Must we “pave paradise and put up a parking lot” for our drive-thru society? By: Heather McDevitt Edited for web application by Marty Lamers

What kinds of social forces caused industry to spread far beyond the central city and alter the face of the emerging suburbs?

The AUTOMOBILE! In the 1920s, “some city officials blissfully suggested that the automobile would actually decrease traffic congestion” (Jackson 174). This may have been the case at first, but any decrease in traffic’s congestion was short-lived.

The Auto Inspires a Changing Community — Business owners and city planners, realizing that “a central location [was] no longer a good one for…business” now had to reconfigure “to serve vehicular rather than pedestrian traffic” (Jackson 174, 258).

The Auto Inspires a Changing Community — As a result, “downtown sections became hopelessly congested” (Jackson 174).

As industrially based inner cities continued to grow, American authors began to paint a more romantic picture of the lifestyle and the appealing natural settings to be found in outlying suburbs— initiating and later accelerating what would come to be known as suburban sprawl.

Suburban sprawl transformed American communities from the traditional and

Into of suburban & exurban areas

The old town square

becoming the new town drive

Signs of the old

But as Hiram grows… and grows…,

the evidence of change and an evolving community are everywhere.

as it was

and now as it will be

Everywhere you look, there is increasing evidence that communities must change to accommodate the new “drive-thru” world.

The changing face of American communities should inspire an extended moment of examination…..

(Omartian)

Sources: Jackson, Kenneth T. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. Oxford University Press: New York, Omartian, Michael. Big Yellow Taxi. Amy Grant. A&M Records, Inc.: Also, thank you to Marty and Dr. Robbins for their pictures.