashioned inventions</a> like co-living that, in combination, are making the never-ending horizontal sprawl of the suburbs <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-01/why-densifying-the-urban-core-alone-won-t-fix-housing" target="_blank">much denser</a>. In the words of one eco...</p>
https://archinect.com/news/article/150095975/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-malibu-a-call-for-revisiting-mike-davis-ecology-of-fear
How do you solve a problem like Malibu? A call for revisiting Mike Davis' 'Ecology of Fear' Mackenzie Goldberg2018-11-15T17:20:00-05:00>2018-11-19T13:17:40-05:00
<img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/b4/b46aa87df558064bc9813fc73cc5ae6c.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>The Woosley Fire, as of Wednesday morning, had burned through 97,620 acres of LA County's famed <a href="https://archinect.com/news/tag/15913/malibu" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Malibu Canyon</a> and neighboring communities nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains. Long home to an unruly mix of surfers, hippies, and celebrities, the fires have devastated numerous firebelt suburb populations along the coast, aided by the dreaded Santa Ana winds. </p>
<p>In total, officials have tallied more than 400 homes and other structures destroyed, leaving many homeowners to wonder whether or not to rebuild. But, <em>LA Times</em> op-ed columnist Gustavo Arellano <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-arellano-malibu-burn-20181114-story.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">asks us</a> to ponder what would happen if we don't.</p>
<p>Over the last century, communities along Southern California's rugged coastline have seen an average of two major fires every decade since 1929. As predicted in <a href="https://archinect.com/news/tag/20252/mike-davis" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mike Davis</a>' 1998 essay "The Case for Letting Malibu Burn,” little has been able to stop Mother Nature's wrath, which has only been made more frequent and more damaging by the region's increasingly hotter and drier summers. </p>
<p>The <em>City ...</em></p>