Best places to live. How life in Western suburbia is changing

Western suburbs are becoming more like big cities, and because of it, suburban living is growing richer and more sophisticated.

Sunset has chronicled the Western suburban lifestyle for more than three-quarters of a century now, watching trends come and go. We’re not oblivious to the criticisms of suburbs — that they’ve promoted urban sprawl and increased traffic, that they’re architecturally uninspired and culturally homogenized — but we’ve always maintained that suburban life is essentially the good life. And most people agree: They’ve voted with their wheels. Since 1950, more than 90 percent of all growth in U.S. metropolitan areas has happened in the burbs.

by Lawrence W. Cheek

Full Story: http://www.sunset.com/sunset/home/article/0,20633,1145592,00.html

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(Many thanks to Layne Sylverster and the [email protected] Economic Gardening Group for bringing these stories to our attention. Russ)

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