Barcelona Metropolis

The suburbanisation trend in the United States, a fixture since the conclusion of World War II, once more gained momentum amidst the COVID pandemic, causing a shift in the roles of cities and suburbs. Characteristics traditionally synonymous with urban environments, such as complexity and diversity, have migrated to the suburbs, resulting in their loss of uniformity and a continuous state of flux.

Based on past and current trends, it is likely that suburbanisation will remain the dominant form of urbanisation in the US. While current statistics claims that 55% of Americans live in suburbs, this number almost certainly undercounts the large number of inhabitants of suburb-like areas within metropolitan regions and in unincorporated rural areas.[1] If this is the case, what does the long history of attacks on suburbs in general, suburban housing, the process of suburbanisation and those who live in suburbs mean for the future? And, more importantly, how can we produce new and more productive understandings of the suburban phenomenon? Why do this? First, because the relentless attacks on suburbs have been remarkably unsuccessful in stopping the flow of Americans outward. As census data revealed, the recent Covid pandemic unleashed a dramatic exodus out of the largest cities, leaving them with a notable population decline. Moreover, those who left, usually for surrounding suburbs, were the residents with the highest salaries; that is, those who had the most choice of location.

This movement was only the latest episode of an increase in suburbanisation that has continuously taken place since the end of World War II. In recent decades, urban planners, espousing policies that favoured compact cities, attempted to control extensive growth, but residents continued to vote with their feet. Other indicators, such as the decrease in urban office construction since 2000, underline the diminishing economic importance of urban centres. Today, in many cities, while there has been a partial resurgence in population movement back into cities, the economic activities that were once concentrated in the Central Business District (CBD) continue to wane.[2]

These economic, social and spatial changes suggest that we need to reassess some of our most basic assumptions about the definitions of urban, suburban and rural areas. In many ways, these categories accept 19^th-century urban development as normative. This model was encapsulated by the Chicago School’s depiction of concentric circles, illustrating the city centre surrounded by concentric circles of decreasing density, representing urban, followed by suburban residential areas, set within the empty space of the rural hinterland. However, by the end of the 20^th century, such distinctions no longer described the American urban condition. Instead, on the east and west coasts, all types of settlements have merged into a megalopolis – a continuous zone of urban development. For example, BosWash, the coastal region that stretches from Maine to the Virginia border, contains a complicated mix of densely built-up areas, less dense areas, some farmland and protected wilderness. Similar conurbations exist in California, such as SoCal, stretching from the Mexican border to Santa Barbara.

The great inversion
In this complex spatial condition, what role do suburbs play? Many contemporary observers suggest that cities and suburbs have exchanged roles; characteristics typically associated with urban areas are now predominately found in suburbs. I have witnessed this happening as a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area. The Bay Area may not be completely representative, but its recent development aligns with national trends. In the 1950s, San Francisco was the primate city in the region, a position it had occupied since the Gold Rush of the mid-19^th century. Over the past 50 years, however, its urban economy has been dwarfed by the electronics and computer revolutions taking place in the suburbs to the south. In Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View and other suburban towns that became known as “Silicon Valley”, continuous innovation produced the most dynamic high-technology district in the world. Legal firms, venture capitalists and banks followed, populating a low-density landscape of office parks, shopping centres and suburban tracts. The emergence of Silicon Valley as a global economic force made it clear that dense high-rise business districts were no longer a prerequisite for economic success. In fact, the headquarters of four out of the five American firms worth over a trillion dollars are located in suburbs.[3]

Suburban job centres also transformed consumption patterns, attracting a wide variety of amenities, including hotels, spas and dining services. Interestingly, there are now more Michelin three-star restaurants on the periphery than in the centre of San Francisco.[4] San Francisco’s recent retail collapse, as malls, department and specialty stores fled the downtown shopping district, is only the dramatic culmination of a decades-long decline.[5] In contrast, upscale suburban shopping malls in the region are thriving, revealing that the widely touted “death of the mall” only applies to poorer areas. At popular malls like the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto or Santa Clara’s Westfield Valley Fair, you can shop at Gucci or Hermès or visit the only Bay Area outlets of popular chains like Eataly or Din Tai Fung. At Santana Row in Santa Clara or Bay Street in Emeryville, you can even live an “urban” lifestyle in an apartment above the mall.

Similarly, San Francisco, like many American cities, was once a famously diverse place, a melting pot that attracted immigrants from around the country and world. Its varied neighbourhoods accommodated both rich and poor, including many ethnic minorities. In contrast, the suburban areas to its north, south and east were primarily white. However, by 2020, it was clear that the situation had reversed. The classic image of the post-World War II American metropolis – diverse cities surrounded by white suburbs – has been inverted. The black population of San Francisco, which was 13% fifty years ago, now hovers at 5%, the result of “black flight” to distant Contra Costa County suburbs.

New immigrants increasingly chose to move directly to the suburbs, avoiding crowded Chinatowns and ethnic enclaves. The most diverse place in the Bay Area is the suburban town of Fremont, home to 134 different nationalities, including the largest Afghan community outside of Afghanistan. Diversity continues to spread outwards; the most recent ethnic cluster is in the Tri-Valley area, 40 miles from San Francisco. Nearby corporate employment has drawn the highest concentration of Indian-Americans in the nation. As suburbs diversified, new residents brought their cultures with them. A wide range of ethnic restaurants, supermarkets, places of worship and holidays became features of suburban life. The Asian supermarket chain, 99 Ranch, started by a Taiwanese immigrant, is now a suburban staple all over California. Not only immigrants but also members of cultural and sexual subcultures, who once found refuge in urban neighbourhoods, are now opting for suburbs. A recent newscast featured a gay senior couple who rejected the iconic SF “gayborhood” of the Castro district in favour of the Rossmore retirement community in the suburban Walnut Creek, finding it more tolerant and welcoming.[6]