Urbanization

I grew up in a mid-sized town in Connecticut, a shoreline town located between several larger towns and just 2 hours from both New York City and Boston. This town prided itself on its shoreline beauty, picturesque downtown, and homes that were conveniently located near a major highway but far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the larger cities. Over the years I have noticed changes in my hometown, where I no longer live, and honestly could not afford to live there even if I wanted to!

Several large companies, including Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, experienced rapid growth during the late 1990s. In turn, large amounts of high-salary scientists and engineers relocated to my town in order to be close to the plant yet still enjoy suburban life. Because Connecticut itself is an expensive state, my town was no exception; however, since a large amount of people were moving there at once, property values skyrocketed, many many new subdivisions were created with the richer clientele in mind, and now the mean home value (well, this was before the recession) is around $450,000. Insane! As I had said before, I really love my hometown, but if I wanted to move back there, i would be hard pressed to find a decent home that I could actually afford.

Other changes have occurred to my hometown not necessarily referenced in the text book. An odd amount of housing subdivisions have recently been constructed that cater to the elderly. There are now four new (within the last 7-8 years) "assisted living" communities in my town that are exclusive to the elderly. These also come with a big price tag. It is interesting that, although the book mentions the large amount of aging Americans, it does not mention the financial situation of many of these seniors. Many of them have money enough to retire to a town that the young, working population cannot afford to live in!

An interesting point I noticed in the textbook refers to the suburbs being primarily "white". Especially in recent years, I have not found this to be true. In my hometown there is an increasing number of African Americans, Asians, and Indians, mainly those who are employed as scientists in the a fore mentioned pharmaceutical company. Now that I live in the DC metro area, I can say that these suburbs have a very large ethnic population. There is a huge variety of people living here, and I would hardly call this a "white" area. I find it interesting that the book refers to the suburbs as such, especially since in at least one large metropolitan area, this is not the case.