Suburbs of Then and Now

Bonjour tout le monde, as usual, I’ve been researching for our current PLP project, specifically about the appeal of the suburbs and the communities that were created from them. There were some interesting things I found, but one thing that was pretty interesting was how these suburban communities could almost be seen as modern day ready-made farm which had been used in the 1910’s or so.

Both were advertised as somewhere you could move in and just begin your life without much hassle, with the farms being ready for you to being working the land and the suburbs having the infrastructure in place from the war. They both also offered a new beginning to those interested with one promising a new life where if you worked hard enough wealth could be found and the other promising an escape to a perfect life of family, work, and entertainment. Now, of course neither could be perfect and yet the suburbs specifically are still seen in the way they had been advertised back in the 50’s, save for a few differences. Even to this day, the suburbs are still viewed as small communities of perfect families and perfect lives even though that couldn’t be further from the truth.

To connect this back to the competencies, this is a very interesting case of continuity and change where even as the wants and needs of both the people and the country changes throughout the decades, we still come to the same conclusion each time of making life as easy as possible. Where the truths of life find no footing in our perceptions and allow for a carefree fantasy to be created.