Is It Fair To Redevelop The Best Suburbs?
You’re simply the first, better than all the worst: These are some various older neighborhoods in Arlington County, Virginia. They’re a mix of modest single-family homes on small lots on streets in a rough grid design, commercial strips and early big-box stores with smaller parking lots, and some multifamily buildings, many on the smaller side. These are relatively dense, quasi-urban early suburbs. In a lot of ways, you could argue that this is suburbia at its best. It’s certainly better from an urban-design perspective than the exurbs being built out at the edges of the Sunbelt metros, or a lot of McMansion suburbia from the last few decades, with homes on winding streets completely separated from everything else and pretty much completely dependent on car travel to get anywhere. These older suburbs have some inherent walkability, they can support at least some transit, and they’re also reasonably pleasant to drive around in. Partly because of this quasi-urban design, and partly because such places tend to be proximate to the urban core, communities like this are very expensive—often far more so than they look like they should be. Because of this—high prices, proximity to the city and urban job market, and a predominance of older buildings where redevelopment can start to make sense—places like this face immense pressure to liberalize their zoning and build more, denser housing. Arlington and neighboring Alexandria were ground zero in debates over and proposals for “missing middle” zoning reform bills, both of which ended up tied up in litigation. My conceptual question here is, is that fair? Does it make sense? If these are the “best” suburbs from an urbanist perspective—true sub-urbs: outlying communities with a real connection to the city and an element of genuine urban design at a quieter, less intense scale—haven’t they done their duty? Why should these places, with their own history, character, organic and incremental growth over many decades, be disrupted when there are immensely “worse” suburban communities further out to densify? Another way to put this is, is it wise to focus on further urbanizing/densifying places that are already more in line with what urbanists and housing advocates want than probably 90 percent of American communities? I’m entertaining here the opposite argument I usually make. Here’s a longer bit on this from a previous piece:
I guess what I’m saying here is, maybe it’s the middle suburbs—not the semi-urban communities at the city’s edge, not the real towns and country roads way at the edge of the metro area—that should add the most housing. They are the purest example of the contradiction of suburbia: wanting the amenities of urbanity and density without its perceived, imagined, or, in some cases real, costs. I still think in reality it makes sense that the closer a community is to a population center, and the higher its prices have risen, the more it should add housing. Aside from any judgment of fairness, that’s what the market is telling us. That’s where the demand is. But what do you think of the consideration that the built form of these places is kind of good, and that to some extent it’s a shame that the burden of redevelopment should fall disproportionately on them? Related Reading: What If Suburbia Still Looked Like This? Thank you for reading! Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to help support this newsletter. You’ll get a weekly subscribers-only piece, plus full access to the archive: over 1,100 pieces and growing. And you’ll help ensure more like this! You're currently a free subscriber to The Deleted Scenes. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
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Bossing
Saturday, November 9, 2024
Various thoughts on work ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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Friday roundup and commentary ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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Shop Till You Sleep
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
What Do You Think You're Looking At? #187 ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
The Revolution Will Be Normalized
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Why demonstrating success is psychologically tricky ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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