Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Suburban Communities

Today for Social Studies we learned about suburban communities.  The town we studied was Levittown, NY.  It was once a potato farm.  The Levitt family bought the land and started construction.  They included schools, parks and churches in their plans.  When they were done, there were more than 17,000 homes in Levittown, which was originally called Island Trees.  I learned that highways were one of the primary reasons that suburban communities grew.  People would not move there if they could not get to and from their jobs in the city quickly.  They were designed around people owning cars so sometimes suburban communities are not very good for getting around in if you don't own a car.  This picture is an aerial photograph of a part of Levittown.  It kind of looks like a circuit board to me.

4 comments:

Diane Zemke said...

It's interesting that you think it looks like a circuit board. I agree and wonder why that is the case. Maybe it has something to do with how to pack things into spaces.

We lived an in actual suburb once, near Chicago. We lived in the old part of town where the streets were in a grid. In the new part of town, everything was curvy and it was like being in a maze. It was hard to figure out how to get places since it seemed like there were very few intersections.

Did they tell you Levittown was the first planned community? Other towns just kind of happened, but Levittown was laid out ahead of time.

Jonathan said...

Hey Grandma,

I did know that about Levittown. Also did you know that it's Original name wasn't Levittown. It was called Island Trees first. But then they renamed it after the Levitt's.

Also did you know that Longview is the first planned city of the twentieth century? I personally think they should have spent more time planning some of it. Man I wish I was back in Spokane.

Diane Zemke said...

We miss you. It hasn't snowed yet. It's just been cold and sunny.

Jonathan said...

Same here grandma, and no good biscuits either :(