Thursday, August 8, 2013

The End of the Suburbs - This Weekend on Book TV

Those of you who read this blog regularly, know that one of my least favorite things in this world is suburbia. ... Well, maybe you don't know that, but there, I just told you. So, this kinda caught my eye:

     
Saturday 10 pm,
Sunday 9 pm & Midnight ET

 Weekly interview of a nonfiction author by a guest host who shares an area of expertise or interest.

Leigh Gallagher, The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream is Moving, interviewed by Rich Benjamin, author ofSearching for Whitopia
Fortune assistant managing editor Leigh Gallagher argues that the recession and crash of the housing market have produced a permanent change in America's landscape: the rapid disappearance of the suburbs. The decline in marriage and birthrates, the rise of gasoline prices and liveliness of city life for young singles have all combined to push more of the population to make their homes inside the city limits. Ms. Gallagher discusses this growing trend with the author of Searching for Whitopia, Rich Benjamin

You can watch it online, if you can't find it on your TV, or if Time Warner decided to go up and ban that channel too:
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6 comments:

  1. at some point the singles will marry, have kids and move to the burbs for the schools. there are good schools in north eastern queens, but the burbs are better. that's my theory

    my oldest goes to 196. at 6th grade i might move although i hear halsey has the good kids segregated these days

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    1. Good point Alen - I might only add, the burbs schools may be better for now, anyway.. Who's to say what the future holds if current trends continue.

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    2. the districts with good schools have higher property taxes. and in the burbs you can only go to your zoned school. when my wife listens to other parents the part where they bring in kids from outside the zone into Halsey and FHHS is what they don't like

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  2. What do you mean by "good" kid? Good at sports, good at socializing with others, good at academics?

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  3. I hate the suburbs. Many people do it for the sake of the kids, others do it because they're broke and a dollar goes further when you're in the middle of nowhere.

    Every time I meet friends who deserted NYC years ago for a house in the 'burbs, I can barely recognize them after a few year. Almost all of them have, without exception, put on tons of weight, lost the creative spark, and learned to shop mindlessly to deal with their boredom. They're all jealous I live in FoHi - peace and quiet when you want it, not so isolated that you can't hop on a train and get to midtown in 20 minutes :)

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  4. Along with the housing market, the All American bubble of optimism has gone bust. The suburbs were once the promised land, the American Dream made manifest, no more so than to Post War Americans who bought these homes for their baby boomer children. Like thousands of other young married apartment dwellers in the post war years my parents began house hunting in the mid 1950s. Now these house once snapped up so quickly, sit among the glut of inventory of mid-century houses, the forlorn for sale signs beckoning non-existent takers.For an illustrated look at this journey visit
    http://envisioningtheamericandream.com/2013/08/21/suburban-swan-song-2/

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