ABSTRACT
The primacy of the school is symbolic. Along with the church, the bridge club and the family circle itself, the school is a major center of social activity. As Lewis Mumford has pointed out American suburbs are turning more and more away from metropolitan centers for their social interests. Allen Park is hardly conscious of the museums, theatres, concerts and general intellectual stimulus offered by Detroit. A photographic survey of Allen Park shows that the suburban dream has become a nightmare. Like most other suburban communities in Detroit area, Allen Park has two severe economic problems. They are: insufficient parking area to accommodate invasion of automobile, and a rising public demand for city services accompanied by an unwillingness to pay for these services through personal taxation. At present, Allen Park has an excellent array of city services, but because of unwillingness of its citizens to pay for them, it has been forced to allocate portion of its land to industry.
