Category Archives: Sociology

The reasons Americans move to exurbs – including economic opportunities

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An overview of some booming American exurbs explains why they are growing:

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Exurbs are areas typically located 40 to 60 miles from city centers and are often appealing to families seeking more space, affordable homes and a quieter way of life.

The trend has transformed once-sleepy rural towns into thriving cultural communities with booming populations and housing markets…

The COVID-19 pandemic has played a significant role in the shift to the exurbs, with many people now able to make a living from home thanks to an increase in remote work opportunities. 

This means they are no longer tied to big hubs where offices are based.  

Skyrocketing housing costs in major cities have also pushed many families to seek more affordable and spacious alternatives.

Finding affordable housing is a significant issue across American metropolitan areas. The thought often goes that the further one moves out from the center the more house a buyer can get. (This can ignore the pockets of cheaper housing that do often exist closer to the center of regions but the assumption is those who want these cheaper homes also want a particular kind of suburban community or way of life.)

But there is another component to the growth of exurbs and the suburban fringe. There are jobs and other economic opportunities on the edge of regions. Commuting to the big city is arduous from these far-out locations. The article above hints at the possibilities of working from home but numerous exurbs grew before this. Where are people working?

They are often working at companies and organizations in the suburbs. If I live 60 miles outside the big city, I may commute to a job 45 miles from the big city. Those edge cities spread throughout regions can provide thousands of good jobs accessible to those living in the exurbs. Or the new growth generates jobs and opportunities in the exurbs. Yes, some people can work from home but these are particular kinds of jobs and new growth leads to medical jobs, service jobs, and jobs in other industries that also find it attractive to locate in exurbs.

In other words, you cannot have the cheaper housing of the exurbs without also having jobs and opportunities in and near the exurbs.

A 7-11 as a gathering place in a small town

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In American communities today, what businesses offer spaces for people to shop and interact with other people 24 hours a day? A profile of a 7-11 in Lewiston, Maine amid a shooting in the community offers one such example:

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The night of the shooting, Dalia Karim locked the doors of her family’s 7-Eleven for the first time in 17 years. “We never close,” she told me. As owners of one of the few businesses in Lewiston, Maine, that remains open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the Karims built a livelihood and a reputation by serving customers from all walks of life at all hours. Since 2007, save for a brief afternoon to complete floor repairs, Karim’s store has provided what she calls the “everyday purchases” of life: milk, cereal, soda, donuts, cigarettes, chips, beer. Nearly half of the purchases at her registers are made by EBT cards, she said, and many of her patrons lack the resources to drive to or shop at conventional grocery stores and arrive on foot. To them, the Karims’ 7-Eleven is often a singular source of sustenance…

It was the quietest Friday night Buck and April had ever worked. “The place was like a ghost town,” April said. Though the shooter still hadn’t been found, they both figured that by then, he’d either fled town or taken his own life. At one point, Buck saw police officers tackle a man on a motorcycle driving down Main Street—but it was the wrong guy…

Instead, her mourning took place behind the counter. One night, a woman came in and showed Dalia her wedding ring. “My fiancé is dead,” she said. Karim left the register to give her a hug. Another night, a man came into the store in search of a print copy of that day’s Lewiston Sun Journal. He wanted the paper to memorialize the loss of his brother. As he left, the back of his sweatshirt offered his brother’s name and the dates of his birth and recent death…

When the lunch rush came, Dalia attended to the register. The typical chitchat—about the Celtics, about the weather—came and went. Several customers wore blue Lewiston Strong T-shirts, but no one said anything in particular about the anniversary itself. Then a woman bought a copy of Uncle Henry’s sell-and-swap magazine. Beneath the magazine stood a small stack of print copies of that day’s Lewiston Sun Journal, devoted to stories about the anniversary of the shooting. One story was about a group of cornhole players who’d once played at Schemengees but had since found a new place to gather. Another story was about the resilient children who, despite the memory of the shooting, continued to bowl at Just-in-Time Recreation Center. A final story detailed the efforts of several organizations to come up with a design for a public memorial. When the lunch rush was over, Dalia took a moment to scan the front page of the paper. “I keep thinking: Maybe he will come back?” she said, straightening the papers. “But then I tell myself: It’s OK. It’s OK. He’s gone now.” She looked across the aisles. Soon, night would fall, and the crowds would arrive for the busiest night of the week. But for now, in the convenience store that had given her family a life in this city, and a future in this country, Dalia Karim had a few quiet hours to herself.

I assume there are sociological studies of such spaces. I would be interested to know:

  1. How do the stories, meanings, and relationships generated at 7-11 compare to the same generated in more “official” locations like City Hall or schools? Or to other social spaces/businesses in Lewiston?
  2. How does the 7-11 factor in the social networks of the community? Do people see it as a node important to them or not? Who in the town wouldn’t go to the 7-11?
  3. If the 7-11 were to disappear for some reason, what could take its place (if anything)?
  4. After COVID-19, how many 24 hour a day places are no longer and what does this mean for communities and people within them?

In a society where life seems polarized and atomized, could certain businesses offer room for relationships to form and people to get what they need when they want it? 7-11 and similar stores can offer particular goods for people at all hours and can provide opportunities to share small conversations and information about the town.

John Grisham describes American sprawl

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In his latest work of fiction, John Grisham opens a chapter by describing a scene:

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Across the Camino River and headed west away from the island, the busy highway was lined with shopping centers, fast food restaurants, car dealerships, car washes, churches, and big box retailers, the typical American sprawl. Billboards advertised cheap loans, scowling lawyers, and plenty of subdivisions. Construction was in the air. New developments, new “neighborhoods,” new retirement villages were up to seemingly overnight. Realtors’ signs clogged the intersection. Every other truck belonged to a plumber, an electrician, a roofer, or an HVAC specialist advertising a deep concern for your comfort and quality of life.

This paragraph contains multiple traits of suburban sprawl as described by numerous people in recent decades. This includes:

  1. Highways lined with particular businesses (a “typical” American streetscape?).
  2. Lots of vehicles on the roads.
  3. Fast growth (developing happening “seemingly overnight”).

Perhaps the biggest thing missing – though hinted at with “realtors’ signs” – are single-family homes that loom large in American suburbs.

On one hand, the book gets at the problems of sprawling waterfront growth in Florida. This has its own unique features. On the other hand, would the description above be out of place around Las Vegas, Nashville, or Dallas or decades ago outside New York, Chicago, or Minneapolis?

What is the best location for a religious building?

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Having studied religious buildings for a few years now, I think about this question: where should religious congregations locate? One could say that it depends on the congregation but there are patterns to the locations of religious buildings. The 2011 book The Place of Religion in Chicago by Wilbur Zelinsky and Stephen A. Matthews looks at the thousands of congregations in Cook County, Illinois and makes several notes about locations:

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One factor is the way the religious tradition of the congregations is organized:

“Just how do congregations, or whoever, go about selecting a specific site within a specified territory?
The answer depends upon two leading considerations. First, does the congregation belong to a hierarchically organized denomination in which key decisions filter downward from some central headquarters? Second, if so, does the denomination compartmentalize its domain within nation, state, or city into well-defined parishes?” (65)

This gets at whether the location decision is a congregational one or one made at a higher level of the religious organization. And if the tradition is organized into parishes, this affects location decisions. For example, Catholic, Methodist, and non-denominational Protestant congregations may choose different locations because of their organizational structure.

Other factors to consider: agreement among and closeness to the congregation and the resources the congregation has for a location:

“Is the proposed location convenient and agreeable to the group? And is either the construction of a new building or the purchase, rental, or rehabilitation of an existing one within their financial means?” (67)

These are important considerations: congregations probably do not want a building far from where they are located. But do their resources allow them to have the exact convenient location or the structure they hope to have (as opposed to what they can manage at the moment)?

And some location data among the Cook County congregations:

“For those houses of worship for which we have the relevant information, 1,144 reside at a corner,
compared with 2,252 on lots within the block. Such an incidence of corner locations seems to exceed
what would occur by chance, especially if we consider that the great majority of the multitudinous
storefront churches occupy interior positions.” (68)

A corner – or at an intersection – could offer some advantages including visibility and proximity to more bustling activity.

Is the ideal then a corner near where the congregation lives, within their means, and agreeable to the congregation (and the higher levels of the religious tradition, if applicable)?

The number of vehicles required to maintain a suburban county’s roads

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The suburbs are known for driving and therefore have a lot of roads. How many vehicles does it take to maintain the county’s share of roads? Here is the number from DuPage County, Illinois:

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She noted the county’s division of transportation takes care of 220 miles of county highways and 92 miles of multiuse trails. It also maintains 650 vehicles in the countywide fleet and is responsible for snow removal on county roads.

This sounds like a lot of vehicles and I do not know if it is a lot or a little compared to similar-sized counties. At least in this story, the county is looking for a bigger transportation facility to meet all its need for space.

So in one suburban county, there are multiple actors responsible for the roads: the state for interstates and other highways, townships for some roads, municipalities for some roads, and the county for some roads. Is this the best way to approach things? Does each government body have similar vehicles? How close are each other’s roads to each other? If starting suburbia from scratch from this point on, would it be better to have one body address all the roads?

Roads are near sacred in the United States so I understand the attention paid to them. Yet the resources and energy required to maintain them, let alone expand them, is large.

Chicago suburb Oak Park named in list of global places to visit in 2025

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On the Travel Lemming list of “Our 50 Best Places to Travel in 2025,” one suburb makes the list of global destinations:

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At first glance, you may think that Oak Park is nothing more than an affluent suburb of Chicago. But it’s so much more.

Stunningly beautiful, Oak Park is the birthplace of American author Ernest Hemingway. Meanwhile, prominent architect Frank Lloyd Wright lived and worked here. A casual stroll around the suburb will take you past numerous examples of his work.

Come in the fall to watch or run in the Frank Lloyd Wright races. These 5K, 10K, and youth mile races weave through some of the suburb’s most notable architecture.

Even among this global range of destinations – cities, natural spots, beaches, mountains, etc. – this one suburb stands out. It may be the only suburb on the list. Oak Park is unique in several ways. As noted above, it does have some unique architecture and the ability to learn more about Frank Lloyd Wright. Hemingway was born there. It is also a suburb that has pursued racial and ethnic diversity for decades.

At the same time, is one reason an American suburb could make such a list is that visitors get to experience a suburban lifestyle? If they went to Oak Park, beyond some of the unique features discussed above, would they have a sense of what American suburban communities are like?

What other American suburbs might make a global list of top travel destinations?

Food deserts and unenforced federal policies regarding suppliers and deals

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I am familiar with the concept of food deserts but I do not recall reading anything about their emergence over time. Could they be the result of not enforcing existing federal regulations regarding suppliers?

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Food deserts are not an inevitable consequence of poverty or low population density, and they didn’t materialize around the country for no reason. Something happened. That something was a specific federal policy change in the 1980s. It was supposed to reward the biggest retail chains for their efficiency. Instead, it devastated poor and rural communities by pushing out grocery stores and inflating the cost of food. Food deserts will not go away until that mistake is reversed…

Congress responded in 1936 by passing the Robinson-Patman Act. The law essentially bans price discrimination, making it illegal for suppliers to offer preferential deals and for retailers to demand them. It does, however, allow businesses to pass along legitimate savings. If it truly costs less to sell a product by the truckload rather than by the case, for example, then suppliers can adjust their prices accordingly—just so long as every retailer who buys by the truckload gets the same discount…

Then it was abandoned. In the 1980s, convinced that tough antitrust enforcement was holding back American business, the Reagan administration set about dismantling it. The Robinson-Patman Act remained on the books, but the new regime saw it as an economically illiterate handout to inefficient small businesses. And so the government simply stopped enforcing it.

That move tipped the retail market in favor of the largest chains, who could once again wield their leverage over suppliers, just as A&P had done in the 1930s. Walmart was the first to fully grasp the implications of the new legal terrain. It soon became notorious for aggressively strong-arming suppliers, a strategy that fueled its rapid expansion. By 2001, it had become the nation’s largest grocery retailer. Kroger, Safeway, and other supermarket chains followed suit. They began with a program of “self-consolidation”—centralizing their purchasing, which had previously been handled by regional divisions, to fully exploit their power as major national buyers. Then, in the 1990s, they embarked on a merger spree. In just two years, Safeway acquired Vons and Dominick’s, while Fred Meyer absorbed Ralphs, Smith’s, and Quality Food Centers, before being swallowed by Kroger. The suspension of the Robinson-Patman Act had created an imperative to scale up.

In this explanation, Walmart came to be such a big player in groceries because their size meant they could get better prices from suppliers. Smaller grocery stores could not keep up. The big chains set up locations in certain places offered lower prices.

If the Act was enforced again, would grocery stores quickly emerge in food deserts and other areas? Would consumers get more options soon or would it take some time to rebalance the grocery landscape? How would the big players – Walmart, Albertsons, Safeway, etc. – adjust? Would food options change in wealthier communities as well?

The article also cites a statistic that suggests independent stores had prices only 1% higher in 1965. Would that be a big enough difference in groceries today for shoppers to stay with places that offer low prices all the time (particularly considering recent concerns about inflation in food prices)?

The wealthiest US counties in 1972 versus today

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Considering median household income at the county level, I did a little research regarding past patterns compared to today. In 1972, the New York Times reported on the wealthiest counties in the United States:

As the article notes, all these counties are suburban counties.

According to Wikipedia, here are the wealthiest counties today:

Almost all of these top 30 are suburban. But the wealthiest counties have shifted toward more counties in the South and West. Some of the same counties are at the top of the list but there are also new counties there as well. What might have happened in 50+ years? Some guesses:

  1. Some of the wealthier counties in the 1970 Census matured, now have slower growth, and have more diverse populations. In contrast, the rapidly growing counties today are more in the South and West.
  2. Shifts in industry. Manufacturing jobs declined in many places and growing sectors, such as tech and the federal government, generated wealth elsewhere.
  3. Measuring at the county level might obscure patterns at the municipality level and at the regional level. For example, this may be less about individual counties and more about a region – say like the Washington, D.C region – growing.

I would be interested to hear how many companies and residents think at the county level these days. If someone were going to move, would they think in terms of Westchester or Nassau Counties outside of New York City like they might have in 1970 or would they think instead of specific communities and suburbs they have heard about?

“Trump won the suburbs”

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One media source recently declared “Trump won the suburbs”:

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The suburbs have become increasingly diverse and populous. More than half of voters in 2024 were in suburban areas, according to exit polls. They have become swing areas, home to some of the most closely targeted House seats, and a good barometer of who will win the presidential election.

The winner in the suburbs has won 11 of the last 12 presidential elections, dating back to 1980. And this year that was Trump, 51%-47%, according to exit polls.

Vice President Harris was hoping she could turn out women in the suburbs in key swing states to get her across the finish line. But that didn’t happen. Trump, for example, won white suburban women by 7 points, as well as white suburban men — by 27. So there were some split kitchen tables, but not enough to help Harris win.

In multiple swing states, there were significant shifts in Trump’s direction in the suburbs, based on nearly final vote totals. That includes a net swing of almost 60,000 votes in the four counties that make up the Philadelphia suburbs and the two major ones north of Detroit, more than 10,000 in the “WOW” counties around Milwaukee (Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington) and in the counties touching Fulton County, Ga., where Atlanta is.

This is the strongest declaration I have seen thus far about suburban voters in the 2024 election.

Two graphics in the story add to the text above:

  1. A national map of counties shows many suburban counties shifted toward more raw votes for Trump between 2020 and 2024. Relatively few suburban counties shifted toward Harris.
  2. There is an interactive graphic that shows shifts in suburban counties from 2016 to 2020 to 2024 and some suburban counties did move toward Harris in that span. This graphic shows there is significant variation in voting patterns across suburban counties.

On the whole, one candidate garnered more votes from the suburbs. Did that determine the election? This analysis does not say; it suggests suburban voters contributed to the outcome.