'First' Suburbs Growing Older and Poorer, Report Warns

New York Times ^ | February 16, 2006 | Bruce Lambert

[Clemenza]

Half a century ago, millions of young white couples left America's central cities for greener places to build homes and rear families. Their move created booming commuter communities and a new way of life.

But that idealized picture has been transformed and the future of those pioneering suburbs is in jeopardy, according to a study issued yesterday by the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington.

[Clemenza]

Well, this was pulled because it was not excerpted. The problem has now been corrected, obviously.

[Clemenza]

OK, I corrected the problem with the article. Tawk amongst yerselves!

[durasell]

Let's not forget Garden City Long Island founded in the 1800s by ole Alex Stewart -- victim of one of the weirdest kidnappings in U.S. history.

[Clemenza]

Vaquero, in response to your earlier post, most towns in Nassau that have "changed" have done so in terms of ethnicity rather than social class, ie the faces change, but the towns neither went downhill nor improved. Elmont and Valley Stream were considered "white trash" areas when I was a kid, now they are filled with folks of all colors, including many immigrants. Same goes from Brentwood and Farmingville out by you, I guess.

As property taxes go up, and housing becomes relatively expensive, you see many of the immigrants combining two or more families in a single family house. After all, who would want to pay $500K+ for a tiny Cape Cod on a lot the size of a postage stamp? Those houses were built for returning veterans on modest incomes.

[peyton randolph]

I've seen this in every major city where I've lived. In Dallas, illegal immigrants are destroying suburbs that 10 years ago were considered nice places to live. Like every other city that has a metro/subway, there are crime clusters that begin with each new rail stop - circles of crime surrounding each station. What is supposed to make commuting easy turns into a means for the bottom end of the socioeconomic scale to invade the suburbs.

[Clemenza]

Garden City remains a beautiful town, bordered by the lovely town of Hempstead, where folks from Garden City used to go shopping through the 1970s.

'Borg, do you recognize that house pictured at the linked article?

[durasell]

Read Stewart's bio -- or a short bio about him -- it's a hoot.

[Clemenza]

A little different phenomenon in New York, where you can't even get a house in the poorer suburbs for under $400K.

Inner suburbs in the NYC area (what is under discussion here) are way too expensive for the average young couple, who have NO desire t0 live in a house built for a car salesman in 1949. Therefore said neighborhoods are either taken over by upwardly mobile immigrants, who knock the old houses down and build McMansions up to the property line, or they are rented out and subdivided.

Texas, on the other hand, is a place where you can get a mansion for $300K and there are no zoning laws to worry about. I've never seen cheaper housing in my life.

[cinives]

in PA it's Section 8 housing that is destroying the inner ring suburbs, illegals or not.

[Clemenza]

Yes. Stewart Manor is named after him.

[Clemenza]

Like every other city that has a metro/subway, there are crime clusters that begin with each new rail stop

New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago have had subways and commuter lines for over 100 years. The problem doesn't exist in those cities.

Texas really is a whole 'nother country.

[Clemenza]

Pittsburgh area is not attracting immigrants or young people because it lacks a dynamic economy (relatively speaking). Therefore, the landlords have no recourse but to either rent cheaply or get the extra money that comes with Section 8 housing.

[Wolfie]

I grew up in one of the first 'burbs outside of Pittsburgh. Public Transportation killed it.

[Clemenza]

See #11.

[HostileTerritory]

I suspect the "crime clusters at metro stops" is a bit of an urban legend. Like how people in suburban New Jersey are afraid to leave their cars at mall parking lots where buses leave for the Port Authority. You know that anyone can take a bus down from The City, walk over to your Honda or Toyota, break in and drive it to a chop shop while you're away at work.
It happened to my sister's friend's mother's neighbor.

[DugwayDuke]

"Like every other city that has a metro/subway, there are crime clusters that begin with each new rail stop - circles of crime surrounding each station. What is supposed to make commuting easy turns into a means for the bottom end of the socioeconomic scale to invade the suburbs."

There have been some studies posted here on free republic in some of the urban sprawl threads discussing a similar issue.

It seems that the new theories of neighborhood design beloved by the anti-sprawl crowd is that all neighborhoods should be friendly to those who walk rather than to those who drive. These neighborhoods should feature many walking paths connecting it to the rest of the world. It should not resemble anything approximating a closed or gated community. These studies demonstrated that these walking paths facilitate criminals, mostly petty theives, moving through the neighborhoods and crime goes up. Of course, these walking paths should link to mass transit.

[relictele]

in PA it's Section 8 housing that is destroying the inner ring suburbs, illegals or not.

Projects by any other name. I don't want a return of the tower blocks but isn't it amazing how the government provides 'affordable housing' (whatever that means - does affordable mean free?) and then the ungrateful recipients trash new buildings and entire neighborhoods within months, even weeks? I literally laugh out loud every time I hear the term 'white flight.' It is purely the human survival instanct + gainful employment + a desire to avoid squalor and lawlessness. And my black and Asian neighbors think so too! Urban sprawl? They can keep the 'urban' part.

[Clemenza]

Being from Jersey, you must find it interesting that places like South Orange, where people once fled to when they left Newark, have now become like, uh, Newark.

Sad thing is, most of the houses there are out of my reach. Its the Section 8ers in the rentals who usually hurt alot of these older suburbs. And that is NOT an urban legend.

[theDentist]

... illegal immigrants are destroying-

Stop right there! You are not allowed to state facts that may cast a bad view upon undocumented criminals. The MSM would be very irritated at you for that, no matter how correct you are.

[gridlock]

The New York Times might have a point here, but this particular house has nothing to do with it.

Look at the thing. It obviously dates from before the Post-War building boom on Long Island. It is a farmhouse left over from the agricultural economy that existed 60 years ago. It is on Main Street, Hempstead, which is an industrial/commercial area where nobody wants to live. It is bordred on two sides by industrial buildings. This building should have been pancaked fifty years ago to make way for a gas station. Somehow it survived. But the fact that the old coot who lived there finally kicked the bucket and nobody else wants to move in is not indicative of anything.

Though I will say the fact that it is still standing after standing vacant for more than a month is a testement to the ineffectiveness of local government. This house could be siezed under Eminent Domain, and I don't think anybody would object.