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JOHN BROWN is the editor of theslowhome.com and the founder of the Slow Home Movement. He is a registered architect, real estate broker and Professor of Architecture at the University of Calgary.
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Gas Prices Apply Brakes To Suburban Migration
Aug 24, 2008
By Eric M. Weiss from the Washington Post
That 1958 brick rambler inside the Beltway is suddenly looking a lot better to Dawn and Jeff Schaefer, who are buying their first house in Northern Virginia.
Not too long ago, they were looking farther out -- for a newer house, a bigger yard and all the amenities. But no more. "You get less house and property for the same price, but we're willing to make that sacrifice to save on gas prices and commuting costs," Dawn Schaefer said.
Cheap oil, which helped push the American Dream away from the city center, isn't so cheap anymore. As more and more families reconsider their dreams, land-use experts are beginning to ask whether $4-a-gallon gas is enough to change the way Americans have thought for half a century about where they live.
"We've passed that tipping point," U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said.
Since the end of World War II, government policy has funded and encouraged the suburban lifestyle, subsidizing highways while starving mass transit and keeping gas taxes much lower than in some other countries. Read the rest of the article.
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We believe that our homes and neighborhoods should be healthy, vibrant places that uplift the spirit and gracefully fit our needs. We call for an end to poor construction, bad design, misleading marketing, unfair lending practices and environmental neglect in the housing industry. We acknowledge our collective responsibility to create CLOSE, SIMPLE, LIGHT places to live that leave a positive legacy for future generations.
provides design focused information that homeowners can use to improve the quality of how and where they live. It takes its name from the slow food movement which arose as a reaction to the processed food industry. The sprawl of cookie cutter housing that surrounds us is like fast food - standardized, homogenous, and wasteful. It contributes to a too fast life that is bad for us, our cities, and the environment. In the same way that slow food raises awareness of the food we eat and how these choices affect our lives, Slow Home empowers you to take more control of your home and improve the quality of how you live while reducing your environmental impact and futureproofing the long term investment value of your home.
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Option 1 is expensive and not always an option.
Option 2 (moving work closer to where you live) is not as difficult as you might think.
Most office workers can work remotely. There is a new option available to office workers around the country who are tired of the high cost of commuting. Remote Office Centers allow people to work from a location near where they live.
Remote Office Centers lease individual offices, internet and phone systems to workers from different companies in shared centers located around the suburbs.
The concept is new, but it is starting to catch on. Remote Office Centers can be found by searching the internet for "Remote Office Centers" in quotes.
Before you pick up and move to some urban location that costs twice what you paid for your suburban house, you might want to check into the possibility of working remotely. If your boss is worried about you sleeping on the couch when you are supposed to be working, you can assure him or her that you will be working in a real office with professional facilities in a location outside the home. This is what you get when you work out of a Remote Office Center.
Posted by aullman on August 28, 2008 at 09:37 PM MDT #
Posted by John Brown, Editor on August 30, 2008 at 08:40 AM MDT #