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.