rural idiocy>suburbanisation

hoov hoov at freenet.tlh.fl.us
Thu May 7 13:46:43 PDT 1998



> When I first looked at the question of white
> flight, I thought of the suburbs as an essentially
> exclusivist development.
> But the more I looked at it the more obvious it was to me that there was
> something else going on in the discussion of the suburbs. The evidence
> suggests that America's suburbs are predominantly white, but also that
> they are populated by America's white working class.
> Jim heartfield

US suburbs have long been differentiated - by functional specialization, by residential demographics, by spatial arrangements... suburbia is neither simply a dormitory, nor simply a white, upper-middle strata place...some are very affluent, many are predominantly white & middle- strata, some are working class, others are poor, and larger suburbs contain a fair cross section of the US class structure...

but if suburbia, as a whole, is more heterogeneous than some think, individual suburbs are generally homogeneous and house people with very similar income, social, racial characteristics...so one finds:

a) the exclusive enclave where residents of a distant and wealthy suburb might refer to themselves as exurbanites and live in stately homes on large lots far removed from the center city...

b) the 'middle class' suburb that has served as the focal point for so much sociological research and popular literature on homogeneous, conformist suburbia...

c) working class suburb that is usually unincorporated because it is cheaper and residents are continually trying to save money to preserve the status as homeowners...

d) minority surburbs that are often 'spillovers' where the central city population has expanded into adjacent suburbs...

e) elderly suburbs comprised of folks who settled in early post-WW2 developments and who have remained as well as 'retirement' communities...

the principal effect of suburbanization has been to increase opportunities for racial and social class segregation...if any listers have experienced the snobbery/bigotry of people who live in $250,000 homes fighting a proposal to build $150,000 homes next door, well...moreover, the fact that Shaquille O'Neal & Penny Hardaway can build homes in the exclusive gated community of Isleworth west of Or(b)lando, FL by no mean signals change is afoot...Michael Hoover



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