Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Great Dispersal (contd.)
More and more professional sports teams in the U.S. now take on the names of their home state rather that their home town. I believe that the California Angels were the first, although they are now the Anaheim Angels, as that place has achieved some name recognition. Nevertheless, the Arizona Cardinals and the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins and many others are located in places that are suburban/exurban enough that a state identification makes sense -- part of the Great Dispersal.
David Brooks' appellation supersedes Joel Garreau's Edge Cities because there is now dispersal away from these, with smaller new sub-centers emerging in essentially unpredictable patterns.
Great Dispersal evidence is all around, including the demise of the idea of one old downtown "Chinatown". Rather, "For Asians in U.S., Mini-Chinatowns Sprout in Suburbia" as discussed in today's WSJ. The story notes, "Rice-loving shoppers from the suburbs are driving to about 70 stand-alone Asian shopping centers on the coasts -- not only in NY and LA, but Seattle, Baltimore and Miami -- and about 50 in such mid-American cities as Denver, Minneapolis and Phoenix."
Evolving lifestyle trends have overwhelmed planners' plodding discussions about how to contain and manage all of this. And they call their task "Smart Growth".
