Word: suburbias
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...recognize patterns among the characteristics of suburbs covered by the survey data, the Harris staff discovered that the interplay of two particular factors -income level and rate of growth-can be used to classify suburbs in four groups. The result is a new four-way typology of American suburbia. Each kind of suburb has distinctive traits, though no single suburb precisely fits the Harris statistical model (see boxes). The four composite types: AFFLUENT BEDROOM. Of the four classes of suburb in the Harris catalogue, this is the only one that comes close to fitting the stereotypical conception...
...earn their living close to home. This tends to be upward-mobile blue collar country, where incomes are substantially lower than in the affluent suburbs: only 9% of the residents earn $15,000 or more. Still, four out of five are homeowners. Protestants predominate even more than in wealthier suburbia: they make up 64% of the population, and there are practically no Jews. Most townspeople claim a Democratic political preference, but Nixon won handily here in 1968. Interestingly, the Wallace vote-11%-was no greater than in the Affluent Bedroom communities. Exactly half of the residents rate their town above...
...that they ruefully admit is not always realized. Suburban teen-agers are impressively unhappy with their surroundings: nearly three-fifths are "often bored," and 43% say that they would like to live somewhere else when they are no longer dependent on their parents. At least among the offspring of suburbia, the age of ecology has modified the urbanizing tradition that led their ambitious parents to the big city to seek their fortune. Of the kids who want to live elsewhere, more than half-54%-would prefer a more rural to a more urban setting. Says David Riggs, 16, of Virginia...
...increasing self-sufficiency and sense of satisfaction, there is a notably less cheery underside to suburban life. Many have found that suburbia shares the same problems as the cities, though possibly less severely. Beyond taxes, the complaints of suburbia make a litany that any city dweller would find familiar...
MORES AND MORALS. Despite occasional flurries that make headlines, sex education in the schools is not an urgent issue in suburbia: 78% are for it, though almost half-45%-do not even know whether their schools teach it or not. As for the stereotype of suburban swingers, suburbanites are not convinced: 86% feel that most wives in the community are faithful to their husbands, and 79% believe that most husbands reciprocate. Teen-agers reject premarital sex, 56% to 31%. Only 8% of suburbanites report that their neighbors do a lot of partying; 58% say that they personally go to parties...