Postwar Suburbia and the Recent "Back to the City" Trend

Suburban sprawl is part of a toxic compound of spatial and cultural forces that afflict all the space of the contemporary environment. Postwar suburbia has been a force of homogeneity masquerading as choice. The mass urban exodus created an unsustainable energy-guzzling monotony and left a vacant shell of ruined brick and mortar in its wake.

In this endless sprawl of "brandscape" that has become America's emblematic pattern of settlement, daily life is designed to maximize consumption—a nightmare world of super-sized houses, super-sized cars, super-sized people and super-sized habits of over indulgence and spending.

As the cost of energy skyrockets, our cities, once scorned and abandoned by the moneyed class have become a magnet for resettlement. Gas guzzling automobiles and the endless wasteland of uniform tract houses are being jettisoned for a brownstone as a massive surge in foreclosures are emptying McMansions.

But with this influx of new wealth comes an unsettling metamorphosis of the urban environment. Although much of this occurred gradually and unnoticed over last two decades, gentrification brought with it the big Brand blandness of uniformity and crass corporate commercialism.

Based on the writings of Michael Sorkin in the book “The Suburbaniztion of New York” editors: Jerilou Hammett and Kingsley Hammett Fair Use Notice

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