Saturday, January, 30, 2010
The biggest fear in suburbia is poverty and homelessness, not crime




The street is the epitome of America’s perfect suburb. Whether it was the 1950’s Mapleton Drive in the hit TV show Leave It To Beaver, or the same street today called Wisteria Lane in Desperate Housewives.

The Universal Studios back lot is a sketch of perfect America, with its manicured lawns, two-story single family residences. The immaculate façade of suburbia.

Until you drive behind the plywood elevations at the studio to see propped up scaffolding that only holds false-fronts, not real homes.

But still. Most Americans still yearn for that television image of safe and secure suburban living. Even if we know that dream is not real.

By the millions, Americans fled cities and purchased post-World War Two stucco boxes in hopes of recreating Mapleton Drive or today, Wisteria Lane.

Only today, we lock our doors with thwo deadbolts, install Three Day Blinds to shutter our homes, and mount home alarms so no intruders can penetrate. We fear that urban phenomenon called crime, will penetrate our perfect world.

If you heard President Obama’s State of the Union last week, however, crime is not the only fear infiltrating our suburbs. So is the fear of poverty and homelessness.

The suburbs are being attacked on all fronts:

One in five Americans are unemployed or underemployed.

One in nine can't make their minimum credit card payments.

One in eight have defaulted on mortgages or are facing foreclosure.

120,000 families a month are filing for bankruptcy.

The Universal Studios back lot dream is turning into a nightmare for millions of families living in suburbia.

Perhaps the studio’s Psycho House is becoming more of the norm?



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