We’ll likely never see “the end of the suburbs” in any true sense, but we could be headed into a new phase of the “American Dream” as suggested in Leigh Gallagher’s The End of the Suburbs. A snippet from the excerpt on Today’s website:

The reasons are varied, but several disparate factors all point to a decrease in demand for traditional suburban living: many Americans are tiring of the physical aspect of the suburbs, the design of which has changed dramatically over the years to gradually spread people farther and farther apart from one another and the things they like to do, making them increasingly reliant on their cars and, increasingly, on Thelma and Louise –length commutes. Big demographic shifts are seeing our population grow older, younger, and more diverse seemingly all at once, while powerful social trends are shrinking and transforming the American nuclear family, long the dominant driver of suburbia. An epic financial crisis coupled with the rising cost of energy has made punishing commutes also unaffordable, while a new- found hyperawareness of environmental issues has shaken up and re-ordered our priorities in ways that stand in direct conflict to the suburban way of life.

And this, based upon Gallagher’s knowledge of business decisions by major homebuilders:

This brings me to an important point: when I talk about the “end of the suburbs,” I do not mean to suggest that all suburban communities are going to vaporize. Plenty of older suburbs are going strong for reasons weâ€ll explore later, and many newer suburbs are reinventing themselves to adapt to the times. But when the people who have de- livered the same kind of one-size-fits-all suburban subdivisions over the past few decades are tearing up their blueprints, venturing gingerly into urban markets, and actually fainting at the thought of what the future holds, something big is afoot.

As I’ve said here before, it’s difficult to know what precisely all this means for a city the size of Savannah, with its relatively (compared to larger cities!) compact and easy-to-navigate suburbs. These trends are bad news for some planned major developments on the fringes of the city, for sure, but nearer suburbs could absolutely adapt, reinvest, and reimagine themselves. The problem is that many residents — sometimes older ones who moved to the suburbs for reasons that look increasingly outdated — are resistant to adaptations that could be crucial for maintaining values and attractiveness.

Here’s Today’s brief segment (you might have to wade through a commercial first):

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