The History and Development of Suburbs A Our property seems to me the most beautiful in the world. It is so close to Babylon that we enjoy all the advantages of the city, and yet when we come home we stay away from all the noise and dust. -- A letter from an early suburbanite ( 郊区居住者 ) to the king of Persia 539 BCE, written in cuneiform ( 楔形文字 ) on a clay tablet. B As people gain wealth around the world, they all usually tend to do the same thing: spread out. A common dream shared among people of all cultures is to have a piece of land to call their own. The suburbs are the place that many urban dwellers turn to because they offer the space needed to satisfy these dreams. What Are Suburbs? C Suburbs are the communities surrounding cities that are usually made up of single-family homes, but are increasingly including multifamily homes and places like malls and office buildings. Emerging in the 1850s as a result of a fast rising urban population and improving transportation technology, suburbs have remained a popular alternative to the city even today. As of 2000, about half the population of the United States lived in suburbs. D Suburbs are generally spread out over greater distances than other types of living environments. For instance, people may live in the suburb in order to avoid the density and untidiness of the city. Since people have to get around these vast stretches of land automobiles are common sights in suburbs. Transportation (including, to a limited extent, trains and buses) plays an important role in the life of a suburban resident who generally commutes to work. E People also like to decide for themselves how to live and what rules to live by. Suburbs offer them this independence. Local governance is common here in the form of community councils, forums, and elected officials. A good example of this is a Home Owners Association, a group common to many suburban neighborhoods that determines specific rules for the type, appearance, and size of homes in a community. F People living in the same suburb usually share similar backgrounds with regard to race, socioeconomic status, and age. Often, the houses that make up the area are similar in appearance, size, and blueprint, a layout design referred to as tract housing, or cookie-cutter housing. History of Suburbs G Though they appeared on the outskirts of many world cities in the early 1800s, it was only after the general implementation of electric railways in the late 1800s that suburbs began to grow extensively, especially in the United States. Such a relatively cheap and quick method of transportation made it practical to travel from home to work (in the inner city) on a daily basis. H Early examples of suburbs include areas created for lower class citizens outside of Rome, Italy during the 1920s, streetcar suburbs in Montreal, Canada created during the late 1800s, and the picturesque Llewellyn Park, New Jersey, created in 1853. I Henry Ford was also a big reason why suburbs caught on the way they did. His innovative ideas for making cars cut manufacturing costs, reducing the retail price for customers. Now that an average family could afford a car, more people could go to and from home and work every day. Additionally, the development of the Interstate Highway System further encouraged suburban growth. J The government was another player that encouraged movement out of the city. Federal legislation ( 联邦立法 ) made it cheaper for someone to construct a new home outside of the city than to improve upon a preexisting structure in the city. Loans and subsidies were also provided to those willing to move to new planned suburbs (usually wealthier white families). K In 1934 the United States Congress created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), an organization intended to provide programs to insure mortgages. Poverty struck everyone's life during the Great Depression (beginning in 1929) and organizations like the FHA helped to ease the burden and stimulate growth. L Rapid growth of suburbia characterized the post-World War II era for three chief reasons: � The economic boom following World War II � The need for housing returning veterans and baby boomers* relatively cheaply � Whites fleeing the desegregation ( 废除种族隔离 ) of urban cities brought on by the Civil Rights Movement (the "White Flight") Some of the first and most famous suburbs in the post-war era were the Levittown developments in the megalopolis ( 特大都市 ), New York. Current Trends M In the United States more jobs are now located in the suburbs than in central cities as a result of the movement of commercial and industrial parks from the inside to the outside of the city. Express highways are constantly being constructed to and from major hubs or edge cities, and it is on these roads where new suburbs are being developed. In other parts of the world suburbs do not enjoy the affluence ( 富裕 ) of their American counterparts. Due to extreme poverty, crime, and lack of infrastructure suburbs in developing parts of the world are characterized by higher density and lower standards of living. N One issue arising from suburban growth is the disorganized, reckless manner in which neighborhoods are built, called sprawl. Because of the desire for larger plots of land and the rural feel of the countryside, new developments are infringing ( 侵犯 ) upon more and more of the natural, uninhabited land. The unprecedented growth of population in the past century will continue to fuel the expansion of suburbs in the coming years. 900 words *Baby boomers. Baby boomers are defined as those born between 1945 and 1964. They had good economic opportunities and were largely optimistic about the potential for America and their own lives, the Vietnam War notwithstanding. Comprehension Exercise Each of the following statements contains information given in one of the sections of the passage above. Identify the section from which the information is derived. You may choose a section more than once. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter in the blank. _________ 1. The expansion of suburbs has far-reaching consequences, one of which is that green spaces are being drastically reduced. _________ 2. Life in the suburbs became feasible with the automobile, which provided mobility everywhere. _________ 3. The suburbs of cities in the developing countries are a far cry from the wealthy suburbs of American cities. _________ 4. There were three factors that led to suburban growth after the Second World War. _________ 5. A similarity in architectural style is a characteristic feature of suburban housing. _________ 6. The Federal Housing Administration facilitated cheap loans to stimulate a boom in suburban housing construction. _________ 7. Commuting to work on a daily basis, which was made possible by cheap local train services, helped promote the growth of suburbs. _________ 8. Preferential treatment with regard to financial assistance for those willing to move to the suburbs was biased towards well-to-do white families. _________ 9. The earliest form of suburbs can be traced back to a city that existed over two thousand years ago. _________ 10. Faced with growing black populations in cities, many white city dwellers moved to the suburbs.