> This was only made possible by enormous federal subsidies for returning soldiers and huge investments in public infrastructure by the federal government.
> People ... couldn’t imagine returning to the city which continued to decline.
I begin to wonder whether the demise of the city was really caused by the government subsidies of the suburban lifestyle. It's not that Levittown isn't sustainable anymore, it's that it never was, not on a long term scale. Low density living should be expensive because it is expensive. The government chose to invest in suburbs instead of the city. The city rotted without investment, exacerbating the problem.
It's only the last couple decades as governments tightened their coffers that the suburbs have had to carry their own load- and they can't.
I think demise of cities was due to being starved for capital, redlining, automobiles, and crime due to lead pollution.
Post war capital was invested in suburbs instead of urban cores which then decayed.
Redlining also meant urban areas inhabited by minorities were cut off from capital. Not only couldn't minorities get loans, but even their often white landlords couldn't.
Automobiles allowed workers to locate their families in cheap suburbs while sucking at the corporate teat in Urban Cities. At least until too many people spoiled a good thing as auto congestion built up.
Leaded gasoline caused brain damage which effected dense urban areas the most, resulting in high crime rates.
The last 40 years has seen a reversal of that at least for some urban cities. Capital is being invested in cities. Hard redlining is gone. Replaced by jacking minorities with exploitative loan products. Suburban congestion has made suburbs much less attractive. The decline of lead pollution means urban cities are again 'safe'.
Maybe it makes more sense to say losing population brings about viability issues. If people for whatever reason started to leave Oakland, I’m sure it would implode as much as a Vallejo would if they suddenly had an exodus.
Low density, low-rise areas also offer much higher survivability in a case of nuclear bombing. Thankfully, not a pressing concern at the moment, but 1950s were a different world.
There certainly appears to be some sort of sub-urbanity trap. Low density living isn't necessarily more expensive than living in a high density area, but that relies on certain economic modes that do not include much infrastructure. But those economic modes are not the ones that fit the needs of a modern office worker. Modern suburban living requires roads, water, electrical, police, and other services, where the cost tends to scale with area. When the tax base doesn't experience growth, the required services must funded through something like ballooning debt, which quickly leads to insolvency, or be curtailed. Both of which seem to form a feedback cycle.
> I begin to wonder whether the demise of the city was really caused by the government subsidies of the suburban lifestyle.
To be frank, I think nothing has been as destructive as zoning. Here in Hamilton, Ontario, I'm in a single-family zoned area, and the two closest consumer businesses are a brewery (with outlet), about 200m away, and a couple convenience stores, 600m away. The brewery is only there because of a specific zoning bylaw. Most everything else is more than 1.2km away or farther.
I live in Bowie, Maryland, a Levittown suburb of Washington, DC. (We pronounce it BOO-ee, by the way, something Alexa doesn't seem to know.) Unlike the original Levittown, Bowie is doing well. I don't live in a Levitt home, but I did look at quite a few of them when I moved back to the DC area in 1998. I passed on them because I wanted a basement and Levitt houses don't usually have basements, due to the cost. It was interesting to see all the ways in which previous owners had enhanced and renovated these homes. The Smithsonian is having trouble finding one that hasn't been extensively modified. (I ended up in a townhouse, with no mad-science basement, alas, but at least I don't have a large yard to keep up.) When Bowie was built (1964) there was no doubt systematic discrimination against minorities but, interestingly, Prince Georges County is now one of the wealthiest African American-majority counties in the US.
I grew up in Bowie and was in elementary school at the time mandatory busing in PG County. It was a nice place to grow up - clean, safe, basically white collar stereotypical suburb in the positive sense.
The economic failings of these Boomer towns reminds me of this article in Citylab, about how cities pay for current infrastructure by selling more land for development. It's an unsustainable pyramid scheme.
Overall, these articles are an interesting insight into the hidden financials of urban development. And, sadly, the failings of those financial schemes.
Interesting, but I don't get a lot of the author's arguments.
> And there it is. The dreaded wig shop. Flagship of retail desperation and harbinger of doom. Next stop, evangelical day care centers and government offices to fill the void.
What's wrong with any of those businesses? Wig shops seem popular in a lot of places, especially with black women. People willing to spend on beauty are usually a good draw for a mall. Day cares bring in predictable revenue per kid. I've been to mall DMVs and gone shopping afterward.
> The buses only exist because the federal government mandates them as a condition of continued highway funding. It’s pointless.
What's pointless? The photos show people waiting at the bus stop, so clearly it's useful to someone.
Google tells me there aren't a lot of wig stores, so customers will usually seek out stores - meaning they can often be put in low-traffic low-rent areas.
Typically pieces about the Levittowns (there were many such towns) contain at least a cursory acknowledgement of the racism and redlining that surrounded the sales of these homes. A generation of non-minority boomers were able to take advantage of, and build wealth from government subsidies.
> This was only made possible by enormous federal subsidies for returning soldiers and huge investments in public infrastructure by the federal government. ...
Today's government subsidies are creating artificial booms of their own. Credit, higher education, housing. The busts, like the one described in this article, should come as a surprise to nobody, but they will. Mixed in with that surprise may be an interest in finding a scapegoat - and a leader willing to deliver it.
Population booms and recessions make me wonder how my current town will survive after the influx of new residents. I grew up not too far from Levittown, PA, and now live in Lakewood, CO.
Population here has been exploding and new housing has been on the rise for the past five years. There is currently a ballot to slow new housing projects to 1% growth per year. On one hand, I wonder if it’s just artificial restriction of supply to help property values. On the other hand, I do see reason to limit growth to provide the infrastructure needed as growth continues. I’m not sure how to feel about it. Does anyone have any insight into whether artificial housing restrictions could benefit a municipality in the long term?
The houses that I've seen in Levittown and the nearby towns don't seem particularly empty - is the residential market dying as well or is it actually just the commercial properties?
Hicksville, for one, seems to be livelier than ever and full of South Asian families and businesses that have given it a new life (although it looks slightly lower-class than I remember).
there is a Levittown on Long Island, New York and its doing just fine economically even though you can tell that the children of the boomers who enjoyed the previous decades aren't so comfortable. Most youth still lives with their parents and drives shit cars.
Levittown, NY is a pretty interesting place. It was designed for your typical 1950s family with a single car. Nowadays, most people have two cars so you see a ton of cars parked in the street. Also, it's outrageously expensive to buy on Long Island.
You also have way more people living at home into their 20s and 30s, so you get 4-5 cars per house. When cops and prison guards are making $200,000 a year someone has to pay for it.
And yet we get constantly told that there’s no space for homes and that it’s too expensive to live anywhere. There are plenty of opportunities out there but when everyone wants to live in only the most desirable areas it creates local shortages.
Do those Levitt houses have the same cachet as Eichler houses do in the Bay Area? They were both post war answers to demand for quick cookie cutter houses that people would like to live in.
Seems Eichler took cues from Lloyd-Wright and hired disciples, so the architecture looks nicer (although his didn’t have to contend with more continental climates), but from a usability and livability PoV, wonder if they deliver equally when it comes to providing a “home “
>This was only made possible by enormous federal subsidies for returning soldiers
White soldiers, both via black soldiers being excluded from the GI Bill, and Levittown's own restrictive whites-only covenant. These racist limitations greatly reduced the necessary subsidies.
this isn't my domain of expertise, but the wikipedia article on the subject notes discrimination in housing loans after the war but does not seem to indicate that blacks were actually excluded from the GI bill
From December 1942 until VJ-day there were relatively few enlistments into the armed forces as restrictions against the direct recruiting of men in the age group acceptable for service (18-37) were in effect. There were, however, 483,605 other enlistments into the Army and Navy during the period July 1, 1944, to June 30, 1945, but only 1.3 percent were African Americans. Although African Americans constitute approximately 11 percent of the population, aged 18 through 37, only 0.8 percent of Army enlistees and 1.4 percent of Navy enlistees during the period July 1, 1944, to June 30, 1945, were of that race.
So, sounds like the white part doesn't matter too much? Yes it was terrible that they were excluded from the GI bill, but only a very small fraction of soldiers in ww2 were black. It was very unlikely they would have made a difference in the outcome of such suburbs.
Maybe not relevant to the piece but something not mentioned is that not only would the builders of Levittown only sell to whites but home buyers had to sign a contract not to sell their house to any poc
Levittown, NY is a pretty interesting place. It was designed for your typical 1950s family with a single car. Nowadays, most people have two cars so you see a ton of cars parked in the street.
I grew up 15 minutes from Levittown, PA. I even had to do an undergrad research project on it. The development is boring and pointless but packed with lower middle class families. A place where there's only a driveway for one or two cars but there's always 3 or 4 per house and parked all in the street. The houses themselves are all full. The area just west and north of Levittown is actually one of the oldest rich suburbs in America containing Newtown, PA and Washington's Crossing with estates from the 16th century and acres of land.
Oxford Valley Mall is far from dead. The food court is always pretty lively on Fridays and Saturdays. The Forever 21 next to the food court is constantly packed with teenagers. I literally went there not long ago with my girlfriend and we had to stand in line at the register. Not exactly dead.
The guy just went on a random Tuesday instead of a Saturday. Of course it's going to be dead. The parking lot also has a really good theater seating style movie theater. Both Oxford Valley Mall and Neshaminy Mall are on Route 1 going north out of Philadelphia and also have I-95 going by. Also the Mall has Sesame Street Theme Park right outside it's parking lot and across the street is a whole other plaza containing a Best Buy, A Home Depot, a Lowes, and a bunch of other stuff. Honestly the only reason the mall can't keep full is cause of all the competitions nearby. The area itself is actually super nice just to the west of the mall with lots of properties rising in value.
I used to run a Gaming LAN Center in 2005 in Neshaminy Mall. The area is served by FIOS and Comcast.
As to why buses come to the mall? Really? Old people like to walk around during the day in the mall just for fun. People also use the bus to get to and from work. Most of the routes are going to and from Philly with a few connecting the various regional rail stations. Growing up we all wished there was just one bus from the center of Newtown to the mall so we wouldn't have to ask our parents to take us.
If you actually stay just around Levittown there's a lot of old crap from the 60s in a clearly abandoned and/or ruined state but that's not really indicative of the area.
Off topic: by the way, this your comment (and some earlier ones) are showing up as dead. I vouched for this one to unhide it, but you may want to email the mods to see why your account is flagged.
As someone from this area (I used to work at the Chick Fil A by the mall!), I agree with some of your points, but not all of them.
Levittown is very close to a bunch of wealthy Philly suburbs, but it, itself is not wealthy. The main "strip" no longer exists, taken over by the shopping plazas nearby and the mall, but never really replaced. It's also surrounded by Rt 1 and I95, making it rather difficult, if not impossible to walk around anywhere.
I most disagree with your statements about the mall. It's usually about as empty as the pictures show. Way back when Boscovs left, that was pretty much the end. Sears and JCPenny left more recently but after they did, so did the rest of the mall. Now it's hardly as busy or useful as it used to be. Macys will probably leave too, someday.
I remember that gaming center! The Oxford Valley Mall has definitely lost some luster since the 90s, but yeah, these photos are painting a bleaker picture than reality.
This is a good point, and one not well-explained in the article. I agree, what's the big deal? The Columbia Mall in Howard County, MD (the 3rd wealthiest county in the US) has the Mall as a primary stop for many buses. What does a bus coming to the mall have anything to do with the quality of a neighborhood?
[+] [-] mabbo|6 years ago|reply
> People ... couldn’t imagine returning to the city which continued to decline.
I begin to wonder whether the demise of the city was really caused by the government subsidies of the suburban lifestyle. It's not that Levittown isn't sustainable anymore, it's that it never was, not on a long term scale. Low density living should be expensive because it is expensive. The government chose to invest in suburbs instead of the city. The city rotted without investment, exacerbating the problem.
It's only the last couple decades as governments tightened their coffers that the suburbs have had to carry their own load- and they can't.
[+] [-] burlesona|6 years ago|reply
I think this is a key point, really well expanded upon here: https://www.strongtowns.org/the-growth-ponzi-scheme
[+] [-] Gibbon1|6 years ago|reply
Post war capital was invested in suburbs instead of urban cores which then decayed.
Redlining also meant urban areas inhabited by minorities were cut off from capital. Not only couldn't minorities get loans, but even their often white landlords couldn't.
Automobiles allowed workers to locate their families in cheap suburbs while sucking at the corporate teat in Urban Cities. At least until too many people spoiled a good thing as auto congestion built up.
Leaded gasoline caused brain damage which effected dense urban areas the most, resulting in high crime rates.
The last 40 years has seen a reversal of that at least for some urban cities. Capital is being invested in cities. Hard redlining is gone. Replaced by jacking minorities with exploitative loan products. Suburban congestion has made suburbs much less attractive. The decline of lead pollution means urban cities are again 'safe'.
[+] [-] mc32|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] golergka|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] larl|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] microcolonel|6 years ago|reply
To be frank, I think nothing has been as destructive as zoning. Here in Hamilton, Ontario, I'm in a single-family zoned area, and the two closest consumer businesses are a brewery (with outlet), about 200m away, and a couple convenience stores, 600m away. The brewery is only there because of a specific zoning bylaw. Most everything else is more than 1.2km away or farther.
[+] [-] guelo|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rootbear|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ejcx|6 years ago|reply
Everywhere else in the country is really different. DC didn't even experience the 2008 great recession
[+] [-] foobiekr|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AceJohnny2|6 years ago|reply
https://www.citylab.com/life/2011/10/suburban-sprawl-ponzi-s...
Overall, these articles are an interesting insight into the hidden financials of urban development. And, sadly, the failings of those financial schemes.
[+] [-] smelendez|6 years ago|reply
> And there it is. The dreaded wig shop. Flagship of retail desperation and harbinger of doom. Next stop, evangelical day care centers and government offices to fill the void.
What's wrong with any of those businesses? Wig shops seem popular in a lot of places, especially with black women. People willing to spend on beauty are usually a good draw for a mall. Day cares bring in predictable revenue per kid. I've been to mall DMVs and gone shopping afterward.
> The buses only exist because the federal government mandates them as a condition of continued highway funding. It’s pointless.
What's pointless? The photos show people waiting at the bus stop, so clearly it's useful to someone.
[+] [-] michaelt|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spennant|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ryjm|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Broken_Hippo|6 years ago|reply
It surely makes me wonder about many of the claims in the piece.
[+] [-] googlemike|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] apo|6 years ago|reply
Today's government subsidies are creating artificial booms of their own. Credit, higher education, housing. The busts, like the one described in this article, should come as a surprise to nobody, but they will. Mixed in with that surprise may be an interest in finding a scapegoat - and a leader willing to deliver it.
[+] [-] milkytron|6 years ago|reply
Population here has been exploding and new housing has been on the rise for the past five years. There is currently a ballot to slow new housing projects to 1% growth per year. On one hand, I wonder if it’s just artificial restriction of supply to help property values. On the other hand, I do see reason to limit growth to provide the infrastructure needed as growth continues. I’m not sure how to feel about it. Does anyone have any insight into whether artificial housing restrictions could benefit a municipality in the long term?
[+] [-] RobertoG|6 years ago|reply
I think you can't answer that question without defining what is the intended outcome: what it's a 'benefit'?.
If you define the optimal result, in a tautological way, as "whatever the market decide", then, by definition, any restriction is going to be bad.
Otherwise, you need to decide what do you want to accomplish (by 'you' I mean the residents of the area) and choose a policy that makes sense.
[+] [-] kissickas|6 years ago|reply
Hicksville, for one, seems to be livelier than ever and full of South Asian families and businesses that have given it a new life (although it looks slightly lower-class than I remember).
[+] [-] YeahSureWhyNot|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spennant|6 years ago|reply
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levittown#Places
[+] [-] ghaff|6 years ago|reply
I'd have to see data to convince me that an abnormal number of post-college children were still living at home.
[+] [-] jdlyga|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] StanislavPetrov|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eanzenberg|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mc32|6 years ago|reply
Seems Eichler took cues from Lloyd-Wright and hired disciples, so the architecture looks nicer (although his didn’t have to contend with more continental climates), but from a usability and livability PoV, wonder if they deliver equally when it comes to providing a “home “
[+] [-] rhizome|6 years ago|reply
White soldiers, both via black soldiers being excluded from the GI Bill, and Levittown's own restrictive whites-only covenant. These racist limitations greatly reduced the necessary subsidies.
[+] [-] nyolfen|6 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans_and_the_G.I....
[+] [-] freddie_mercury|6 years ago|reply
white male soldiers
Women soldiers were also excluded from the GI Bill.
[+] [-] spennant|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] googlemike|6 years ago|reply
From December 1942 until VJ-day there were relatively few enlistments into the armed forces as restrictions against the direct recruiting of men in the age group acceptable for service (18-37) were in effect. There were, however, 483,605 other enlistments into the Army and Navy during the period July 1, 1944, to June 30, 1945, but only 1.3 percent were African Americans. Although African Americans constitute approximately 11 percent of the population, aged 18 through 37, only 0.8 percent of Army enlistees and 1.4 percent of Navy enlistees during the period July 1, 1944, to June 30, 1945, were of that race.
So, sounds like the white part doesn't matter too much? Yes it was terrible that they were excluded from the GI bill, but only a very small fraction of soldiers in ww2 were black. It was very unlikely they would have made a difference in the outcome of such suburbs.
[+] [-] ryjm|6 years ago|reply
https://www.curbed.com/2019/6/13/18662753/nice-try-podcast-l...
[+] [-] ethnt|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unnamed76ri|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] philjohn|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jdlyga|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0x54D5|6 years ago|reply
Oxford Valley Mall is far from dead. The food court is always pretty lively on Fridays and Saturdays. The Forever 21 next to the food court is constantly packed with teenagers. I literally went there not long ago with my girlfriend and we had to stand in line at the register. Not exactly dead.
The guy just went on a random Tuesday instead of a Saturday. Of course it's going to be dead. The parking lot also has a really good theater seating style movie theater. Both Oxford Valley Mall and Neshaminy Mall are on Route 1 going north out of Philadelphia and also have I-95 going by. Also the Mall has Sesame Street Theme Park right outside it's parking lot and across the street is a whole other plaza containing a Best Buy, A Home Depot, a Lowes, and a bunch of other stuff. Honestly the only reason the mall can't keep full is cause of all the competitions nearby. The area itself is actually super nice just to the west of the mall with lots of properties rising in value.
I used to run a Gaming LAN Center in 2005 in Neshaminy Mall. The area is served by FIOS and Comcast.
As to why buses come to the mall? Really? Old people like to walk around during the day in the mall just for fun. People also use the bus to get to and from work. Most of the routes are going to and from Philly with a few connecting the various regional rail stations. Growing up we all wished there was just one bus from the center of Newtown to the mall so we wouldn't have to ask our parents to take us.
If you actually stay just around Levittown there's a lot of old crap from the 60s in a clearly abandoned and/or ruined state but that's not really indicative of the area.
[+] [-] aeontech|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vips7L|6 years ago|reply
While Levittown does have its problems (see the Fairless Hills overdose sign), its no where near as bad as this article makes it seem.
[+] [-] residentraspber|6 years ago|reply
Levittown is very close to a bunch of wealthy Philly suburbs, but it, itself is not wealthy. The main "strip" no longer exists, taken over by the shopping plazas nearby and the mall, but never really replaced. It's also surrounded by Rt 1 and I95, making it rather difficult, if not impossible to walk around anywhere.
I most disagree with your statements about the mall. It's usually about as empty as the pictures show. Way back when Boscovs left, that was pretty much the end. Sears and JCPenny left more recently but after they did, so did the rest of the mall. Now it's hardly as busy or useful as it used to be. Macys will probably leave too, someday.
[+] [-] _k3n_|6 years ago|reply
I mean, half of Levittown, PA is part of the Pennsbury School District, home of "The Best Prom in America" (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/04/23/be...).
[+] [-] awshepard|6 years ago|reply
This is a good point, and one not well-explained in the article. I agree, what's the big deal? The Columbia Mall in Howard County, MD (the 3rd wealthiest county in the US) has the Mall as a primary stop for many buses. What does a bus coming to the mall have anything to do with the quality of a neighborhood?
[+] [-] jim-jim-jim|6 years ago|reply
Oh damn, I remember that. Was it called Ultra Zone or something? I lived in Jersey but I'd meet my PA friends there sometimes.
[+] [-] kevcodes|6 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] westmeal|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vips7L|6 years ago|reply