'Dead zone' threat to US suburban dream
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1838162,00.html
Petrol price rises may cause the housing bubble to burst, triggering
global recession and the fall of America's Eden, writes Paul Harris in
New York
Sunday August 6, 2006
The Observer
Levitown is a bus ride beyond the aptly named Hicksville in the outer
suburbs of New York. Its lawns are neat and its houses boxy. From many
gardens fly American flags and yellow ribbons: typical displays of
suburban patriotism.
It was here, almost 60 years ago, that modern American suburbia was
born. Work began on the town in 1947 and Long Island potato fields were
soon covered with a radical new form of housing: single, similar,
purpose-built houses designed for car-owners and aimed at families. At
the time it was a shock. Social scientists scoffed at Levittown. But
within decades the suburban experiment had come to define US life and
what began in Levittown now covers the country in urban sprawl, strip
malls and a way of life revolving around the car.
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