For sixty years sophisticates have sneered at the suburbs (and at the suburban-adjacent New York City “outer boroughs”). Oh, not at the tonier suburbs, of course, where they and their affluent friends and colleagues often live. But at the “little boxes made of ticky-tacky” where the middle and working classes once championed by “progressives” have sought the American dream. Think Levittown, and Queens. The suburbs are passé, the enlightened tell us, and must be “retrofitted” to make them look more like … well, cities.
So New York Times columnists lecture us to “Quit Fetishizing the Single-Family Home,” and “fantasizing about having a backyard;” the “The New ‘Dream Home’ Should Be a Condo.” And don’t think that you can avoid this by moving a little further away in this age of telecommuting. No, that would be “unsustainable” “sprawl” according to former Bloomberg columnist Noah Smith, and “from now on, new Americans must mostly be put into existing urban spaces, which means density.” Hey, if you want a little open space, get a summer place in the Hamptons like your betters.
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