This article, written by Susan Bickford, examines the connection between political theory and the built environment, specifically the deficiencies of the current situation in this country.
I found the comments on suburbia very interesting, even before I read the article. (I read comments on other blogs) During undergrad, one thing I was sure of was that I would never live in a suburb. Here I am in Dublin, Ohio, three years later, and for the most part, I hate it. I was thinking about why everyone I know lives in a suburb, and I came to the same conclusions before reading the article:
The idea of "safety"
The feeling of cleanliness/orderliness
Affordable pleasant surroundings
I don't think most of us segregate ourselves from others who are different by choice. Even as young designers we have little or no say over our housing options. We must choose what is most convenient, affordable, and meets our needs.
More about Susan's political ideas later...
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4 comments:
i agree with your assessment...but i think that we are a bit more sensitive to some of these issues than most....my family, for example, took a huge leap up the social ladder when i was 13 and we moved into a suburb....clean, orderly, accessible....it was huge for us....now, personally, i dislike suburbs........is there any worse use of space than the "side yard"????? i mean, really....
I recently met a collegue on a business trip a few months ago (who is from L.A.). We ended up speaking primarily about his home outside of L.A., which is about 2 hours outside of the city, and works in the city. It was interesting to me, why he would commute for 5+ hours a day on top of working 8+ hours a day. He basically stated the same things you brought up, safety, cleaniness and most importantly was affordability. With land and homes being so expensive, the only affordable place is hours away. However, this led to another discussion, when did he actually spend time with his family. It turns out, that he was usually on the road by 4:30 or 5, so he was gone by the time his children left for school, and he usually made it home in enough time to see them for maybe an hour before they went to bed. So truly the only time he spent interacting with his family was on the weekends. Regarding your last statement, I know it was not intentional in segregating his family, but he felt it was the most "convient" alternative for his entire family, to live in a "nice" suburb.
Those are great points. What ARE our housing options? And who has defined them? In the Columbus metropolitan area we can choose from inner city, suburbia, or good old fashioned county living. And if you think about it, none of the available locations are any more "democratic" than the next.
So I don't think anyone should feel badly about choosing one over the other.
I have lived in three different kinds of communities in my life. I grew up living on a working farm, moved to Columbus Oh. to go to college and lived in a dorm, and then I moved to the suburbs where I started my family. Now after all of this I ended up moving back to my family farm. I can remember one of the reasons why we moved to the farm was because of the freedom my children could have when they are outside. I remember that when we lived in the suburb I was looking out the window every 5 to 10 minutes making sure that some stranger was not coming up to them and trying to take them away. It is all about comfort and safety.
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