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Suburbs foster more sense of community than downtown
study: Those living outside the cities have more friends and know their neighbours
Published: Saturday, November 11, 2006
If absence makes the heart grow fonder in far-flung romances, it seems a bit of elbow-room does the same for neighbours.
A new study says that people who live in sprawling suburban areas have more friends, better community involvement and more frequent contact with their neighbours than urbanites who are wedged in side-by-side.
The results challenge the accepted idea that suburban life is socially alienating -- a notion that's inspired everything from the Academy Award-winning American Beauty to Harvard professor Robert Putnam's book Bowling Alone.
The study, released by the University of California at Irvine, found that for every 10 per cent decrease in population density, the chances of people talking to their neighbours weekly increases by 10 per cent, and the likelihood they belong to hobby-based clubs jumps by 15 per cent.
"We found that interaction goes down as population density goes up. So, turning it around, it says that interaction is higher where densities are lower," says Jan Brueckner, an economics professor at UC Irvine who led the study. "What that means is suburban living promotes more interaction than living in the central city."
The results are no surprise to Fayrouz Costa, who has lived in -- and loved -- the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, Ont., for the last 20 years. She has two young children and is constantly socializing with her neighbours, who take turns watching over each other's children while they play outside and house-sitting for those on vacation.
"You couldn't give me a free house in the city and say, 'Move here.' Honestly, I could never do it," she says. "There's just too many people, people are too close to each other and people are not friendly. I'm a chatterer and people don't chat in the city."
Costa is a member of her community centre, where she uses the fitness facilities five days a week and knows "almost everyone." She contrasts her lifestyle with that of her sister, who lives and works in Toronto, and concludes that she "would never leave the suburbs."
"People are always in a rush to get where they need to go and they work a lot more," Costa says of life in the city. "A lot of the time in the suburbs, people have families and their life is a little more relaxed."
That "social homogeneity" may partly explain the closeness of neighbours in the suburbs, says Pierre Filion, a professor of urban planning at the University of Waterloo. Young children often act as social catalysts for their parents, and people in the suburbs tend to have more common ground than the diverse lifestyles crammed into a given city block, he says.
"People [in the suburbs] are pretty much of the same social class, same social background and so on, which eases interaction between people," Filion says. "At the other extreme, you can have a whole bunch of people living in a condo, but you've got old people, young people, people in between. You won't have that much interaction because of the differences."
Brueckner says the UC Irvine study accounted for differences in social class, family structure and other factors, and found that people are still friendlier in the suburbs. The results suggest society needs to re-think some received wisdom about the evils of suburbia, he says, but other criticisms about the loss of green space and the costs of commuting still stand.
"All the other arguments against urban sprawl are still there, it just removes this particular one from the list when you're complaining," he says.
Lyn Scott has lived in Steveston for the last three decades and watched as it grew from a sleepy village to "the 'in' place for young families to live," a 30-minute drive from downtown Vancouver.
She is now the block captain of a neighbourhood watch program that welcomes new residents, keeps tabs on crime and hosts an annual block party. While most young families who move into her neighbourhood are surprised to find such quaint niceties, some have a hard time adjusting to the suburban scene, she says.
"Some of them are a little bit cynical and say, 'Oh, that makes me feel really safe, having a block watch,' " Scott says in a faux-sarcastic tone. "But they come around."
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
Louroz
study: Those living outside the cities have more friends and know their neighbours
Published: Saturday, November 11, 2006
If absence makes the heart grow fonder in far-flung romances, it seems a bit of elbow-room does the same for neighbours.
A new study says that people who live in sprawling suburban areas have more friends, better community involvement and more frequent contact with their neighbours than urbanites who are wedged in side-by-side.
The results challenge the accepted idea that suburban life is socially alienating -- a notion that's inspired everything from the Academy Award-winning American Beauty to Harvard professor Robert Putnam's book Bowling Alone.
The study, released by the University of California at Irvine, found that for every 10 per cent decrease in population density, the chances of people talking to their neighbours weekly increases by 10 per cent, and the likelihood they belong to hobby-based clubs jumps by 15 per cent.
"We found that interaction goes down as population density goes up. So, turning it around, it says that interaction is higher where densities are lower," says Jan Brueckner, an economics professor at UC Irvine who led the study. "What that means is suburban living promotes more interaction than living in the central city."
The results are no surprise to Fayrouz Costa, who has lived in -- and loved -- the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, Ont., for the last 20 years. She has two young children and is constantly socializing with her neighbours, who take turns watching over each other's children while they play outside and house-sitting for those on vacation.
"You couldn't give me a free house in the city and say, 'Move here.' Honestly, I could never do it," she says. "There's just too many people, people are too close to each other and people are not friendly. I'm a chatterer and people don't chat in the city."
Costa is a member of her community centre, where she uses the fitness facilities five days a week and knows "almost everyone." She contrasts her lifestyle with that of her sister, who lives and works in Toronto, and concludes that she "would never leave the suburbs."
"People are always in a rush to get where they need to go and they work a lot more," Costa says of life in the city. "A lot of the time in the suburbs, people have families and their life is a little more relaxed."
That "social homogeneity" may partly explain the closeness of neighbours in the suburbs, says Pierre Filion, a professor of urban planning at the University of Waterloo. Young children often act as social catalysts for their parents, and people in the suburbs tend to have more common ground than the diverse lifestyles crammed into a given city block, he says.
"People [in the suburbs] are pretty much of the same social class, same social background and so on, which eases interaction between people," Filion says. "At the other extreme, you can have a whole bunch of people living in a condo, but you've got old people, young people, people in between. You won't have that much interaction because of the differences."
Brueckner says the UC Irvine study accounted for differences in social class, family structure and other factors, and found that people are still friendlier in the suburbs. The results suggest society needs to re-think some received wisdom about the evils of suburbia, he says, but other criticisms about the loss of green space and the costs of commuting still stand.
"All the other arguments against urban sprawl are still there, it just removes this particular one from the list when you're complaining," he says.
Lyn Scott has lived in Steveston for the last three decades and watched as it grew from a sleepy village to "the 'in' place for young families to live," a 30-minute drive from downtown Vancouver.
She is now the block captain of a neighbourhood watch program that welcomes new residents, keeps tabs on crime and hosts an annual block party. While most young families who move into her neighbourhood are surprised to find such quaint niceties, some have a hard time adjusting to the suburban scene, she says.
"Some of them are a little bit cynical and say, 'Oh, that makes me feel really safe, having a block watch,' " Scott says in a faux-sarcastic tone. "But they come around."
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
Louroz