Suburban Life In Perspective

I can’t call this a “money quote,” but it might qualify as a “mind-numbing quote.” Via NPR:

The average Atlanta resident with a job drives 66 miles every day. In fact, people here drive so much that if you added up every commute and every trip to a store or soccer practice on just one day, you’d get a number that’s larger than the distance between the Earth and the sun

Still with me? Does this not strike everyone as profoundly disturbing and yet–if you’ve ever driven through metro Atlanta–possibly a conservative estimate? Morning Edition featured a two-part series this week called “Life in the ‘Burbs,” detailing the environmental costs of American dreams involving jobs in high-rises miles away from bucolic suburban homesteads (these people work for NPR, so don’t assume for a second that they didn’t consider how many folks listen to the show during their morning commute).

I’m not one to assume or pretend for a second that we all want the same things (that’s part of what makes this a wonderful and frustrating world), but having lived in both urban and suburban settings I confess that when I close my eyes and picture a home with my future wife, I imagine green grass. And trees. And dogs. And a nice house in a residential area. And a driveway. Sometimes, in my wanna-be farmer moods, I even picture my own flock of sheep. But if I’m honest, I think that my dream involves–presumes even–driving into ‘the city’ (who knows which) for work each day. Not because I want a thirty, forty, or sixty minute commute, but because somehow I’ve come to expect that. Settling down now signifies in my head a nice relaxing house far removed from the hustle and bustle of the urban area where I work.

I’m trying to deliberately re-calibrate my day dreams. I want to imagine walking to the grocery store and cyber-commuting from home three days a week (or more). I want to close my eyes and picture urban neighborhoods where the green grass and trees I yearn for are present–they’re just on the roof. I want to imagine weekend outings with hypothetical future children, using public transportation to get there. I want to confront the impulsive draw of suburban living and all of the uncomfortable reasons that a life in the ‘burbs seems so…comfortable.

This blog is about change, and it strikes me that one thing we (and I’m assuming, dangerously, that my experience is not unique) haven’t changed are our own visions for lives that are well within reach. Maybe I’m way off base; had I grown up in a city my views could be altogether different. But when I read about someone in Atlanta (with a “good” job) leaving home at 5:15am, returning from work at 7:30pm, and spending 4 hours of their day in traffic, something tells me that we need to change our expectations.

In part II of the NPR series (I’m telling you, NPR producers are clever…they end on an uplifting note), we hear about a different Atlanta family:

The Taylors live in Atlantic Station, a new community in mid-town Atlanta designed to put jobs, homes and shopping all in one place, close to public transportation [...]

[...] On a typical morning, Taylor walks her daughter to the bus stop and then keeps going 10 minutes to her job [...]

[...]It’s only 4:20 p.m. Maya has already made a big dent in her homework. And Malaika has a few hours to kill.

“Maybe I’ll work out. Maybe we’ll play a game. It makes a huge difference just in the quality of our life,” Taylor says. “We get to spend a lot more time together. I think she’s happier. I’m happier. It makes life a lot better.“

Imagine that.

Image used under a Creative Commons License courtesy of Flickr user absolutwade.

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