Why Some Suburbs Are Trying to Be More Like Cities

[M II A II R II K]

Why Some Suburbs Are Trying to Be More Like Cities


April 24, 2016

By Eliot Brown

Read More: http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-some...ies-1461550070

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Urbanization efforts in New Rochelle, a city of 79,000, offer a glimpse of changes taking shape in suburbs around the country. While the approaches vary, what they share is a general desire for urban-style development meant to appeal to youth and attract employers who might otherwise gravitate to cities.

- Similar campaigns are under way from Plano, Texas, to San Ramon, Calif. These efforts mark a major shift, planners say, particularly given that cities were trying to compete with suburbs just a few decades ago, plowing highways through downtowns and building enclosed urban malls. --- “The suburbs are mimicking cities like just cities were mimicking suburbs,” says Bruce Katz, who focuses on urbanization at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington. “This is really an upending.”

- Of course, these changes are still nascent. It’s too early to say how the broader market will react to these still largely isolated visions. In the 1990s and early 2000s, many developers bet on “new urbanism,” a concept that generally sought to build mixed-use communities on empty swaths of land. The efforts never took off on a large scale, stymied in part by the 2008-2009 housing bust. --- But part of what is driving suburban redevelopment now is the migration by young Americans, particularly the college-educated, out of the suburbs to city centers.

- From 2000 to 2010, for instance, the population of college-educated 25- to 34-year-old residents in downtowns grew 44%, three times as fast as the rest of the metro areas for the 50 largest cities, according to a pair of researchers from University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Pennsylvania. --- The researchers, Victor Couture and Jessie Handbury, say in a working paper that “urban revival” in the 50 largest U.S. cities “is accounted for almost entirely by the rising share of college-educated individuals.”

- Trends like these have made it harder for suburbs to attract new employers, who often want to be nearer to the young, talented workforce. Hence the widespread drive to bring more aspects of urban living to suburbia. --- A dense downtown “can enhance our civic image and provide a sort of heart to the community,” says New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson. “If we want our children and grandchildren to be able to live in places like New Rochelle, then we’ve got to position our community to be attractive to those communities.”

- Far older than many U.S. suburbs that sprouted after World War II—New Rochelle’s population grew fastest in the early 20th century—the town has been struggling economically for the past few decades, with almost no new office development and relatively little apartment construction. --- In part, the suburb’s old age adds to its allure for this type of development. Built up before cars were widespread, it has a train stop on the commuter rail just half an hour from Midtown Manhattan, and its own downtown where residents can tolerate dense construction.

- Should high-rise building in places like New Rochelle indeed take off, that could help relieve pressure on New York City housing, says Mr. Pinsky, who was a top economic-development official for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. --- “New York City continues to become more expensive, which makes it more and more difficult for people looking for an urban environment to find it affordably in the five boroughs,” Mr. Pinsky says. If those people can indeed be attracted to urban-style living in the suburbs, employers should follow, he says.

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