I grew up with the older pattern for what counted as a suburb, with downtowns and walkable services, with transit, and not too far from a big city center. That's the pattern people are trying to reinstate today.
But there were other aspects of my old pattern: I thought commuting to the city center was natural, and that people above a certain class did not work where they lived. I took for granted residential areas that had uniform populations divided by income and ethnicity and race. I didn't expect to find in the suburbs important cultural or medical facilities, or speciality shopping and ethnic restaurants, or glitter and excitement and themed places. I expected general social order within a fixed framework of civilized arguments and fierce sports rivalries. (As a child I didn't notice the tax fights, and the disputes about extending sewers and water lines to new developments.)
Then the agricultural land a bit further out Long Island from us began sprouting developments containing only housing. Levittown was not far away, and I remember wondering at its all-at-once newness and visual homogeneity. Such places didn't seem like real towns.
(c) David Kolb, 1 August 2001