{"id":646,"date":"2008-02-23T14:47:51","date_gmt":"2008-02-23T19:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=646"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:25:36","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:25:36","slug":"american-suburbs-the-new-slums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/02\/23\/american-suburbs-the-new-slums\/","title":{"rendered":"American suburbs the new slums?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

In a bizarre reversal of urban decay, many homes and streets in American suburbs are being abandoned due to a number of reasons, including the fallout of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. The Atlantic<\/a> magazine’s Christopher B. Leinberger wonders if the ‘burbs will become 21st century slums.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

S<\/span>trange days are upon the residents of many a suburban cul-de-sac. Once-tidy yards have become overgrown, as the houses they front have gone vacant. Signs of physical and social disorder are spreading.<\/em><\/p>\n

At Windy Ridge, a recently built starter-home development seven miles northwest of Charlotte, North Carolina, 81 of the community\u2019s 132 small, vinyl-sided houses were in foreclosure as of late last year. Vandals have kicked in doors and stripped the copper wire from vacant houses; drug users and homeless people have furtively moved in. In December, after a stray bullet blasted through her son\u2019s bedroom and into her own, Laurie Talbot, who\u2019d moved to Windy Ridge from New York in 2005, told <\/em>The Charlotte Observer, \u201cI thought I\u2019d bought a home in Pleasantville. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that stuff like this would happen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

…<\/em><\/p>\n

[T]he crisis has indeed catalyzed or intensified social problems in many communities. But the story of vacant suburban homes and declining suburban neighborhoods did not begin with the crisis, and will not end with it. A structural change is under way in the housing mar[ket\u2014a major shift in the way many Americans want to live and work….<\/em><\/p>\n

For 60 years, Americans have pushed steadily into the suburbs, transforming the landscape and (until recently) leaving cities behind. But today the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and there are many reasons to believe this swing will continue. As it does, many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and \u201970s\u2014slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the entire article.<\/a><\/p>\n

photo by Mad Abandon<\/a> on Flickr <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a bizarre reversal of urban decay, many homes and streets in American suburbs are being abandoned due to a number of reasons, including the fallout of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. The Atlantic magazine’s Christopher B. Leinberger wonders if the ‘burbs will become 21st century slums. Strange days are upon the residents of many aContinue reading “American suburbs the new slums?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7839],"tags":[17,18],"class_list":["post-646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neighbourhoods","tag-neighbourhood","tag-other-cities"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAmerican suburbs the new slums? - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/02\/23\/american-suburbs-the-new-slums\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"American suburbs the new slums? - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a bizarre reversal of urban decay, many homes and streets in American suburbs are being abandoned due to a number of reasons, including the fallout of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. 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