Can we fix the suburbs?

[Music] the area below will within the next two years be the 10th largest city in the state of Pennsylvania a busy community of 70 000 people living in a city which was completely planned before the first house was built let's rewind for a second there may be no more iconic view of the suburbs than this one of Levittown Pennsylvania in 1958 what once represented progress today represents just about everything wrong with The Suburbs the question is can they be fixed if we're going to talk about the suburbs why not go straight to the source and the source in this case is Levittown there are actually three Levitt towns and I'm in the one here in Pennsylvania I gotta say I'm super excited to be here because I've only read about levittown's in books so it's really cool to walk around and if you do walk around you'll notice that it's actually just a pretty ordinary suburb which makes it great for talking about the suburbs generally but levittowns have a fascinating history so let's buck up for story time for a second Levittown solved a major problem not enough housing have been built during the Great Depression and during World War II after the war GIS got married and wanted to move out of their parents houses and start a family they wanted the American dream a house a green lawn modern appliances and most importantly a modern home that reflected the social values of the time prior to levittowns most of the families that lived in American suburbs were wealthy but now even Factory workers could afford to buy their own home with a yard they could afford these new houses because Levitt and Sons used an efficient assembly line technique for building houses something that hadn't been done at this scale before the process had 27 steps that allowed a house to be built within a day this is why so many Levitt houses are the same they prioritize low cost and efficiency over a design and customization each construction worker had a single task they would complete on each house so they all became really good at one task at their Peak Levitt and Sons finished construction of a new house every 16 minutes in their first Levittown on Long Island they built 17 447 single-family houses at the time it was the largest undertaking of its kind by a single developer in the U.S and the public was impressed by how fast and efficient Levitt houses were built the land for Levittown Pennsylvania where I am was purchased in 1951 from broccoli and spinach Farmers construction began in 1952 and all as 17 311 homes were completed in just six years all of these homes are one of six single-family models and different models were grouped in specific neighborhoods which in turn sorted residents by income level levittowns were also famously segregated by race William Levitt president of Levitt and Sons proclaimed we can solve the housing problem or we can solve the racial problem but we cannot combine the two in the standard lease for all the first residents of Levittown Clause 25 stated that the tenant agrees not to permit the premises to be sued or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian race at first this practice was legal but even after it was deemed unconstitutional the Levits would continue to reject black homebuyers again and again eventually the Myers a black family bought a Levittown Pennsylvania house in 1957 making history as the first black family to move into a Levitt suburb Riots of hundreds of violent people ensued which caused months of harassment and damage to the family's property now the overall land use mix was almost as homogeneous as the residents themselves Levin's son set aside land for some Community amenities like a pool shopping center religious buildings schools parks and sports areas levittown's biggest impact might be its influence on subsequent suburbs which adapted the same mass-produced building techniques and overall Bland sameness okay so that's the story of Levittown and I'm going to use Levittown as an example in this video quite a lot but let's get down to it what are the problems of the suburbs that need to get fixed well here's a list first they're low density this kind of space was seen as a good thing back in the Levittown days and certainly before prior to the car and the streetcar suburbs people had to live within walking distance to work resulting in overcrowded conditions the idea of a house with a yard and fresh air sounded like paradise it's still the American dream for many today second their single use homes only most residential developers are just that residential developers they specialize in adding shopping coffee shops and offices to a neighborhood design and then renting those spaces or selling them is outside of their business model much easier just to bulldoze a large area and put up the same home over and over again and Market them all to a specific demographic and income group third they're car oriented again this was not seen as a Bad Thing initially and many don't consider it a bad thing now but cars contribute to air pollution Road deaths obesity and traffic the suburbs make us you basically have to own a car to live there which can exclude people who can't afford a car or can't drive one due to disability fourth they tend to segregate people I already talked about this as it relates to levittown's but the suburbs today are still segregated particularly at the level of the neighborhood finally their Bland and cookie cutter Leviton laid out a model for Suburban development that relies on economies of scale to produce low-cost housing at a profit it doesn't matter that the neighborhood is Bland now that we've talked about problems we can start talking about Solutions that's the best part the nice thing is that there are policy solutions to just about every problem I've mentioned and a few of them are on display here in Levittown so let's get into it after the bike fell I'm going to give on location Dave a break for a second as I had a pretty bad cold back then and it was very difficult for me to talk to camera so in studio Dave is going to take it from here and while I have you I wanted to point out that this video is all about fixing existing suburbs and not so much about designing new ones though some of the same lessons May apply okay if we're going to increase density in the existing suburbs some building will need to occur the difference is that it'll be through accessory dwelling into construction suburban infill and demolitions and Replacements but before any of that can occur suburbs need to have the legal framework to allow it luckily new policies are being adopted by cities and states that allow as many as four to six units on Suburban Lots now this isn't happening everywhere but could be coming to a suburb near you this is a key aspect of zoning reform changing the local law to allow for more units out of curiosity what's the zoning like in Levittown well Levittown isn't a city itself and spans multiple jurisdictions the largest is Bristol Township and most of Levittown is actually zoned R3 that allows for row House's duplexes and even small apartment buildings but when I visited I didn't notice any of that at all the zoning code says that the maximum allowable density is five dwelling units per acre or 5 homes per acre that means that if you had an apartment building of five units it would have to be on a one acre lot not super practical the devil is in the details when it comes to zoning this type of housing often called missing middle housing would be great to add to a place like Levittown they can be more affordable than what's out there today and provide additional income to the property owner adding density like this can add challenges and one of the most cited is parking where will all of these new residents Park will someone adding an Adu have to add a parking space as well that adds to the overall cost of housing most neighborhoods like Levittown still have excess capacity for cars on the street and likely in driveways as well parking could become scarce if every house became a fourplex but that's unlikely and if that were the case the neighborhood's overall density would allow for mass transit to be a more viable alternative for all of those new residents residential density is great but what about other uses the suburbs are all about the segregation of land uses housing here businesses there industry way over there this is a problem because it increases traffic and Emissions it's also just really time consuming to hop into your car and drive 20 minutes to get your regular Pokemon booster pack as we all do what if those cards were at the corner store or right below you much more convenient the same is true for neighborhood friendly businesses like coffee shops ice cream parlors hair salons and any other business with a local draw that doesn't require a Target sized footprint I have a whole video on this particular topic you can check out if you want to learn more about corner stores in the suburbs mixed use can work great in the other direction too cities can encourage new Housing Development to be added to existing commercial zones in the suburbs and here in California the state has stepped up to ensure that local governments can do exactly this through Senate Bill 6 and assembly Bill 2011 California now allows developers to build housing on commercially zoned Land by right with an expedited permit process if a certain percentage of the residential units are affordable housing local governments don't want this as they get more tax revenue from commercial uses than residential uses so they'd rather a commercial use just sit vacant than filling it with residential or mixed uses previously existing malls and strip malls can also be retrofitted to better fit current needs by converting stores into housing promoting infill development in parking spaces or reusing the land for entirely new developments Tiny Tim Plaza in Santa Ana California did just this previously it was a small strip mall with a parking lot and gas station but the new landowner got the property re-zoned and replaced the gas station with 51 affordable housing units and refreshed the existing storefronts to ensure ongoing Business Health for the community the site is within walking distance to two planned Stations of the Orange County Light Rail line set to open next year so the residents of those apartments will have even more options for using public transit instead of cars it's unfortunate that Levittown never received this mixed-use makeover in 1955 levited Sons built shop-o-rama an L-shaped Mall located at the edge of town to attract Shoppers from nearby residential areas at the time it was the largest Pedestrian Mall east of Mississippi while impressive the mall turned out to be a bit illogical for its desire to use it filled the desire to stroll while shopping something typical of denser mixed use areas and yet The Pedestrian wall was located in the middle of an enormous 6 000 car parking lot it was mainly accessible by a five to ten minute drive while shaporama was initially loved by Levittown residents it fell into a state of disuse and disrepair by the early 2000s and was demolished to make way for a typical Looking Power Center in 2003 the large parking lot Still Remains and this newer commercial center is now even less walkable than its predecessor no mixed use here suburbs are car oriented they're a seemingly endless expanse of wide fast roads lined with fast food restaurants big box stores and strip malls if you turn off those roads you're in a Labyrinth of loops and cul-de-sacs ironically designed to minimize the noise and safety impact of cars on the houses along them getting anywhere in the suburbs on foot or on a bike can be inconvenient at best and dangerous at worst the good news is that all those roads roads outside of homeowners associations and outside of State Highway use are owned and operated by local governments reconfiguring roadways to accommodate pedestrians cyclists and mass transit takes funding and political will that's a challenge but it doesn't rely on the private market like building new adus How Could You redesign Suburban streets to be better for all modes let's start with the worst offenders the arterial streets they divide neighborhoods and move traffic at high speeds they're also quite wide which could be an asset three lanes in each Direction could become two lanes in each direction for cars with a dedicated bus lane or light rail line running in the center they could become multi-way boulevards that allow for local traffic on the edge and high-speed traffic in the center I have yet another video on that topic if you're curious about those the city could also reconfigure The Pedestrian space or add pedestrian space to create two-way shared use paths along the road giving active Transportation users a high quality dedicated space to travel these only work when intersections along the Route are reconfigured for safe Crossings and ideally when driveways are Consolidated to reduce conflict points with vehicles new Transportation corridors could also be constructed along abandoned Rail lines through Rails to Trails initiatives and some Wildlife corridors like along Creeks could become linear parks that support a shared youth path the goal is to reconnect those separate uses so someone could say ride a bike to Target to get those Pokemon cards and tell a shop opens down the block and if a suburban community takes the other advice talked about in this video and becomes more dense then Transit could be an option in the suburbs particularly Transit oriented development earlier I mentioned how racism profoundly affected who was initially allowed to be a homeowner in Levittown while the levitts couldn't control who the home would be sold to next their Prejudice carried through to subsequent home sellers in the community as a whole in 1970 less than two percent of levittown's population were black even though only 20 miles away in Philadelphia the population was around 18 black by 2000 very little had changed only 2.4 percent of levittown's residents were black one percent were Asian 2.2 were Latino and 1.2 were mixed race and that means the remaining 94.4 percent were white clearly segregation is not going to be solved in a YouTube video and it gets more complicated when you consider that residents are also segregated by income as developers build subdivisions with the same house over and over again at the same price point and the next neighborhood over build another unit with a different price point over and over again so what then can be done to dismantle Suburban segregation since the introduction of Levittown style suburbs several U.S laws have helped reduce racism in home sales the 1968 Fair Housing Act prohibited discrimination about the sale rental and financing of residences based on race religion national origin sex and as later amended handicap and family status this act legally ended the types of discriminatory practices used by the Levins but many institutionalized barriers still exist so the playing field isn't quite level yet luckily the suburbs are becoming increasingly more diverse anyway today over half of black families in America live in the suburbs enforcement of the Fair Housing Act is spotty though so discrimination still occurs mixing income in the suburbs can be just as difficult particularly with hoa's limiting change in established neighborhoods luckily laws allowing adus for example can apply to those communities adus are typically more affordable than the houses they are next to which adds some element of income diversity now one thing Levittown and many suburbs don't have is visual diversity they have that cookie cutter look now I know we just talked about segregation which is a real serious topic and visual diversity is not nearly as important but people call the suburbs boring and soulless and I think there's something to that we as humans like to look at different and interesting things that's part of what makes City so great and exciting so how can we add visual diversity to a place where the same house has been repeated over and over again well it's called the passage of time newly planted trees mature into the leafy streets you see today which can make it a lot harder to tell if the houses are all similar models the houses themselves change too in Levittown the original designs were pretty efficient meaning small and many homeowners built additions they also painted their houses different colors landscape their lawns differently and made other changes it's not a miracle cure and Levittown is still kind of boring but you don't have the uniformity you see in the old news reels this only occurred because there was no rule restricting such change in communities with powerful homeowners associations this kind of change may not be possible now no Homeowner Association is powerful enough to stop trees from growing but they can absolutely enforce cookie cutter sameness for the houses and Landscaping now obviously some people like the sameness but I think locking a place in like that robs it of what makes a city so great the ability to grow and change and reinvent itself over time our suburb is a lost cause I don't think so but it's going to take a long time to make them more diverse dense sustainable and interesting obviously building great places initially is a lot better than trying to fix existing places which is why you're probably gonna love my next video all about how we can build European style cities here in the United States you know the kind with narrow streets Charming buildings and no cars it might seem impossible but I look at examples that exist right now you have to wait a few weeks to see that on YouTube but you could just watch it right now over at nebula it's live there nebula is a creator-owned streaming service that I'm 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Channel: City Beautiful

Views: 284,928

Keywords: city planning, town planning, urban planning, urban design

Id: jNuRpYaPLuA

Length: 17min 11sec (1031 seconds)

Published: Sat May 20 2023