Place

Little Town, Little Quiet Village

I'm reading Dolores Hayden's Building Suburbia, an interesting history of the various kinds of suburbs, showing how and why each was built. The sales methods described in the chapter on streetcar suburbs outside Chicago are not far removed from those still in use, whether to sell the Poconos or time-shares outside DisneyWorld.

Her upcoming book, A Field Guide to Sprawl, should be a handy reference for citizens of all stripes. The built environment is one subject where a picture is worth many thousands of words. The images used in Mrs. Hayden's class, The American Suburb, are an unfamiliar perspective on several areas in Connecticut.

By the way, the fifth sentence on page 23 of Building Suburbia is

Transportation technology enabled rival groups of businessmen to push lines out of the city or pull them into fringe areas in order to maximize their investments in land.

10:57:29 AM # Google It!
categories: Place