Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 9.35
Hinsdale, Illinois.
In this upscale suburb of
Chicago, a new McMansion stands in the place where
a smaller house (similar in size to the one still stand-
ing in the right of the photo) used to stand. In the last
20 years, about 25 percent of Hinsdale's houses have
been torn down to make room for much larger houses.
© Erin H. Fouberg.
tion, the consequences can be serious. Rising housing costs
associated with gentrifi cation have played a key role in the
growing problem of homelessness in American cities.
The suburb is not immune to gentrifi cation. In sub-
urbs that are close to the city or directly connected by
commuter rail, people purchase smaller or older homes
with the intention of tearing the house down and build-
ing a much larger home. The homes intended for sub-
urban demolition are called
teardowns
. In their place,
suburbanites build newer homes that often are super-
sized and stretch to the outer limits of the lot. New man-
sions that are supersize and have a similar look are called
McMansions
(Fig. 9.35).
Like gentrifi cation in the city, the teardown phe-
nomenon changes the landscape and increases average
housing values, tax revenue for the city, and the average
household income of the neighborhood. Unlike gentrifi -
cation, with teardowns, the original houses are destroyed
instead of preserved. Also unlike gentrifi cation, teardowns
often occur in middle-class and wealthy suburbs, includ-
ing Greenwich, Connecticut, and Hinsdale, Illinois.
Greenwich, a high-end neighborhood in Fairfi eld
County, Connecticut, just outside of New York City.
issued 138 permits for teardowns in 2004 (56 more than it
did the year before). The collapse of the housing market
brought a decline in the number of teardowns in Fairfi eld
County starting in 2007, but in May 2010 the
Wall Street
Journal
reported that teardown permits had begun ris-
ing again in Fairfi eld County. The rise in permits was
not in Greenwich, however. According to the
Wall Street
Journal
, “The most expensive corners of Fairfi eld County,
including Greenwich, haven't seen much of a pickup in
teardowns, local brokers say. A surplus of homes priced at
more than $2 million, and diffi culties in getting fi nancing
for these purchases, has kept that activity to a minimum.”
In Hinsdale ( just outside Chicago), one-third of the
suburb's houses have been torn down since 1986. Those in
favor of teardowns argue that the phenomenon slows urban
sprawl by replacing existing homes with new homes, rather
than converting farmland to residential lots. Those opposed
to teardowns see the houses as too large for their lots, dwarf-
ing the neighboring houses, and destroying the character of
the street by demolishing the older homes on it.
Urban Sprawl and New Urbanism
As populations have grown in certain areas of the United
States, such as the Sun Belt and the West, urban a
reas
have experienced
urban sprawl
—unrestricted growth of
housing, commercial developments, and roads over large
expanses of land, with little concern for urban planning.
Urban sprawl is easy to spot as you drive down major road-
ways in any urbanized part of the country. You will see strip
malls, big box stores, chain restaurants, huge intersections,
and numerous housing developments, all spread out over
many acres (Fig. 9.36). Sprawl is a phenomenon of the
automobile era. Cities that grew before the automobile
typically grew “up” instead of “out.” For instance, Boston
grew around the marketplace and port, but it grew before
the automobile, resulting in development over smaller
areas. If you walk through the central city of Boston t
oday,
