Leigh Gallagher

The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream is Moving Leigh Gallagher Unabridged edition

[Read by Jessica Geffen]

A Fortune journalist examines why the suburbs are transforming and losing their appeal -- and why that's not a bad thing. -- For nearly seventy years, the suburbs were as American as apple pie. As the middle class ballooned and single-family homes and cars became more affordable, we flocked to pre-fabricated communities in the suburbs, a place where open air and solitude offered a retreat from our dense, polluted cities. Before long, success became synonymous with a private home in a bedroom community complete with a yard, a two-car garage, and a commute to the office, and subdivisions quickly blanketed our landscape. -- But in recent years things have started to change. An epic housing crisis revealed existing problems with this unique pattern of development, while the steady pull of long-simmering economic, societal, and demographic forces has culminated in a perfect storm that has led to a profound shift in the way we desire to live. -- Journalist Leigh Gallagher traces the rise and fall of American suburbia from the stately railroad suburbs that sprung up outside American cities in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to current-day sprawling exurbs where residents spend as much as four hours each day commuting. Along the way she shows why suburbia was unsustainable from the start and explores the hundreds of new, alternative communities that are springing up around the country and promise to reshape our way of life for the better. -- Blending powerful data with vivid on-the-ground reporting, Gallagher introduces us to a fascinating cast of characters and explains why understanding the shifts taking place is imperative to any discussion about the future of our housing landscape and of our society itself -- and why that future will bring us stronger, healthier, happier, and more diverse communities for everyone.