Les Etats-Unis connaissent actuellement une véritable révolution urbaine qui se traduit par un fort déclin tant sur le plan social que démographique des banlieues - voir "America Urbanism, the silent revolution" et "American suburbia : the next slum ?"
Et on ne peut pas dire que cela soit une surprise, tant tous les éléments de ce basculement étaient là depuis 2008 - voir "Quand tout un modèle s'écroule ..."
- la montée de la pauvreté (voir sur ce sujet la fin du post).
- le déclin de l'utilisation de l'automobile, notamment du fait de la hausse du prix de l'essence.
Un article paru très récemment dans le New-York Times sous le titre "A walkable, convenient place", expliquait les conséquences de cette mutation sur l'aménagement des villes américaines, tant dans leur partie centrale que dans les suburbs :
"Walking isn’t just good for you. It has become an indicator of your socioeconomic status. Until the 1990s, exclusive suburban homes that were accessible only by car cost more, per square foot, than other kinds of American housing. Now, however, these suburbs have become overbuilt, and housing values have fallen. Today, the most valuable real estate lies in walkable urban locations. Many of these now pricey places were slums just 30 years ago." (...) "Demand for walkable urban space extends beyond city centers to suburbs; in metropolitan Washington, more than half of the walkable places are in the suburbs, like Reston Town Center, 22 miles from downtown Washington; Ballston, in Arlington County; and Silver Spring, in suburban Maryland. Residents can easily get to grocery stores, cafes, libraries and work by rail transit, biking and walking. Why is there an urbanization of the suburbs? Some baby boomers want to sell their large suburban houses and move to a walkable urban place but stay close to friends and family. Young families want the advantages of walkable urban life but also high-quality suburban schools. This trend is about both the revitalization of center cities and the urbanization of the suburbs."
L'article était accompagné du tableau ci-dessous titré "A Life of Walking Vs. Driving".
Et pour ceux qui veulent aller plus loin que ces tableaux, et découvrir à quoi peuvent ressembler les nouveaux visages de la pauvreté américaine, je ne peux que les inciter à lire l'excellent "Days of Destruction Day of Revolt " de Chris Hedges et Joe Sacco.
"The book starts in the western plains, where Native Americans were sacrificed in the giddy race for land and empire. It moves to the old manufacturing centers and coal fields that fueled the industrial revolution, but now lie depleted and in decay. It follows the steady downward spiral of American labor into the nation's produce fields and ends in Zuccotti Park where a new generation revolts against a corporate state that has handed to the young an economic, political, cultural and environmental catastrophe."
