Postmetropolis

Edward W. Soja had written about the "Six Discourses on the Postmetropolis". Postmetropolis is the term to describe the differences between the post modern areas and the modern areas from before the 1970's. Modernism came first with Wright, Howard, and La Corbusier. In the 1970's Post Modernism came about which was basically people rebelling against the modernist principles.
The Postmetropolis had six main discourses has Soja stated. They were Flexcity, Cosmopolis, Exopolis, Metropolarities, Carceral Archipelago's, and Sim city. Flexcity was Post-Fordism which looks to consumers first and asked for feedback unlike Fordism the Modernism era. The producer and consumer are in constant communication. An example of a Flexcity is New York, it can easily adapt and change, so you can think of Felxcity as flexible.
Cosmopolis is simply to be cultured and diverse, with a diverse population. It has golbalization and glocalization which are means of exchange in a way.
Exopolis is the idea of an edge city. Such as in the greater metro area a good consumer suburb town that is the center of production can be part of the city. Exurbs are greater than 50 miles from the main city. This article from The New York Times talks about people commuting form exurb cities...http://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/11/realestate/commuting-at-the-edge-of-the-exurb-belt.html
Metropolarities are developments of new types of qualities or social structures that might emerge.
Carceral Archipelagos are "prison islands". It is the thought that you are being watched , such as by having to sign in and show id's to get into buildings and such similar places.
Last is the Sim City. An example of this is Time Square. It is both real and unreal. It use to be a very serious center of production and post modernism it is used for many such things as the ball dropping and the naked cowboy.

"Ecology of Fear"

Mike Davis wrote about "Ecology of Fear". Davis said hes sees the city based upon fear. To him cities are still seen as zones of danger with a lot of illegal things happening in them. Things such as drug-dealing, rapes, and murders are most likely to happen in a city. Davis' ideas followed Jane Jacobs, so this time was around the 1980's. His idea was to somehow contain the danger and damage in a city. Most of the danger came from immigrants, minorities, lower class people, but especially the homeless.
Mike Davis' subject of study was the fortress city Los Angeles. Davis wanted to recognize the hard and soft boundaries that had to be placed when and where, also having to do with social boundaries within the built environment. For example, he felt that instead of having flat bench's on the corners and bus stops, to have something a lot more uncomfortable so that people won't always be trying to hang around the area. He wanted to use a method of exercises of social difference and power. Mixing of social classes at many public parks he felt would relieve many tensions throughout the city.
Hard boundaries were used to keep certain people out of places were such physical things as big solid fences maybe with some barbed wire on the top. An example of a soft boundary would be just a sign saying no entrance or keep off grass. It would be something where you physically could go and do but if an authority figure saw you, you would be kicked out. So overall a hard boundary would be a tougher boundary to overcome, but for entering either boundary counsequences would be the same.
Davis' overall point was that fear proves itself, and that it is not based upon crime. To read more about Mike Davis' "Ecology of Fear" and Los Angeles click on the following link...http://misonou.livejournal.com/530886.html

Suburbs overcoming Cities

Jane Jacobs was all about the movement called New Urbanism. This went against all the old urbanism and against the paternalism of the modernist approach. The modernist approach was from the likes of Wright and La Corbusier. Jacobs said that we needed to look at the city as natural living things and thought it was the worst thing to do to try and control and change things in a city.
The difference between a city and suburb is it's densities. The city has a high density and the suburbs a low density. Suburbs were homogenous which meant they had the same race and class living there which is obviously different today. The suburb has changed over time from homogenous to heterogenous. The suburbs have now become more diverse than cities. Jane Jacobs wanted to allow the city to grow as an ecosystem and after about the 1960's the New Urbanist's were very successful. To look up awesome info about New Urbanism click this link http://www.newurbanism.org/

They pushed for community planning rather than having specialists and professionals. Neighborhoods and small communities started becoming more important to people. Nieghborhoods started becoming the basis of America's social fabric and American's wanted and needed togetherness and relationships.
A huge factor in suburb life was the automobile. Most people didn't need to go or live in the city when they have an automobile and stores around them to shop with everything they need. Suburbs started to have restaurants, clothing stores, and eventually malls with a countless variety of stores. Automobiles alone helped erode the basis of forming relationships. By the year 1998 51% of people lived in suburbs and by today that percentage has probably risen.