Have you ever wondered why suburbs even exist? I mean, really. What purpose do they possess other than making the inner-city look like a slum?
The reason is simple: Decentralization due to price and culture changes within cities.
I found an article that explained the demand for telecommunication in cities - and it's all because of decentralization (Here's the article, by the way). So what is decentralization? It's basically what occurred in the 1970s, when many white citizens fled the cities due to an increase in African-Americans in the cities (This is formally called the White Flight). It's a dumb reason, but it still happened. Cities became more spread out and much less dense around the United States. And voila! We have decentralization.
Another reason for decentralization is because the price of transporting goods from a city to a rural area was extremely expensive back before mass transit. After trains, semis, and planes were invented, the price of getting things to the outer-lying areas of the cities dropped, and therefore, people moved there to get away from the crime-ridden inner-city.
Thus, suburbs were created. And white picket fences, Desperate Housewives, and retirement communities came soon after.
I feel that the caption for the photo should be, "Cookie cutters at their best!"
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