Stereotyping the Suburbs

White and wealthy.  Car-dependent.  Monotonous uniformity.  A Stepford Wife lurking behind every door.   

That's the suburbs for you.


Unless you look at the data.  In many parts of the the DMV, these stereotypes simply don't apply.   Bethesda and Silver Spring--both in Montgomery County--are more public transit oriented than many parts of neighboring DC.  Montgomery County is also just as ethnically diverse as, if not more so than DC.  While whites and African Americans are the two dominant ethnic groups in both counties, Asians and Latinos account for a much larger share of MOCO's total population (14.9 and 18.3% respectively) than they do in DC (3.9 and 10% respectively).

Strangely, the stereotypes persist.  And, as usual, it seems to boil down to our collective obsession and hysteria about Millennials.

A May 8th blog post on the Washington Post's Digger blog is a case in point.  The post (The Real Challenge for Cities: What Happens When Millennials Have Babies and the Suburbs Beckon?) covered a panel held at the Urban Land Institute.  I didn't attend the panel, but if the blog review is any indication, the goal of the panel wasn't to answer the question 'will they stay or will they go?' so much as brainstorm how to get them to stay.  

I get it.  Everyone wants a piece of the millennial pie.  They are a large demongraphic with a lot of money to spend.  Right now they spend most of it (at least in DC) on overpriced rents and craft beer.  But, they are about to spend a lot more money.  That's right, millennials are now beginning to do 'adult' things like buy houses and have kids, which entails a whole new category of purchasing (beware the plastic crap you accumulate and trip over at night, inadvertently teaching your kids their first curse words).   

I'm also sympathetic to wanting to keep/attract more families in the city--millennial or otherwise.  One of the biggest unintended consequences of city leaders' millennial fetish is that cities are becoming uniform in their own way, as places rebuilt for wealthy people without kids.  The micro-unit trend is just the most obviouis example. 

But..and there's always a but isn't there?...I resent the smug undertone that often underpins the whole millennial fetish.  The effort to keep them in the city when they're ready to have kids, for example, is often legitimized as a movement to save said offspring from the presumed horrors of the suburbs.

One of the panelist at the Urban Land Institute, Sarah Snider Komppa, described her life growing up in the suburbs as "unfulfilling."  "You’re shuttled from one place where everyone is the same as you to another place where everyone is the same as you.”

I have no doubt Komppa's description captured her actual experiences.  My suburban childhood wasn't all that different, except for the quirky southerners that populated it (bless their hearts, every last one).  However, the suburb I grew up in is not what it used to be.  Nor, I suspect, is Komppa's.

And, that's the problem.  The suburbs are a convenient bogeyman for urban boosters.  The suburbs that Komppa and other urban boosters bemoan is really a small slice of modern suburbia--the so called exurbs.

The intellectual fuzziness of the 'making cities work for millennials' movement is annoying.  But, mostly it just feels underhanded.  Like a mask for something that feels, underneath it all, a lot like a push for consolidating gentrification.   





 

Only in the DMV--Letters to the Editor edition.

When I think about what the political class in Washington DC sounds like, I always think of Washington Post columnist George Will.

Will isn't afraid to use SAT words.  Truth be told, he's already moved on.  He's in GRE territory.  

And, he loves to use obscure historical references.  Usually to a war I've never heard about, or a group that sort of, kind of sounds familiar.    

You know, just to remind you that that all that daydreaming in History has come back to haunt you.  

But, it turns out George Will has some competition.  In the Washington Post's Saturday letters to the editor one Dennis William Chapman wrote in to complain about the previous week's real estate section story on micro houses.  

I'm not a fan of micro-houses anymore than I am a fan of micro-units.  They may be affordable (in a comparative sense), but I reject the idea that affordability basically amounts to high-end SROs (single room occupancy).  I don't care if that tiny counter-top is marble and the space is ergonomic.  If I don't have room to chop veggies, or at least 500 square feet to wander around in, it isn't big enough.    

But, Dennis puts it so much better than I could.  He manages to combine erudition with DC bravadoI will crush you peon.  Here he is in all of his glory:  

"The Post should not promote this artistic debauchery.  The 'green' Philistines mean well, but they must be controlled.  People need art, beauty and a little more room."  

Well done Mr. Chapman.  And Mr. Will, you might want to watch your back!