ABSTRACT
Scholars and practitioners have increasingly paid attention to the changing nature of American suburbs, with an emphasis on the decline of the nation’s older suburbs located near central cities. Commonly know as “first-tier” or “inner-ring” suburbs, these communities were once the icons of the American Dream. 1 After World War II, they allowed returning veterans to escape overcrowded central cities and to purchase a spacious home with a garage and yard. Scores of city residents became suburbanites in just one generation. From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, this period became known as the Great American Century as mass suburbanization gave way to the creation of the nation’s large middle class. Yet, this prosperity was short lived. What followed were a series of social and economic transformations that changed the character and quality of life in first-tier suburbs. The last three decades of the twentieth century brought massive deindustrialization, coupled with an aging population, an obsolete housing stock, and a more diverse population. Furthermore, unfettered growth of metropolitan areas and decentralization of people and jobs meant the suburbs were no longer places of destination by 2000. These suburbs—like so many others—had reached a crossroads by the beginning of the twenty-first century. The fate of these first-tier suburbs rested in government’s ability to confront suburban decline and reengineer communities to again be places for people to live, work, and play.
