Must we “pave paradise and put

up a parking lot” for our drive-

thru society?
By: Heather McDevitt
Edited for web application by Marty Lamers
What kinds of social forces
caused industry to spread far
beyond the central city and
alter the face of the emerging
suburbs?
The AUTOMOBILE!

 In the 1920s, “some city officials blissfully

suggested that the automobile would actually
decrease traffic congestion” (Jackson 174).

This may have been the case at first, but any

decrease in traffic’s congestion was short-lived.
The Auto Inspires a Changing
Community —
 Business owners and city planners,
realizing that “a central location [was] no
longer a good one for…business” now had
to reconfigure “to serve vehicular rather
than pedestrian traffic” (Jackson 174, 258).
The Auto Inspires a Changing
Community —

As a result, “downtown sections became

hopelessly congested” (Jackson 174).
As industrially based inner cities continued to grow,
American authors began to paint a more romantic
picture of the lifestyle and the appealing natural
settings to be found in outlying suburbs—
initiating and later accelerating what would come
to be known as
suburban sprawl.
Suburban sprawl transformed
American communities from the
traditional

and
Into
of suburban &
exurban areas
The old town
square
becoming the new town drive
Signs of the old
But as Hiram
grows…

and grows…,
 the evidence of
change

and an evolving
community are
everywhere.
as it was
and now

as it will be
 Everywhere you look,

there is increasing evidence that communities must change

to accommodate the new “drive-thru” world.
The changing face of American communities should
inspire an extended moment of examination…..
(Omartian)
Sources:
 Jackson, Kenneth T. Crabgrass Frontier:
The Suburbanization of the United States.
Oxford University Press: New York, 1985.
 Omartian, Michael. Big Yellow Taxi. Amy
Grant. A&M Records, Inc.: 1994.
 Also, thank you to Marty and Dr. Robbins
for their pictures.