Musings: Subrubia

Living in the suburb as a young child was OK. I grew up in a newer suburb with a mix of neighbors of diverse backgrounds. I had a fantastic education that I constantly take for granted, and my relationship with my family is, well.... normal. I didn't like the boredom that accompanied the majority of my youth, the vanities of peers or families with enough disposable income to get cars too nice for their still-maturing children, really expensive tickets to sporting events, vacation to exotic countries and buy exclusively from the shopping mall, and Viagra.


Bob from those male enhancement commercials appeals to the suburban male with disposable income, essentially playing on one's paradigm that we can all be happy and more complete if we consume more product.

Having to be at the mercy of your parents as chaperones, judges and critics of your developmental youth until driving age and college? Suck.

As a parent, it's an excellent situation because of the typical family security thought process:

1. Keep your spouse and kids away from threatening elements
2. Allow them to grow up with family values and people that are like them, further nurturing their education.
3. Go where the money is: there the infrastructure and educational institutions will enable one to live a higher quality of life.

As a kid, well, you hear of stories about suburban drug abuse, teenage car accidents, excessive use of illegal fireworks, ADD ADHD and other behavioral issues. Children may be sheltered by parents who read many books on raising their kids, cook lots of food to make sure they're fed the way they may have never been fed, etc. etc. In fact, just as many people in the US die from Alcohol/Drug/Tobacco/Heart related issues as Malaria, Tuberculosis and plenty of other diseases that affect poorer nations.

And the sense of community you can watch on TV and idealize through the visual and written media, but rarely find in most US surburbs? Not really a reality, because of many reasons. one would be America's reliance on Cars.
Cars dominate any suburban landscape, permitting easy conveyance and less walking. A book focused on the destruction of meaningful community, "The Geography of Nowhere" by James Kunstler (1993) proposes that many communities were destroyed because of the increased spatial boundaries that the automobile encouraged: larger plots of land for people to own, setbacks on housing properties, large streets that act as social barriers. This in turn affected how people travel, limiting pedestrian scaled living and contributing to health issues like heart disease, obesity and obesity related injuries (back, knees), etc.

Middle-class America, as the progressive developed societal group that we are made up to be, has issues.

(No duh, right? I mean, people have been hearing about this for years. it's all over the news, in special reports and anecdotes all over CNN.)

What if people understood the impact of putting a small house on a half acre lot? of this "sprawl" we've all become accustomed to? having to drive to the gym to take a jog? wasting water a lawn that is there because of a zoning ordinance that forces setbacks? of building Cookie-cutter housing that is made from cheap frame construction that has become the norm in the construction industry? It's safe, but certainly not the best way to live.

What do you think would be a good way to live?