Recycling the Suburbs

It has been interesting to read some of the conversations related to Time Magazine's The New Calvinism (10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now).

I haven't seen as many Christians talking about No. 2: Recycling the Suburbs:

The American suburb as we know it is dying. The implosion began with the housing bust, which started in and has hit hardest the once vibrant neighborhoods outside the urban core. Shopping malls and big-box retail stores, the commercial anchors of the suburbs, are going dark — an estimated 148,000 stores closed last year, the most since 2001. But the shift is deeper than the economic downturn. Thanks to changing demographics, including a steady decline in the percentage of households with kids and a growing preference for urban -amenities among Americans young and old, the suburban dream of the big house with the big lawn is vanishing. The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech predicts that by 2025 there will be a surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (on one-sixth of an acre [675 sq m] or more) in the U.S. (read more)

Comments

[Rick Penney]

this is why chicago and its suburbs is the best model i've seen and experienced. many of its "suburbs" are pretty old school and formed around the commuter lines. I lived in wheaton and glen ellyn. both "suburbs" but both have their historic downtown urban feel with historic district homes connected by sidewalks and bus-stops. you can live in the "suburb" and walk to the "downtown" movie theatre, coffee shops, restaurants, churches, post office, barber shop, bank, train station, grocery store (non-bigbox), farmer's market, etc. Need i say more?
one more thing. the draw-back is that both of these districts and many like them are way too expensive to buy a house (we had a cheap apartment). But when they were developed way back, they were probably financially accessible to the middle-class. New developments should follow suit.