Richard 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!

Doing what they do best, a recent Onion op-ed satirizes nostalgia for the “old suburbs” while simultaneously raising a very apt and difficult question for 21st century America:  when does “convenient” become “too convenient”?

Long ago, in the Time Before the Best Buy, before the interchange expanded to six lanes and brought travelers and their foreign customs from Piedmont and Parkwood and Oak Grove, in that time before, there were park-and-rides as far as the eye could see and only two traffic circles. Now there are things called Game Stops and massive sprawling Wawas that tempt and delight with warm fluorescence and the promise of snacks and convenience.

There is nothing wrong with convenience, my children—indeed, it is the reason our ancestors trekked to Pine Bluffs from a place far east of here, past Route 9 and four more exits beyond, lo so many years ago in 1987.

But how far is too far?  Will this world around us become so convenient that we neglect the very fabric of our souls and DVR How I Met Your Mother to watch “when it’s convenient” rather than together, Monday night, over microwaveable McCain Ellio’s pepperoni pizza, as we have since time immemorial?

Highways, the GI bill, cheap gas, and inner-city racial tensions contributed to that sociological storm that made “white flight” the rhymey-rage 50 years ago.  At least that’s what the history books tell me. According to those hard-backed tomes, a predominant number of Caucasians packed up their families and headed from the inner cities out into the promised tranquility of the suburbs, where car and manicured lawn were king.

Life was deafeningly tranquil, interspersed with moments of maddening gridlock.  What more could middle-class America possibly want?  Something completely different apparently.

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Today, the New York Times is talking about what we’ve been discussing for months. It even quotes the Atlantic article I featured a few months back in my award-winning* “Slumming It in Your McMansion” post.

Namely, that gas prices are clearing out the ex-urbs and suburbs, and people are buying smaller homes and smaller cars closer to the city center. Atlanta even gets a special shout-out.

In Atlanta, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Minneapolis, homes beyond the urban core have been falling in value faster than those within, according to an analysis by Moody’s Economy.com.

The article goes on to interview lots of nervous people on the urban fringe that are considering the big move back into the big, bad city and cites this interesting figure…

More than three-fourths of prospective home buyers are now more inclined to live in an urban area because of fuel prices, according to a recent survey of 903 real estate agents with Coldwell Banker, the national brokerage firm.

Three-fourths?! Well then let me be the first to say “Come one, come all!” But you might need to sell that sectional sofa first. Us ITPs like our homes nice and cozy.

*Post didn’t actually win any awards. I just made that up for dramatic effect.

[Photo courtesy of the NY Times]