Paradoxical Promise of the Suburbs Essay

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Levitttowns, and the suburban communities that were later modeled upon these ideas were designed "to make more possible, more efficient, this good life of postwar prosperity" (Clark, 2007). Ownership, space, the right to shape one's environment through material consumption -- all of these ideals resonated powerfully in the American mindset. With no ties to particular plots of land based upon family or ethnicity that were deeply and powerfully rooted in history, as in Europe, America was a socially as well as economically mobile society. Americans were ready to move and to buy homes to formulate their own environments. Within the suburbs there was still the promise of community, exemplified by the home's creation of a common area (the central living room in most suburban homes featured a television, of course) but the community was of the family, not the wider environment.

This ideal of privacy and creating one's own unique living space that is different and personalized, yet somehow still in keeping with the ideals of one's neighbors is seen in today's do-it-yourself movement, where Home Depo looms large on almost every suburban highway. The store is filled with promises of creating the ideal living space for one's home and family, so long as one can afford its prices. The Disney Corporation's planned community of Celebration U.S.A. where "everything within the town's confines was intended to be soothing to the eye and comforting to the soul" from its litter-free streets on a grid-like pattern to its homogeneity of style struck many cultural critics as noxious, but it may simply be an extension of an America where people are outraged if a neighbor does not cut his or her lawn, or paints his or her home purple -- or comes from a different racial background (Franz & Collins, 1999).

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Private yet utterly standardized -- much like planned communities all over America.

How we aspire to shape our lives by changing our physical environment reveals much about the American subconscious. The sales of homes in planned communities continue to rise just as the desire to be a part of a community, yet stand apart from the neighbors remains strong. It has, sadly caused many to live outside of their means, as is evidenced by the record number of recent defaults on mortgages. Some say the suburbs have become just 'a new form of city' as suburbs are no longer even tenuously tied to an urban location -- gated communities are as far flung across the American landscape as the lonely homesteads of the 19th century. But still they hold the promise of order, the personalization of one's similar yet unique environment, and a community of a nuclear family and carefully selected neighbors. The affordable good life is open to all, complete with the grill, the dog, the manicured lawn, so long as you can afford to buy this dream of home ownership. Where are Levitt's $8,000 dollar structures today?

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