A couple of interviews with Leigh Gallagher have recently been published (including the above video link) about her new book The End of the Suburbs. Her book looks at the history of the suburbs and the recent demographic shifts that have been occurring and what it means for the future of suburbs.
Next City: What should the goal be: To have everyone move to cities? Or to have a better quality of life wherever you are?
Forbes: The boomers even more than the Millennials are the big question mark. Everybody in the housing industry is dying to know where the boomers are going to live as they get older.
Many of them want to age in place, whether that’s because of the financial crisis or because they’ve built strong ties to their community. That’s all well and good until they ultimately vacate their home. With so many boomers, there’s not going to be as big a market of people interested in buying their houses.
Phillymag: You’re right; the suburbs are about how we live — kids, green lawns, Schwinn bikes. Are you wistful we may lose that?
Yes. But we’ve already lost a lot of it. We live in this play-date culture. Kids aren’t really running around serendipitously for three hours, waiting to be called in for supper.
The Guardian: This shift is not just about all Americans racing to live in a skyscraper in a big city; it’s also about communities that are built on a more human, intimate scale and located in close proximity to a pleasing, lively town centre. In a way, it’s going back to the way our pre-war suburbs were built – on more urban “bones”. That model is a lot more sustainable.
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