Originally Posted by
Roody
Why do suburban people get so defensive whenever this topic is brought up? There is nobody trying to tell any body that they have to live in a crowded urban environment. It's a free country and you can live anywhere you can afford to live. That will never change. So get over it!
The question is, how can we get rid of the senseless ugly sprawl, while preserving the spaciousness and tranquility that people hope to find in the suburbs? Or, how can the suburbs be made nicer than they already are?
I'm not getting defensive. I don't understand what your issue is... You show pictures of suburbs but say suburbs aren't the problem. You give a definition of sprawl as a decentralization of urban centers (ie: a move to suburbs), but you say suburbs aren't the problem. You keep saying your not "attacking" suburbs, but at the same time you are asking how do we stop people from moving into and building more suburbs. The problem is people don't want to live in the dense cities anymore now that they don't need to live there in order to survive, and since this is such a land wealthy nation there is no lack of places to build. All the jobs aren't in the cities anymore by the way. The 'burbs boast a ton of production, service, and technical jobs for their local residents to be employed at. It is less expensive to build jobs out in the 'burbs where cramped spaces don't make space come at a premium. Also, since many people don't want to live in the dense cities the 'burbs will bring in more talented employees who are in turn higher paid giving the suburb a larger tax base to build needed infrastructure like bike trails and buses.