Slumming in Suburbia?

The subprime mortgage crisis is more than just bad news for the economy. In fact, it is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the sustainability of our cities according to Christopher Leinberger, a professor of urban planning at the University of Michigan. In the March 2008 issue of the Atlantic, Leinberger writes that fundamental changes in American life may turn many of today's McMansions into tomorrow's tenements. The mass of foreclosures nationwide will only spur migration back to more compact and walkable urban areas, predicts Leinberger, resulting in vast neighborhoods of empty McMansions that will become the slums of tomorrow.

Leinberger notes that police are now mapping foreclosures in suburban communities to predict emerging criminal hot spots. He cites places around the country including Elk Grove, California, where 10,000 homes were built in less than four years and where many of these homes are now empty. There is graffiti, broken windows, gang activity and other signs of decay.

"A structural change is underway in the housing market - a major shift in the way many Americans want to live and work," Leinberger writes. "It has shaped the current downturn, steering some of the worst problems away from the cities and toward the suburban fringes. Its ultimate impact on the suburbs, and the cities, will be profound."

Thankfully the mortgage crisis has had less of an effect on the Omaha metro, but we should nevertheless be mindful of changes taking place in our living patterns. We can make all of our neighborhoods, urban and suburban, better places to live and work through sustainable practices. The GOC's Green Neighborhood Council, for example, is engaging neighborhoods from downtown all the way to Gretna in an emerging dialogue to make all of our neighborhoods better, healthier and greener places.