Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com
Text: It is worth remembering that the explosion of suburban growth in the postwar era was not about detached houses or yards or conservative morality, really; it was about building a lot of housing quickly and at scale. The postwar suburban project was the YIMBY movement of its day and context. In those days, with cities in rough shape after 20 years of neglect, intense housing demand among young people, and a great deal of cheap and easily buildable land adjacent to the old cities, the easiest way to solve the housing crisis and build homes for young families was to build suburbia. The fact that this was the physical context of the postwar baby boom probably says very little about the relation between childbearing and the kind of housing in which it took place.