For a long time now I’ve been obsessed with suburban and exurban master-planned communities and how to make them better. But as the economy and the mortgage crisis just seem to get worse, and gas prices continue to plunge, the issues around housing have changed dramatically. The problem now isn’t really how to better design homes and communities, but rather what are we going to do with all the homes and communities we’re left with.
I still dream that some major overhaul can occur: that a self-sufficient mixed-use neighborhood can emerge. That three-car-garaged McMansions can be subdivided into rental units with streetfront cafés, shops and other local businesses.
In short, that creative ways are found not just to rehabilitate these homes and communities, but to keep people in them.
Wow. Unbelievable. You could not be more wrong about the importance of how we design our communities. Nothing could matter more. That’s how we remake the suburbs into something lasting. That, my friend, is how we save our suburbs.
j, I am a little confused, can you elaborate on your comment?