Revenge of the Suburbs

Posted June 19, 2020

External Article: The Atlantic

Ian Bogost, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication wrote the article "Revenge of the Suburbs" for The Atlantic. The article was published June 19 as part of the publications “Uncharted: a series about the world we’re leaving behind, and the one being remade by the pandemic." Bogost writes that suburbia was never as bad as anyone said it was. Now it’s looking even better."

Excerpt:

During previous economic calamities, the government altered housing policy, establishing the Federal Housing Administration in 1934 to regulate mortgages after the banking crisis. After World War II, the FHA encouraged commercial mass development to ease the housing crisis, and after the 2008 recession, the federal government bailed out mortgage banks, mitigated some foreclosures, and introduced homebuyer tax incentives. All of these efforts affirmed the ongoing reign of single-family, suburban-style homes. It’s too early to know if a similar federal intervention for the coronavirus recession might arrive. If it does, there’s no reason to believe that aid would suddenly underwrite dense, modern urbanism. American life has been suburban for a century, and it’s a mistake to see suburbia as an historical aberration waiting to collapse.

Read full article in The Atlantic