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Author Topic: WSJ-Suburbs a mile too far for some...  (Read 2801 times)
pfox
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« on: June 18, 2008, 10:34:01 am »

Wall Street Journal Article.

Suburbs a Mile Too Far for Some
Demographic Changes, High Gasoline Prices
May Hasten Demand for Urban Living
By JONATHAN KARP
June 17, 2008; Page A18

Pasadena, Calif.

Abandoning grueling freeway commutes and the ennui of San Fernando Valley suburbs, Mike Boseman recently found residential refuge in this Southern California city. His apartment building straddles a light-rail line, which the 25-year-old insurance broker rides to and from work in Los Angeles.

Archstone
Next Stop? For residents at Pasadena's Archstone Del Mar Station on Southern California's Metro Line transit system, downtown Los Angeles is a 26-minute ride away.

Richard Wells is more than a generation older but was similarly attracted to the Pasadena apartment building. The British-born scientist retains what he calls a European preference for public transportation despite his nearly 30 years in California. Plus, he said, the building's location means, "I can walk to a hundred restaurants, the Pasadena symphony and movie theaters."

Messrs. Boseman and Wells embody trends that are dovetailing to potentially reshape a half-century-long pattern of how and where Americans live: The driveable suburb -- that bedrock of post-World War II society -- is for many a mile too far.

In recent years, a generation of young people, called the millennials, born between the late 1970s and mid-1990s, has combined with baby boomers to rekindle demand for urban living. Today, the subprime-mortgage crisis and $4-a-gallon gasoline are delivering further gut punches by blighting remote subdivisions nationwide and rendering long commutes untenable for middle-class Americans.

Just as low interest rates and aggressive mortgage financing accelerated expansion of the suburban fringe to the point of oversupply, "the spike in gasoline prices, layered with demographic changes, may accelerate the trend toward closer-in living," said Arthur C. Nelson, director of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute in Alexandria, Va. "All these things are piling up, and there are fundamental changes occurring in demand for housing in most parts of the country."

Christopher Leinberger, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a developer of walkable areas that combine housing and commercial space, describes the structural shift as the "beginning of the end of sprawl."....
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OUGrad05
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« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2008, 08:21:47 pm »

Good article with good analysis I just do not think as a general rule this applies to Oklahoma City, Tulsa and other places like Omaha.  The traffic and commutes are a cakewalk compared with other major cities.  I'm in the process of trying to get my house sold to move closer to tulsa but my 44 mile commute to downtown takes me about 50 minutes, thats about the same amount of time it takes to go 10 or 12 miles in dallas rush hour towards downtown.  

I could see this having a minor affect on Oklahoma City which is so spread out its insane, but again commutes are short here suburbs are nice and new.  I see things becoming more dense in Tulsa/OKC etc if energy prices continue to stay high but I do not see the suburbs falling apart as a result.
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hoodlum
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« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2008, 09:58:50 pm »

i sure do
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pfox
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« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2008, 07:33:22 am »

For the City of Tulsa, the real danger of this trend is not that the suburbs will fall apart. The real danger is not that people will begin the mass exodus from the suburbs.

The danger is that the residents of the suburbs, the majority of who work in the City of Tulsa, will look for employment closer to where they live currently.  And when that happens, employers will start to look at locating near their employment base. This is the classic trend...it happened in Baltimore, St. Louis, and a host of other cities across the nation.  Once a city loses its employers...it is darn near impossible to get it back.

This is why the insular, Tulsa-only approach to planning and civic projects is dangerous. It discounts certain facts. Right now, 60% of the employable population of Broken Arrow works in Tulsa.  Tulsa should care as much about who works and shops and eats and is entertained in the Tulsa as they do about who lives here. This does not discount the need to create new housing opportunities in the city, but it is also a recognition of the facts: People who live in the  suburbs work and pay taxes in Tulsa.

This is partly why we have been looking at new transportation options from suburban areas to Downtown.  If you want to revitalize downtown, if you want to KEEP downtowns employers, if you want to grow downtowns employment base, if you want people to come to your entertainment venues, you better figure out a way to get them there.  Sure, putting a light rail line benefits Broken Arrow, creates opportunity for new housing, retail and jobs, but it benefits Tulsa, specifically downtown, even more.  It's called a "win-win", in the business.

As Cal Marsella said, more than once, in order to be a great city, you need to also be a great region.
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akupetsky
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« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2008, 05:45:02 pm »

quote:
Originally posted by pfox

For the City of Tulsa, the real danger of this trend is not that the suburbs will fall apart. The real danger is not that people will begin the mass exodus from the suburbs.

The danger is that the residents of the suburbs, the majority of who work in the City of Tulsa, will look for employment closer to where they live currently.  And when that happens, employers will start to look at locating near their employment base. This is the classic trend...it happened in Baltimore, St. Louis, and a host of other cities across the nation.  Once a city loses its employers...it is darn near impossible to get it back.

This is why the insular, Tulsa-only approach to planning and civic projects is dangerous. It discounts certain facts. Right now, 60% of the employable population of Broken Arrow works in Tulsa.  Tulsa should care as much about who works and shops and eats and is entertained in the Tulsa as they do about who lives here. This does not discount the need to create new housing opportunities in the city, but it is also a recognition of the facts: People who live in the  suburbs work and pay taxes in Tulsa.

This is partly why we have been looking at new transportation options from suburban areas to Downtown.  If you want to revitalize downtown, if you want to KEEP downtowns employers, if you want to grow downtowns employment base, if you want people to come to your entertainment venues, you better figure out a way to get them there.  Sure, putting a light rail line benefits Broken Arrow, creates opportunity for new housing, retail and jobs, but it benefits Tulsa, specifically downtown, even more.  It's called a "win-win", in the business.

As Cal Marsella said, more than once, in order to be a great city, you need to also be a great region.



It works the other way too.  I can't afford to drive from midtown to the shopping areas on 71st, to the Jenks Riverwalk and Aquarium or to the Bixby produce shops.
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