Drive home from a long day at work or school. Relax in a nice large living room or bedroom in a McMansion-style house. The air outside is fresh. Trees are abundant. There's little noise. The school district is nice. What could be a more perfect life right? Is endless peace and quiet actually desirable? Is staying inside a large house actually make you better off? Does living in a community with only houses and vegetation actually improve a person's overall health? It's not that simple to answer.
Mobility is one of the aspects that suburbs lack on multiple levels. Homes are often located farther away from stores, restaurants, schools, and theaters. Even people living in houses or apartments that are located within half a mile of a shopping center still can't get there safely on foot or bike because roads are wide, there is little to no sidewalk, and there are no crosswalks.
Suburbs tend to have little to no access to public transportation, which is especially a problem for the elderly, disabled and those who cannot drive. With the exception of high school students, most children who live in the suburbs either take the school bus to school or have their parents drive them to school.
What about after-school? If their parents or a friend's parents can't pick them up to take them to after-school activities, then they can hang-out with a friend who lives close enough to walk to, play by themselves, watch TV or play on the computer or mobile device. Children in cities can become more independent than those raised in suburbs because kids in cities can go to the local library to study or the coffee shop to hang out with friends without needing a parent to drive them until they are old enough to drive themselves. At the end of the day, cities still offer more options for getting from place to place.
Living in the suburbs can also lead to health-related issues. Since cars are the predominant means of transportation in the suburbs, people have fewer opportunities to stay fit. Those who want to exercise usually have to set aside time to go to the gym or park, which requires more time driving. Children who live in suburbs are spending more time on their electronic devices because they can't go very far in a community surrounded by wide roads and no shops, no recreation centers, or libraries within walkable distance.
As a result of spending more time behind the wheel or in front of a screen, obesity becomes is an issue with living in the suburbs. Even for traveling distances less than half a mile with sidewalks, suburb residents would often still choose to drive instead of walk or bike. Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for those under 30. With the need for driving, the driving test standards in the US, especially in rural and suburban areas, are much lower than that of many countries in Europe and other parts of the developed world.
In conjunction with the health problems, urban sprawl is also not environmentally friendly. Though suburbs look greener, it doesn't mean that they are actually better for the planet. The houses in the suburbs usually have large lawns, which require lots of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides to maintain as well as gasoline to run the mowers. People tend to plant non-native plants in their outdoor gardens, which can spread and become invasive species. Since suburban and rural homes are larger, residents must use more electricity or natural gas to heat and cool them. Many people turn down the heat or AC beyond comfortable temperatures to "save energy". You could also buy a smaller house if the heating and electricity bill seems hard to grasp.
The concert clover of roads and highways needed to commuting outside of cities increases the number of impervious surfaces for storm-water runoff. The high amount of driving needed to complete daily and weekly tasks means more gasoline used... not to mention that suburban Americans tend to enjoy their SUV's and trucks. While suburbs do tend to have cleaner air, more driving means more emissions. At the end of the day, the quality of the air next to a freeway or busy road in a suburb is really not much better than that of a big city.
Besides the mobility, health and environmental consequences of urban sprawl, the increase in areas of low population density can have negative financial effects. The cost of building and maintaining sewer, water and electricity infrastructure is higher for suburbs than for cities because people live farther apart. The construction of giant parking lots leads to less taxable land and revenue for the government to utilize for public services. Cities are the centers for innovation and entrepreneurship because high population density gives people of different talents a better opportunity to specialize, collaborate within each other, and find customers and markets to sell their products or services.
Cities have more poor residents than suburbs or rural places not because they make people less wealthy, but because they attract less wealthy individuals who want to seek a better life. Of course, there are still plenty of multi-millionaires and billionaires who choose to live in big cities too. The fact is that there far more job opportunities in cities than in rural areas. Unfortunately, urban sprawl has led some large companies to move their offices outside of cities to provide more parking in business parks.
Cities are still far from perfect for certain people. Suburbs are so popular among those raising families because they have better school districts, more green space and less crime. Cities can and are improving their public schools, adding more green space and improving their security. Stephen Ritz, a South Bronx teacher and administrator, demonstrated a poorly functioning school in an impoverished part of a city can be turned into one that motivates students to learn while providing fresh produce and creating more green space within the city.
Cities across China implemented metal detectors and bag scanners in virtually all major subway stations, train stations, long-distance bus stations, and amusement parks in addition to having them at airports. Singapore has implemented a congestion tax to speed up traffic. It's time to take another thought and another pause before we decide on where we want to live. It's time to put less effort into sprawling away from American cities and put more effort into making them better.
