Extracted text

OCR Page 1 of 12
How Suburban Design Is Failing Teen-Agers Page 1 of 6 Living The New York Times ON THE WEB ÀI DININGIHOMEISTYLE Home Site Index Site Search Forums Archives Marketplace Wine 300 What Find 1 to pai May 6, 1999 meal: AH Pepp Lem How Suburban Design Is Failing Teen- Oyst Agers Half Gril with By WILLIAM L. HAMILTON Cust Win A A S quickly as the word "alienation" can be attached to the Win idea of youth, the image of isolation can be attached to a You picture of the suburbs. Is there an unexplored relationship between them? It is a question parents and urban planners alike are raising in the aftermath of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Crea Colo. Perso At a time when the renegade e Wir sprawl of suburbs Win themselves is being intensely Festi scrutinized, the troubling New Sear vision of a nation re- Add pioneered in vast tracts of disconnected communities The has produced uneasy Cell: discussion about the Jim Richardson Upc psychological disorientation FAR AS THE EYE CAN BUY Highlands Valu they might house. Ranch, a development south of Denver, has Cust its own ZIP code. Does it nurture community? Cor Created as safe havens from Win the sociological ills of cities, suburbs now stand accused of creating Win their own environmental diseases: lack of character and the Win grounding principles of identity, lack of diversity or the tolerance it engenders, lack of attachment to shared, civic ideals. Increasingly, AD the newest, largest suburbs are being criticized as landscapes scorched by unthoughtful, repetitious building, where, it has been suggested, the isolations of larger lots and a car-based culture may lead to disassociation from the reality of contact with other people. Designers of the newest American suburbs say they have largely ignored or avoided one volatile segment of the population - teen- http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/style/suburbs.html 5/6/99