Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Goodbye Levittown, Hello Sun City


monkie.02.gated.communities, originally uploaded by monkiemag.

More woe to the suburb...

The fundamentals of the "bedroom community" economy have collapsed. Banks have not figured out at what point they will hit the bottom of their financing crisis. The need for radically improved, sustainability-focused strategies has never been more compelling than in this time of looming home foreclosures, $4 a gallon gas, an economy in decline, and broad agreement that the earth's fragility is not longer just the cry of the fringe.


I'm not so sure. For one, we can expect development to still gravitate to wherever land and services can be had cheaply and that means relatively unregulated land policies. The TOD's of today are only possible because of public will (and subsidies). "Bedroom communities" are in absolutely no danger of disappearing. You just add a club house. In fact, they are the only development economically and demographically viable. They just will become 55 and over monocultural enclaves sprawling around every bankrupt little municipality that needs the tax base without having to provide schools. Such is life.

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