Slumburbia
In an op-ed titled Slumburbia, Timothy Egan describes the vast subdivisions and strip malls of “foreclosure alley” east of the Bay Area. These graffiti-covered, crime-ridden monuments to sprawl sit half empty and poised to become tenements and slums.
Here in San Antonio, a new, stricter tree ordinance is being hotly debated. At the Technical Advisory Commitee meeting last week, developers vowed that the new rules would drive development out of San Antonio and into the exurbs of Schertz and beyond. Presumably, this will hurt San Antonio by denying it tax revenue.
San Antonio should heed the lessons of “foreclosure alley” and other loosely-regulated markets. For the homebuyers and communities, those subdivisions were anything but bargains. According to the article:
They let developers plow up walnut groves and vineyards and places that were supposed to be strawberry fields forever to pay for services demanded by new school parents and park users.
Second, look at the cities with stable and recovering home markets. On this coast, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and San Diego come to mind. All of these cities have fairly strict development codes, trying to hem in their excess sprawl. Developers, many of them, hate these restrictions. They said the coastal cities would eventually price the middle class out, and start to empty.
It hasn’t happened. Just the opposite. The developers’ favorite role models, the laissez faire free-for-alls — Las Vegas, the Phoenix metro area, South Florida, this valley — are the most troubled, the suburban slums.
Come see: this is what happens when money and market, alone, guide the way we live.