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February 21, 2008 at 23:16:51

The Fifth Migration: Techno-man's eviction from the suburbs and the new land battle

by M. Davis (Posted by M. Davis)     Page 1 of 2 page(s)

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Techno-man’s march across the face of Planet Earth has left a series of dangerous, non-sustainable “footprints.” Our buildings and cities are so massive, that many are creating their own mini-weather systems. Others are actually moving the earth’s crust and forcing it to conform with their monstrous weight. 

We have put dense populations in deserts, severely compromising aquifers. Our addiction to urban sprawl continues to devour trees, consume metals and stone, turning mountains into blasted ruins, leaving holes in the earth so deep, that they are visible from outer space. 

Despite all of the naysaying about global warming, one thing is certain: we have a finite amount of land, and an even smaller amount of land capable of sustaining agriculture. Our addiction to urban sprawl is consuming farm fields, forests and prairie at unheard of rates, even worse—because of the credit crunch and mortgage catastrophe, many of these formerly productive fields are now home to half-finished, abandoned real estate developments, never to produce another crop in our lifetimes. 

The era of cheap energy as we have known it is over. This means that we can no longer sustain the long commutes and urban sprawl, which have become legendary. We are slowly being herded back to the cities, as ex-urban living becomes unsustainable, with fuel prices making commutes too expensive to be worthwhile. 

According to several studies, the nation’s suburbs are graying at a greater rate than our cities. Researchers say, “America’s suburbs, historically a haven for young families with children, are aging more rapidly than the nation’s central cities as the first suburban generation grows older.” (New York Times, 6-12-07-“Suburbs Are Graying Faster Than Big Cities”) 

Young families, working families, no longer see the suburbs as an affordable lifestyle. With gasoline prices rising to historic ceilings, most young workers can no longer sustain the long, expensive commutes from home to work AND pay a backbreaking mortgage on top of school loans. 

The new demographics of aging present unique opportunities and challenges, both for the elderly and for their neighbors. While New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco and Chicago, among others, may appeal to aging suburbanites, smaller cities and metropolitan areas are also marketing themselves as magnets for urban professionals ages 65 to 74, or “suppies,” many of whom are still working and who tend to be healthier and wealthier than other older people. (Ibid)

If current trends hold, suburbs and exurbs will become havens for the elderly, who no longer have to endure and fund expensive daily commutes to work, while the nation’s urban areas will continue attracting young and middle-aged families. One researcher calls the new trend “the Fifth Migration.”

In the 1920s, Mumford argued that after experiencing an initial “first migration” (settlement of the continent) and subsequent “second” (from rural farms to factory towns) and “third migrations” (movement to the central city), the United States would undergo a “fourth migration” of what we now obviously identify as decentralization to the suburbs.

Eighty years later, Fishman contends that we are witnessing the beginning of a “fifth migration,” where suburbanization “is now finally ebbing” and inner cities are being reinvigorated (358). Cities are reurbanizing, according to Fishman, as “density, concentration, and what Mumford termed ‘disciplined cooperation and municipal coordination’” are rediscovered by citizens (361). (Rocco Pendola, A Review of Fishman’s “Fifth Migration”)

American cities and suburbs have a great deal in common with their Australian counterparts when it comes to food security. We simply have not viewed cities as part of the food security equation. Food is grown elsewhere, then trucked in at great expense and the idea of sustainable urban agriculture is a foreign concept to most Americans and Australians alike.Food security based on gardening:

Food security through retention of horticultural production within and close to cities, has barely been on the agenda, while home gardening is largely ignored as irrelevant to the sustainability debate. (Retrofitting the suburbs for sustainability, David Holmgren)And, like many suburbs in the United States, Holmgren says Australian suburbs and sprawl create unsustainable, dysfunctional economies. These problems will only increase as the credit crunch chews up neighborhoods and turns entire subdivisions and city blocks into foreclosure-generated ghost towns.

Along with “sprawl” has developed an increasingly dysfunctional economic situation. We see speculative inflation of land values, capital invested unproductively, declining household (non-monetary) production of food and “backyard industry”, and a massive rise of consumer addiction based on rising household debt. (Ibid)

High fuel prices, unsustainable commutes and higher consumer goods prices will drive many younger families and professionals back to the nation’s cities. However, the new equation is not likely to continue the same urban lifestyle and demographic patters that we see today.

Sustainability, urban gardening, food security based on home grown food, and a less petroleum driven lifestyle will continue to reshape the face of the nation’s cities. Higher prices, static incomes and economic insecurity will restructure the way we buy homes, whether we buy homes, condos or share living space, and how and where we purchase food.

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6 comments

Nobody special.
WatchingNobody special.

Completely wrong

If what you are saying is true, then NOBODY will be living in the suburbs, young or old. Property taxes are rising so fast that retired people won't be able to afford to keep their suburban homes even without a mortgage hanging over them. Big business finding ways to weasel the retired out of their pensions with the help of government is also a contributing factor. here is also a conspiracy afoot to outsource nearly every decent paying job in this country. There are lawyers hard at work in this country advising businesses how to cheat immigration rules and bring foreign workers into this country to do the white collar jobs for less money, those jobs that aren't outsourced, that is. The blur collar manufacturing jobs were outsourced, the farm jobs go to the illegal immigrants, and now the white collar jobs are being outsourced or filled by foreigners. Getting a college degree or learning a trade in this country means nothing if you are an American. You won't get the job, not because you can't do it, but simply because you were born here.

by Watching (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 314 comments) on Friday, February 22, 2008 at 2:02:57 AM
 


Nobody special.
WatchingNobody special.

Another issue you failed to address

What happens to the poor who were herded into the cities when the middle and upper classes left? Where will they go? When the demand for urban real estate rises, so will prices and taxes. Rent control laws will have to be struck down so the cities can take full advantage of the increased values. Landlords won't rent apartments that are already below market rate for the same price when land values skyrocket. Governments won't be able to collect the property taxes they need unless the landlords are allowed to collect market rents because the money simply won't be there. It would be more profitable for the landlords to knock down the buildings and replace them with parking structures. We are already seeing this happen in the rebuilding of New Orleans and the demolition of high density housing projects across the country. In Chicago alone thousands of rent controlled units have been lost in recent years and replaced by upscale developments. Not all the poor who were there before will be relocated. Many of them are being forced out. Homelessness, illness, starvation and death are going to rise if the suburbs collapse and the poor are forced out of urban areas.

by Watching (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 314 comments) on Friday, February 22, 2008 at 2:15:22 AM
 


Barbara H. Peterson is retired from the California Department of Corrections, where she worked as a Correctional Officer at Folsom Prison. She was one of the first females to work at the facility in this classification. After retirement, she went to college online to obtain a Bachelor's degree in Business, and graduated with honors.

The most valuable thing she received from her time with UOP was a realization that her life's passion is writing. Now her business degree sits in her d...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Barbara PetersonBarbara H. Peterson is retired from the California Department of Corrections, where she worked as a Correctional Officer at Folsom Prison. She was one of the first females to work at the facility in this classification. After retirement, she went to college online to obtain a Bachelor's degree in Business, and graduated with honors.

The most valuable thing she received from her time with UOP was a realization that her life's passion is writing. Now her business degree sits in her d...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Interesting viewpoint

This is a very interesting viewpoint. I live in a very rural area, approx. 50 miles from the largest town. The payscale for people in town is low unless you happen to be a medical professional working at the largest employer in town, Merle West Medical Center. I can attest to the fact that commuting to town and back, 100 miles per day, is not cost-effective for someone making $8.00 per hour. Here is the math:

40 hours per week X $8.00 per hour = $320.00 per week

Taxes and other withholding @ approximately 20% leaves $256.00

Gas @ $3.10 per gal., with a 20 mpg car = $77.50 per week for 5 days, which leaves us with $242.50 left per week

Now, subtract maintenance such as oil changes, tires, etc., prorated out at about $10.00 per week, leaves $232.50 per week left to live on. That is approximately $930 per month.

It takes two incomes to make it now, and when gas goes up, the pinch will be even greater.

by Barbara Peterson (46 articles, 80 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 416 comments) on Friday, February 22, 2008 at 10:51:16 AM
 


I am a simple man of eclectic interests and tastes with no particular academic credentials. I still perceive, think, read and write somewhat. Writing music is a hobby of mine

banned for abusive email to an editor

"Hoss" David P.I am a simple man of eclectic interests and tastes with no particular academic credentials. I still perceive, think, read and write somewhat. Writing music is a hobby of mine

banned for abusive email to an editor

Monetarist Policy & Speculators

I agree with all that you see on the American lanscape. You need only look around while going somewhereto see all the empty houses and of course the price of Gas. I just disagree on the causes.

I lay most of the blame, no, all the blame, on excesses in speculation and the monetarist policy that enables speculation. Here's where the true causes of real estate displacement and escalating transportation costs lie.

It's being done to us deliberately.  For what ever reason or agenda, speculators who produce nothing and do nothing but speculate have been given free reign and free inflation producing, fiat debt created dollars to do it with.

by "Hoss" David P. (51 articles, 5 quicklinks, 14 diaries, 339 comments) on Friday, February 22, 2008 at 11:34:46 AM
 


Wanna be member of the anti-word police, author, columnist, activist and muckraker extraordinaire. Author of:Land, Legacy and Lynching: Building the Future for Black AmericaUrban Asylum: Politics, Lunatics and the Refrigerator Woman Contributing editor: (works in progress)Red, Black, Brown & Green: Ethnic People and the Move to Economic Self-Suficiency Screaming Doors (novel) Screaming Doors
M. DavisWanna be member of the anti-word police, author, columnist, activist and muckraker extraordinaire. Author of:Land, Legacy and Lynching: Building the Future for Black AmericaUrban Asylum: Politics, Lunatics and the Refrigerator Woman Contributing editor: (works in progress)Red, Black, Brown & Green: Ethnic People and the Move to Economic Self-Suficiency Screaming Doors (novel) Screaming Doors

The Fifth Migration and the battle for city property

In the Fifth Migration, the battle over urban real estate, the transformation of entire cities and neighborhoods, the restructuring the the nation's food chain and economy will prove to be just as world shaking as the "European Discovery" of the "New World."

As stated above, I see a coming battle, with urban real estate increasingly becoming more valuable, and those who have the money to fight for it providing an increased presence for urban soldier/bodyguards--ala what happened to the Gated Communities in New Orleans, with a  little help from Halliburton, et al.

Gentrification will solidify its presence with the assistance of private security personnel.  

 

by M. Davis (39 articles, 2 quicklinks, 13 diaries, 137 comments) on Friday, February 22, 2008 at 2:01:42 PM
 

 

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