The spotless white picket fences and vibrant green lawns of suburban America have lost their enticing allure, and increasingly, their residents.
As suburban living becomes more isolated and families shrink, Americans are increasingly abandoning the ‘burbs for the big city.
Suburbia is fading, Leigh Gallagher argues in her latest book, The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream Is Moving.
While the suburbs suffered the brunt of the housing bust, Gallagher ties the declining popularity of suburban inlets to deeper social and demographic trends predating the recession that have distorted the suburbs that erupted in the post-World War II era.
“There’s a number of reasons why this is not the life that people imagined,” Gallagher explained on Morning Joe. “In many ways the modern suburbs overshot their mandate and just failed to deliver on what people thought they were getting.”
She added, 77% of young Americans plan to live in cities.
“I spend a lot of time talking about the design and why it’s unhealthy and why it just sort of really doesn’t bring us together—it sort of separates us more,” Gallagher said. “There really is this monumental shift that’s happening that I just found fascinating.”
Watch the full discussion below.
Jeremy Diamond