Criticism of suburbia

Mainstream criticism of suburbia emerged during the housing boom of the 1950s, reflecting concerns about the culture of aspirational homeownership and its societal impacts.

A review by Czech and colleagues[5] finds that urbanization endangers more species and is more geographically ubiquitous in the mainland United States than any other human activity.

[citation needed] Providing services such as water, sewers, and electricity is also more expensive per household in less dense areas, given that sprawl increases lengths of power lines and pipes, necessitating higher maintenance costs.

[16] There is a profound cynicism that exists in much commentary on suburbia that is promoted by "intellectuals and others seeking to delineate the suburb"[17] which has been characterised by "conformity, control and some sense of false consciousness".

[17] Prominent journalist Allan Ashbolt satirised the suburb that represented Australian nationalism, rooted in the post-World War II era, as passive and uninspired, inscribed strongly in spatial terms.

[22] The bush landscape is a masculine construction of a more "authentic notion of Australian national identity" exemplified by the poetry of Henry Lawson.

[16] Conversely, the suburb is feminised, epitomised by Dame Edna for more than fifty years, and more recently, by comedic team Jane Turner and Gina Riley in Kath & Kim.

McMansions epitomise the suburbia that is attacked by Boyd for both its monotony and "featurism"[1] Journalist Miranda Devine refers to an elitist perception that those who live in such suburban assemblages display a "poverty of spirit and a barrenness of mind" that is derived from a politics of aesthetics and taste, as expressed by Boyd fifty years ago.

Suburbia in the United Kingdom has been a subject of criticism for many decades, with critiques focusing on various social, cultural, and environmental aspects.

Suburban development in the UK accelerated during the interwar and post-World War II periods, driven by a mix of factors such as the desire for better living conditions away from overcrowded urban centers, government initiatives encouraging homeownership, and improvements in transportation that made commuting more practical.

In the 1876 edition of The Architect an anonymous contributor remarked, "A modern suburb, is a place which is neither one thing nor the other; it has neither the advantage of the town nor the open freedom of the country, but manages to combine in nice equality of proportion of both.