It is a standard trope among urbanists and Treehugger types that density and walkable communities are green and that car-dependent suburbs are bad. But according to the Pew Research Center, more Americans now say they prefer a community with big houses, even if local amenities are farther away.
The shift is significant given it is just a two-year spread. Pew attributes the change in attitudes to the pandemic, noting the shift occurred in a period of working and schooling from home, and when so many businesses were closed or restricted.
That on its own would be bad enough, given the amount of fossil fuel burned is inversely proportional to urban density due to gasoline for driving and natural gas for heating. But we are also getting a big dose of what Bill Bishop and Robert Cushing called The Big Sort in their 2008 book, where “Americans have sorted themselves geographically, economically, and politically into like-minded communities.” A review noted (in 2008!):
And here we are in 2021, with the majority of people wanting to live in larger houses fuather apart, but with the people living in suburban and rural areas leaning seriously to the right. However, the lure of suburbia covers the full spectrum:
When you look at it in greater detail, it seems that almost everyone, even half of the people living in urban environments, wants larger houses farther apart, even if they have to drive to get a quart of milk; even the majority of young people aged 18 to 29. Only very liberal Democrats and Asian-Americans want what we green urbanists have been selling: smaller homes closer to schools, stores, and restaurants.
A year ago, when people first started talking about the pandemic-inspired suburban boom, I suggested they had it wrong—that it was, in fact, a response to a demographic crunch—writing:
But the numbers appear to prove me wrong. Almost everyone seems to want the suburban lifestyle—in every age, and even every political stance—and more than ever before. Just look at the shift in just two years.
So, while there is still a partisan divide among rural, suburban, and urban, it might be un-sorting a bit, if only because it seems that more people of all ages and political leanings want to move to the suburbs and they are turning politically purple. Perhaps because of this, the suburbs will change. In her book, “Radical Suburbs,” Amanda Kolson Hurley says this is happening already:
So while more Americans apparently want the suburban dream, when they wake up there it may be a very different place.
