The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream Is Moving (24 page)

Courtesy of the Gallagher family

The author’s suburban experience: her family circa 1992 (
above
) and childhood home in Media, Pennsylvania (
next image
).

Courtesy of the Gallagher family

Ralph Nardell Photography

The author’s hometown, Media, has unique elements like a main street lined with boutiques, bars, and restaurants and a working trolley (
above
); a courthouse; and a restored 1927 theater (
next image
).

Courtesy of the Gallagher family

©Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection

The rise and fall of American suburbia has been mirrored in popular culture.
The Wonder Years
depicted idyllic suburban family life in the late 1960s.

Everett Collection

References later turned dark in the 1999 film
American Beauty
.

Michael Desmond/©Showtime/ Everett Collection

In 2005, Showtime debuted
Weeds
, which portrayed the life of a pot-dealing mother in the fictitious suburb of Agrestic, California.

©Leigh Gallagher

In the suburbs of Gaithersburg, Maryland, lies Kentlands, an anti-sprawl community built on principles like narrower streets, a smaller scale, and a mixture of home sizes and types.

©Srenco Photo 2008/Courtesy of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company

There are hundreds of New Urbanist communities across the country like Kentlands and New Town at St. Charles near St. Louis, Missouri; big commercial builders are now replicating their concepts.

©2010 Minnesota Historical Society

Anti-sprawl activists point to street design at the turn of the century as the ideal. Chuck Marohn, founder of StrongTowns.org, uses this picture of Brainerd, Minnesota, in 1905 in his TED talk to demonstrate a street “that rocks.”

©Michelle Wolfe Photography

Morristown, New Jersey, has given its downtown a dose of urban chic, adding penthouse loft apartments, boutiques, restaurants, and a walkable promenade.

Nancy McLinden/ Pink Olive Photography

In Libertyville, Illinois, John McLinden developed School Street, a neighborhood of twenty-six houses in dense arrangement just off the town’s Main Street. Many buyers are McMansion refugees who tired of the wasted space and relying on their car.