Rx for Suburbia
(Page 6 of 7)
March / April 2003
By Jay Walljasper, The Nation
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Low- and middle-income suburbs have become the ground zero of American elections, making Orfield’s regional revitalization agenda a catalyst for possible political shifts. He calculates that as many as three-quarters of residents in America’s metropolitan regions wind up on the short end of the stick in the massive share of public investment flowing into affluent new suburbs. If residents of older and lower-income suburbs come to feel their fate is linked with that of people in central cities, it could change the face of American politics.
No one says this is going be easy. For one thing, regional revitalization is an unabashedly wonkish issue, replete with arcane details about sewer funding, land use strategies, and apportioning responsibilities among different levels of government. But as people come to realize what’s at stake, it has sparked a wave of community organizing on regional issues—in Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Portland, Minneapolis–St. Paul, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, and a major statewide coalition, the Michigan Suburbs Alliance.
“People can come to understand what appears to be rather complex social and political analysis when it affects their lives,” notes Pamela Twiss, co-director of isaiah, a group of inner-city and suburban congregations in Minnesota that has embraced Orfield’s regional revitalization agenda as one of its chief organizing missions. “When you talk about how all the money for roads and sewers is going to the new suburbs and how poverty is being consciously concentrated in the inner city and inner suburbs, you can see the lights going on in people’s heads.”
Our present patterns of suburban development benefit a fortunate few while at the same time degrading the natural environment, aggravating conditions for poor people, and setting the stage for decline in many middle-class communities. The regional revitalization movement directly challenges these trends with a simple set of ideas—and the promise of a formidable new political coalition—that offers help and hope for a majority of people. As a moral call for justice, the regional revitalization movement probably won’t go far in the present political climate. But as a pragmatic program to improve the communities where most Americans live, it could.
Jay Walljasper, editor of Utne, writes “What Works,” a project exploring positive political and social initiatives around America and the world. Updated and expanded from an article in The Nation (Nov. 20, 2000). Subscriptions: $39.97/yr. (47 issues) from Box 55149, Boulder, CO 80322.
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