The suburbs: where people mow, trim, and praise the minor Greek god known as the lawns. Other members of the suburban pantheon include picket fences, malls, and of course, the shed (which is to be awed at and never touched). It’s all been a part of the American Dream since the postwar boom of the 1950s, and nearly 75 years later it persists amid an escalating crisis of affordability for (and involving) the American home.
As is well-documented, the pandemic prompted more Americans to fall out of love with cities, with the ‘burbs enjoying the latest of their many revivals, Pew Research Center found. The move was already in progress before 2020, as Arizona State’s Christopher Boone wrote about the U.S. as “a nation of suburbs” for The Conversation in 2018, noting that suburban-dwellers outnumbered those who lived in the city and country. That same year, Fortune reported on a major shift in the urban revival of the 21st century, with suburbs emerging as “the hot new destination.”
