Community and place even more important in the Internet age

Focus turns to urban centers

Wendy Natt, May 22, 09.

Demographic and market trends indicate that more people are giving up the dream of owning a place in the distant suburbs in favor of living close to city centers and downtowns, according to an article on MSNBC’s “The Big Money.”

The article’s author, Jonathan Weber, suggests several reasons for the shift from fringe to centers:

Empty-nesters don’t need the big house and don’t want to mow the big lawn. High gas prices are making long commutes less practical. The urban renaissance in big cities ranging from New York to Portland, Ore. - and the revival of charming, vibrant downtowns in small cities like Missoula, Mont. - is making the bedroom suburb and the strip mall seem positively dull.

Relative to the fringe, Weber predicts that most downtown retail businesses will continue to prosper, while the benefits of mall shopping in the distant suburbs - ample parking, lots of drive-by traffic, newer buildings - will lose importance with time as the Internet replaces many retail outlets, and as more residents and business moves toward city or town centers.

With the internet increasingly pervading our interactions at work, Weber notes that it is perhaps counterintuitive but true that human beings now crave more than ever less isolated, more connected lives and “real-world” social interactions in their homes and neighborhoods. “The Internet, paradoxically,” Weber says, “is making place even more important.”

(Photo credit: bengarland)