Surname 1

Name

Institution

Subject

Date

The Suburbanization of America: The Rise of the Patio culture

The article highlights and clarifies divergent worldviews between the intellectuals and the

rest of the American who lived in urban areas. The author describes values of elites as custodians

of “tourist mind” because of lost touch with basic needs of middle-class in congested areas. For

instance, the onset planning of Levittown involved building essential facilities, the elementary

schools. On the other hand, the elites expected better buildings such as theatres. The intellectuals

expected suburban to be exciting and exotic; however, homeowner required a secure and

comfortable place to live. Elites propagated another misconception through newspapers and

magazines like Newsweek and New York Times which reported a state of “female unhappiness.”

In June 29th, 1960 New York Times made a headline “the road from Freud to Frigidaire, from

Sophocles to Spock, has turned out to be a bumpy one.”

Conclusion

The discrepancies in feelings and values created intellectual disappointments in elites.

During suburbanization, these group seems to have been idealists while people who wanted to

move to suburbs were realists. The intellectuals wanted “best community” while ignoring

reasons for the relocation. The lack of recreation facilities, classy housing and the unmet

expectations of intellectuals could have made them consider suburban to be a boring place.
 Surname 2

According to (Duany, Plater-Zyberk and Speck 5), moving to Levittown to a majority of women

especially nonblack reduced boredom, loneliness, and depression after they moved from cities.

The process of realizing happiness by moving to suburbs was counteracted by the racism which

was prevalent in the US. After the WWII there came the famous ‘Negro problem” and it was the

main issue in Truman to Johnson administration; however, Cold war assisted in polishing and

facilitating desegregation and creating social reforms (Dudziak 21). The worldviews created by

elites on dullness appears a misconception

Suburbanization in the United States after 1945

The writers address the concept of inclusivity and challenges brought about by

discrimination at the start of suburbanization (Nicolaides and Wiese 3). It is argued that suburbia

had opportunities for whites, but it was isolated and “exclusive throughout the postwar.” People

had issues with privacy, nature, taxes, and race. It’s stated that segregation was supported

through collusion by homebuilders, threats of violence, local neighborhood association, and

discriminatory federal housing guidelines. For example, by 1960, African American received

“just 2% of FHA-insured mortgages!”

It is interesting to note some factories moved to suburban areas thus causing job losses

and poverty to people who lived in town. The shift of people and factories from cities resulted in

the decline in tax collections and subsequent cut-backs on infrastructure creating a cycle of

suburbanization (Hayden 7). It appears the challenges which urban dwellers faced were

transferred to these new settings thus compromising the greatly sought joy in suburbs.
 Surname 3

Conclusion

Happiness was realized by select groups and in bits. The blacks who were rejected by the

system found themselves in isolated suburban such as Washington Shores near Orlando, Collier

Heights in west Atlanta and Hamilton Park in north Dallas. According to (Logan 3),

suburbanization made Americans retreat from unpleasant realities to find happiness and meaning

of life in the community group or more isolated and self-centered people.

Suburbanization also brought people with shared experience, interest, and aspirations

together locking the rest out. Unfortunately, even today, blacks remain less suburbanized

compared to other minority groups (Massey and Denton 601) and this gives the article

credibility. The black people are less segregated in the suburbs; however, their segregation is

quite high in cities. Asians and Hispanics are more suburbanized than the blacks. Seemingly,

suburbs strengthened solidarities of races while toning down the importance of inclusivity.

How Suburbanization Was Sold

According to this video (city lab), life in suburbia brought the general feelings of life; it

had pleasing and displeasing moments. Some people were degraded other discouraged; some

ignored while others were happy to be in these places; however, everyone had the desire to own

their properties, a state created by the prevailing worldview. It can be noted that the recreation

areas in the clip paint a stable and settled situation. It appears elites valued suburban homes “as

a refuge from work, as a source of goodness.”

Conclusion

The suburbs embodied the achievement of above-average life; was predictable,

harmonious and part of the dreamy constellation. The upper-class status built mansions in lush
 Surname 4

suburban environments. The idea that the “slums of today were suburbs of yesterday” points to

an agreeable position that people endeavor to create new cities from scratch with parks and

recreation areas, church, shops, schools all for good residential living thus happiness is perhaps a

dynamic state.
 Surname 5

Works Cited

Citylab. "Archival Films Reveal How The Suburbanization Of America Was Sold." CityLab.

N.p., 2015. Web. 22 June 2018.

Duany, A, E Plater-Zyberk and J Speck. Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of

the American Dream. New York: North Point Press, 2001.

Dudziak, Mary L. Cold War civil rights: race and the image of American democracy. Princeton,
N.J: Princeton University Press, 2011.
Hayden, D. Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820‒2000. New York:

Pantheon Books, 2003.

Knight, Greg. "The Suburbanization of America: The Rise of the Patio

Culture." Patioculture.net. N.p., 2014. Web. 22 June 2018.

Logan, J. "Separate and unequal in suburbia." Census brief prepared for US2010. 2014.

Massey, Douglas S. and Nancy A. Denton. "Suburbanization and Segregation in U.S.

Metropolitan Areas." American Journal of Sociology 124.1 (1988): 592-626.

Nicolaides, Becky and Andrew Wiese. "Suburbanization in the United States after 1945." Urban

History (2017): 2-6.