Decatur Gets WSJ Shout-Out
Decatur Metro | October 20, 2010Richard Florida, known for his fairly recent theories on “the creative class” and their clustering in post-industrial cities, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal a couple weeks back about the qualities of America’s most resilient suburbs during an era where many suburbs are in decline.
In addition to the ongoing conversation about retro-fitting the suburbs to act more like traditional towns, Florida cites existing metropolitan suburbs that have held up well in the malaise of a stagnant economy. According to Florida, these ‘burbs share many basic characteristics, such as dense commercial downtowns, a variety of housing options and are located along old streetcar lines.
Do you know any cities like that?
A 2007 study by Christopher Leinberger found more than 150 walkable towns in America’s 30 largest metro regions—places like Hoboken, Montclair and Princeton, N.J.; Stamford and Greenwich, Conn.; Brookline, Mass.; Bryn Mawr, Pa.; and Royal Oak and Birmingham, Mich. Newer versions of walkable suburbs can be found in regions that developed later, like Palo Alto, Calif.; Boulder, Colo.; Coral Gables, Fla.; Decatur, Ga.; and Clayton, Mo.
These are the places where Americans are clamoring to live and where housing prices have held up even in the face of one of the greatest real-estate collapses in modern memory.
So here’s a question…why is it that old streetcar suburbs are now the hottest thing going? What is it about them that so appeals to the 21st century urbanista?
Thanks to Eva and Louis for forwarding!