Strong Towns Looks at Surburban Poverty

This week, is Strong Towns blog focusing on suburbs and poverty. Their analysis is generally that suburban development is a Ponzi scheme that’s now bottoming out, as seen in places like Ferguson, Missouri (which they critiqued just after the killing of Michael Brown).

Today’s post is called The Geography of Disadvantage, and it can be summarized this way: Suburbia is a massive experiment, and millions of Americans are finding out that it doesn’t work.

What’s more, none of the surrounding neighborhoods or towns realize what’s going on. The disconnected nature of the suburbs—winding streets detached from one another, few public gathering spaces, little interaction with neighbors on the sidewalk or in public transit—makes it hard to see the poverty that might be affecting a family just blocks away from you.

There’s lots more where that came from. This page lists all of their suburban poverty posts, while this one summarizes their list of Growth Ponzi Scheme stories.

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Photo by Nathan Rupert.