The Suburb McMansion...Better option?
I was given the opportunity to participate in the Utah Parade of Homes for the first time. I was amazed by the size of the homes.
TheZebra says,
"The median home size for newly constructed houses has increased by 150% since 1980. While houses are getting larger, the median household size has decreased by 16% since 1940. The median home sales price in 2019 was $239,900."
Good old 2019, when buying a decent house didn't mean selling your soul. Though I was touring suburban mansions, normal family homes are also apart of this trend. It's incredible to me that house sizes are up 150%. What is the purpose of this? Why are we so interested in such vastly spaced housing?
Well, Suburban infrastructure and zoning affects more than just how much traffic gets added to the road.
It didn't feel right.
While I was touring Suburb mansions around Utah, I felt disgruntled. Not because I was jealous, or because I thought they were wasting valuable space (though with the very small family sizes these people likely have, perhaps that's true.) It wasn't even because almost every house had similar design features, and felt trendy. It was something else that I didn't figure out until I arrived home. I realized that these mansions were the direct product of suburban isolation, and the people living inside of them, are also its unwitting victims. These elite Utah families just have money to compensate for our poor infrastructure, and... they do their very best. In my opinion, I sadly believe they wasted their money in doing so.
As I've written previously in other blog posts (How the American Suburb Hurts Utah Families), Utah suburbia is an isolating and nonfunctional nightmare. Mothers and children are often deathly bored and lonely in these environments, relying on their car to be shuttled out of their communities to do anything interesting at all. Nobody likes spending hours in the car every week to do anything meaningful, but these wealthy Utah suburbs have found a way to solve the problem! Or so they hoped.
Windows, windows galore.
The first thing I noticed was that these new house designs are almost glass houses. They have 20 feet full floor windows from ground to ceiling. Stepping up to some of these houses, I could see the backyard before I ever even set foot in the house. With little to no reason to go outside, you are desperate for sunshine. Rather than experiencing real sunshine doing normal things in a mixed zoned walkable or bikeable city, you must create it artificially in your home design. Why face the weather when you can pretend to be outside in your own home? Natural lighting is fine in a home, and I think it's important, but because suburbs make stepping outside pointless, it's amazing the excessive window designs I am seeing in these houses. I felt like I could throw a stone and half of their house would come crumbling to the ground. It doesn't bode well for privacy either, but you have to do what you have to do to survive the suburban wasteland. If you have the money, why not?
(1)
Kitchen
Of course there were the extravagant kitchens with huge sinks, and hidden appliances. I do wonder if these people love to clean or they are obsessed with hosting. Rather than having a local grocer nearby where they can enjoy a beautiful walk or bike ride to pick up fresh food and ingredients more often, these people wait until the absolute last second to get groceries because driving the grocery store is a chore, and they would much rather stock up on a months worth of food. The pantry and the kitchen must therefore be extraordinarily large for these families of three.
Bedrooms
My... the bedrooms were huge, often all with their own bathrooms. Of course, if your children never go outside, and everyone feels a little stir-crazy, why not essentially create their own private apartment where people can be away from each other, even in the same house? In a mixed zoned walkable neighborhood, a child would rarely be hanging out in their bedroom as there would be much more interesting things to do elsewhere, making this extraneous space wasteful. Plus, if children are outside doing productive things, there's the perk of leaving a clean bedroom, and coming back to one, rather than a constantly lived in room.
Basement
The land of entertainment within the house. Movie room? Check. Popcorn machine and candy? Check. Video game room. Bunk room with built in playhouse? Hair salon? Slide? Indoor trampoline? Workout room? Virtual golf? Indoor Bowling alley? Pool table? Extra Kitchen? Indoor basketball court? You literally can't live with out one so... check. If you're wondering how stifling suburban life is, and how annoying and ugly car traffic is, or the immense chore of driving your car everywhere, just look at how the wealthy work around it. They make houses so that they literally never. have. to. leave. them. Why drive through the city wasteland, pass McDonald's, deal with traffic, and parking, just to hang out at the local gym? It's much better to avoid that mess and just play with my two children all by myself in my own gym.
(2)
Backyard
Well of course, all of these parade of homes houses need a pool, waterslide, hot tub, grilling station, food storage unit, and last but certainly not least, a tennis court.
Amazing.
I unfortunately did not feel awe looking at these places. I suppose I felt awe in how people want to spend their money, but mostly I just felt sorry for everyone. On the one hand, these few wealthy privileged were miles away from any type of car traffic. They were often in the deep recesses of their suburb communities, surrounded by other distant homes but next to beautiful landscape and the sounds of nature. That is a perk that most Utahns will sadly not be able to enjoy soon because of our car centric infrastructure. People may even feel resentful that these people got the cream of the crop in real-estate. But this is only a distraction from the problem. If you look at these people's lives, they have every amenity, but have literally barricaded themselves in their homes. Their commutes to do normal things are so long, they'd rather stay cooped up in their own houses than go anywhere. I wonder how these wealthy mothers even cope with such intense isolation. Maybe they just anxiously wait until their next vacation? Despite their built-in fantastical home entertainment, I see the boredom and drug use their children are suffering from.
So what now...
Here's the thing. It's not enough. No matter how big you make the mansion and put bowling alleys and tennis courts in it, it will never be enough. It can never fix the deep and toxic consequences of the suburban lifestyle. It won't get rid of traffic, or commutes, or bigger roads, or ugly cities, or emotionally crippled children and it definitely won't allow mothers to live normal and productive social lives without a car. The American suburb infrastructure is so deeply rooted in our psyche it actually affects our house designs. It affects where we are dying to live, and why we think we need a football field for a backyard to have happy children. It makes us choose
..."Isolated suburbia McMansion with peace and beauty? Or ugly loud city with another Wendy's?"...
We know which the elite will choose. We know where Utahns are dying to move and now can't afford. We don't have to escape the rat race on who will successfully escape car traffic. We can get rid of it entirely. That way all Utahns can feel they live in happy, social, beautiful, productive and peaceful cities.We don't need cars to survive, we need better cities. We can create mixed zone suburbs, we can create mixed zoned walkable, bikeable, and public transit heavy cities that are peaceful and dense. We don't have to keep living like this. We can change our infrastructure, we can change our road safety, we can make streets for biking instead of racing cars, we can give people trams and trains, and get rid of car traffic. We can make going to the store or school easier, and more beautiful without a car. We can create infrastructure with organic exercise, substantial outdoor exposure, and productive sociality in everyday lives. We can give Utahns a choice to live without the burden of a car. We don't need to build incredible mansions and escape into to the recesses of Utah to feel peace. We can build moderate homes, and create better car-independent cities.
Citations
(1)https://www.utahstyleanddesign.com/utah-valley-parade-of-homes-peoples-choice/
(2)https://www.sportcourt.com/sport-basketball/installation-material
