Suburbia: A Bourgeois Utopia

According to what we learned in class suburbia was a result of industrialization and the transportation theory. The middle class had the funds and now the technological ability to commute from outside the city. According to Robert Fishman “suburbia was, rather, the collective creation of the Anglo-American middle class: the bourgeois utopia”. He bases his theory on suburbia’s creation around 18th century London. Suburbia is not a modern construction; Fishman shows that it evolved from 18^th century views on the degrading conditions of the city.

They were rapidly becoming extremely overcrowded and the cities were not capable of handling this influx of people. During the Evangelical movement the city was portrayed as a place of sin and degradation that was not suitable for a bourgeois family to inhabit. This new negative portrayal of the city made the bourgeois rethink their insistence upon living in it, they slowing began to leave the city and turn to the countryside to raise their families. This is when the real birth of suburbia was, it was a cultural movement rather than a conscious decision. This shift has left a permanent imprint upon society and our cities are still structured around this model.

Basically Fishman gives the same reasons for suburbanization but in a different time period. We learned it from the Western or American perspective, showing its emergence in the 1950 and 60's. Both cited overcrowding of the city and lesser liver conditions. As well as discussing an easy commute, that made the move seem logical. It gave the middle class a place to lead the luxurious lifestyle that they craved without being surrounded by the poor. Essentially they isolated themselves from the city they created. This leads me to believe that suburbia happens wherever there is a city over time. Eventually the middle class flee the city and give it up to commerce and the poor. It even happens in modern times, in this blog the suburbanization of the waterfront in NYC is an issue. That is a modern day suburbanization, proving that it has been going on and will continue to go on.

http://www.streetsblog.org/2006/08/28/the-suburbanization-of-nycs-waterfront/