Rx for Suburbia
(Page 2 of 7)
March / April 2003
By Jay Walljasper, The Nation
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“But no one wants to live in many of these older suburbs once they start to decline. You won’t find yuppies moving into neighborhoods full of ’50s and ’60s houses with no woodwork, no hardwood floors, no shops within walking distance. Suburbs that were built as bedroom communities just don’t have the assets of cities. They don’t have many parks or public centers. And they aren’t used to dealing with social problems.”
After 12 years in the Minnesota legislature, Orfield, 41, left office earlier this year to devote more attention to Ameregis, an urban affairs research firm he founded. He also travels widely talking about his ambitious political initiative to slow suburban sprawl and revive the fortunes of struggling neighborhoods in both cities and suburbs. He sees central cities and lower-income suburbs as allies in an emerging political coalition to revitalize low- and middle-income communities. Working with a growing national movement of social justice activists, environmentalists, and municipal officials—both urban and suburban—Orfield promotes the idea that problems like poverty, affordable housing, crime, and urban decay are best solved on a regional basis.
All metropolitan regions function as unified economic units, Orfield explains, and many of the advantages enjoyed by upscale suburbs come at the expense of inner cities and lower-income suburbs. Affluent communities on the outer rings of a metropolitan area that are booming—new houses, new businesses, and new jobs, but no affordable housing for the low-wage workers who make this economic growth possible—can offer lower taxes, better public services, and shelter from crime and other social problems. This draws businesses and middle-class households away from city neighborhoods and lower-income suburbs, setting off a spiral of disinvestment and decline. The tax base shrinks in these older communities at the same time an increasingly poor population needs more public services. This is the familiar story of urban America since World War II, but Orfield has identified two new dimensions.
First, many suburbs are now joining cities as the big losers in this game. And second, wealthy suburbs on the edge of metropolitan areas thrive, in large part, because they receive the lion’s share of public investment in new roads and sewers, which are paid for by everyone in the region.
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