The American suburbs as we know them are dying
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Look no further than the suburbs to see how American ideals about success are transforming. People in the US suburbs are changing the way they shop, where they eat, and what they want in their homes. Malls are shutting down as e-commerce continues to take over, and the casual-dining chains that fed shoppers after a day of hoofing it through the mall are struggling to cope. Business Insider reporters from our consumer, transportation, news, graphics, video, and innovation teams have explored this idea in a series of stories. We're calling it the Death of Suburbia — because if the trends that they identified continue, the many suburbs as we know them will be forever changed. The line is blurring between city and suburbUrban and suburban areas are becoming less distinguishable as modern populations value convenience and location over size.  The line between city and suburb has already started to blur, Fadi Masoud, an urban planning professor at the University of Toronto who contributed to a forthcoming book called "Infinite Suburbia" told Business Insider's Leanna Garfield.  "Some people still attribute the oldest part of the city, which is predominantly pedestrian-friendly and more dense as ‘urban,’ and then everything else that starts going out further in distance from the core as 'suburban.' But that definition doesn’t work as well now," he tells Business Insider. "What you would usually define as urban and suburban is eroding." Urban planners across America are rethinking how suburbs are designed. Towns like New Rochelle, a suburb of New York City, are evolving to focus less on space and possession and more on walkability and environmental impact.  Companies are packing up and heading to the city"In the past several years, a handful of America's largest corporations have joined a mass exodus from their suburban headquarters to new home bases in the city, and millennials seem to be the driving force," writes Business Insider's Chris Weller.  Beginning in 2015, McDonald's, Kraft Heinz, and ConAgra Foods have all left the leafy suburbs of Chicago for office spaces downtown. In August, General Electric announced it was ditching Fairfield, Connecticut, for Boston. And several years ago, Swiss banking giant UBS returned to New York City after 15 years in Stamford, Connecticut. The reason? UBS realized much of its top talent lived 35 miles south, in Manhattan. The roads that connect suburbs to city are falling apartThe roads and bridges that connect America’s suburbs are in desperation need of repair.  The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gives the US a D grade for its roads and a C grade for its bridges. The US Department of Transportation estimates that almost $1 trillion is needed to improve the current Interstate and highway system in the US. "In suburbs, the big challenge is repairing the existing highway system," Christopher Leinberger, chair of the center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis at George Washington University, told Business Insider. "Ideally, there won’t be any news highway capacity built because we can't afford to maintain what we have." Golf courses are shutting downPlaying golf was once a celebrated pastime. But today, many of the country's golf courses are on the brink of shutting down or have closed already.  Over 800 golf courses have shuttered across the US in the past decade, and data from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association has shown that millennials between the ages of 18 to 30 have a lack of interest in playing the game. Casual dining is in crisisFor many years, suburban residents sought out the treat of going to casual dining chains.    But as more people choose to make their own food at home, the restaurant industry is in crisis.  The weakest link in the industry was casual dining, which was the bottom performer in all but two months of the year. The vast majority of these restaurants are in the suburbs.   Ruby Tuesday is in search of a new CEO and in the process of selling 95 restaurants amidst falling sales. Bloomin' Brands, the parent company of casual dining chains including Outback Steakhouse and Carrabba's Grill, announced plans in Febuary to close 43 locations after a "challenging" 2016. Buffalo Wild Wings — where same-store sales fell 2.4% in 2016 — is engaged in a power struggle with activist investor Marcato Capital.  The suburbs are becoming unrecognizableAmerica's neighborhoods are changing like never before. In this series, we will explore the cause of this phenomenon and the major shifts impacting the suburbs. We'll also show what things will be like in the future. To kick off the series, check out this exploration of what's happening to American malls and this photo essay of deserted golf courses. You can check out the whole series here.  |
작성일2017-03-07 07:22
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