Ruhou Gao: Neither Sprawl, Nor Traditional

(*I must say, uploading pictures here is a PAIN. Click on the pictures to have a better view)

Yantai is the name of the city. With the Pacific Ocean on one side of the town, and small hills on the other, it makes a perfect place for people to live. I spent my first 17 years living there.
(Try to follow the red circle, that's where the city is)














Like everything else that is happening in China right now, the speed at which cities grow has exploded in the past few years. As the downtown gets more and more crowded, people are making their ways to the suburban. My family moved to the east of the city five years ago. With a commute about six miles to downtown, it takes only ten minutes by car, or twenty minutes by public transportation, to get to work or school.



(How they planned the community)











Unlike the neighborhoods where Patrick and Jo come from, our neighborhood, although located in suburban, functions as a living community per se. The name of the community, Huanghai (the Yellow Sea) City Garden, gives you a better idea about what the community is like. We have easy access (that means in walking distance) to all living necessities: grocery stores, mini marts, recreation centers, tennis courts, schools, restaurants, hairdressing saloon, you name it. The closest bus stop is within one hundred yards from our building. Buses can take you into the city at a price below twenty cents.


Instead of each family having their own house, we live in buildings that are six to twelve stories high. Usually one building consists of three to four units, and there are two households on each floor of a unit. In our community, we have people from all backgrounds and all income levels. However, people in the same building usually have similar backgrounds (e.g. people in my building are mostly from my dad’s bank).


(Some buildings in our community. Our home is in the building on the right)

As more and more people leave the downtown area, problems start to emerge, too. The traffic has been getting worse during the past few years, especially during the rush hour. Pollutions are being made because of the increase of cars. Parking in the community can become an issue for the families that didn’t purchase a parking space. But put aside all these problems, our neighborhood is a pleasant places to live.

Patrick Barron

I am Patrick Barron from Annandale, Virginia. I live in a suburb of Washington D.C. My neighborhood fits the definition of suburban sprawl as defined in Suburban Nation. There are a few main roads that lead to the points of interests such as shopping centers, schools, and highways. The neighborhood is made up of many winding and intersecting roads full of similar housing. The houses are single family homes that have the same basic architectural design. The income level of all the neighborhood residents are similar and there is a mixture of different ages and ethnicities. People usually keep to themselves so the neighborhood isn't really a tight-knit community. Although most residents have their own cars for transportation, there is public transportation available such as buses and subways.

Personally I like the neighborhood but can see the angle that Duany, Plater-Zyberk, and Speck are coming from. I have sat in traffic before and have seen out congested it can get. On the other hand I also like the privacy my family and I are able to achieve by owning our own home and yard. I like the idea of living in one place and the schools and shopping centers in another. Everything is withing biking distance for me so I don't have to use the car every time I need something. I don't think my neighborhood can be made any more livable, I like it the way it is.

Salutations--From OSS!

OSS--Olde Savannah Square.

This is the name of the suburban subdivision I grew up in. I never knew anything much beyond the friendly, peaceful borders of my neighborhood. It was a tranquil place full of homes, roads, more homes, and more roads--that all look exactly alike.

Redolent of Dystopian societies, such as Airstrip One of Orwell's 1984 and especially Camazotz of L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, I found myself lost during my first few weeks of moving in. There are no trees and little vegetation scattered throughout the monotonous green lawns. Other than the occasional bush and shrubbery, the only geographical landmarks that help one navigate are the lifeless street signs. Only after living there for a couple years can one successfully find his way around by memorizing the contour of the landscape. Yes--I know my way around my neighborhood not due to memorable landmarks, but by rote memorization of the hills and angles of the roads. Rather than Oglethorpe Lane, I would call it "the big ass hill" that gave me enough road burns and scrapes in my adventurous scooter years.

Like Camazotz, my neighborhood is repetitive, homogenous, and outright banal. There is no way you can tell the difference from one house to another--one lawn from another--one street from another--aside from perhaps the mailbox number or the conspicuous lousy yard upkeep (i.e. when someone forgets to mow the lawn for a month, the yard littered with canine excrement, which you avoid at all costs, etc.).

The homes are all double-story brick houses with a generous patch of green space, a driveway and garage, and a backyard porch. Some houses are pink, but the rest are red. The houses line up next to each other with little space in between. Imagine an aisle in a grocery store with the goods sitting next to each other side by side. There is no variety or diversity in OSS except the people. Although the physical nature of the neighborhood is an eye bore, the residents are mixed together ethnically. There are high concentrations of Asian, Hispanic, and African middle-class families, with one or two kids each. However, there is little to do and practically nothing to see in the neighborhood itself. So in order to do anything worthwhile, you need to get out. And to get out, you must have a personal means of transportation--a car--and there is no alternative.

For the most part, families usually keep to themselves. There is a general attitude of "I'm willing, but I don't want to be the first". Maybe the ethnical diversity created a boundary that served to most people as an area outside of their comfort zone--with cultural differences such as language especially.

It is a prime example of suburban sprawl and poor use of land in building dull environments that contribute little to nostalgia. I am a very visual person, and I like to reminisce of places where I spent a lot of time by visualizing the surrounding landscape and buildings. But it's hard to do that for your home when everything looks the same. Most of my memorable memories reside in other places, like my church, that are unique in geographical and man-made features.

Sprawl isn't all that bad. My neighborhood, although mundane, has some benefits as a sprawl neighborhood. The suburban life is quiet, peaceful, and safe. Most people are relatively friendly because they are in the same boat as you, thus I had lots of neighborhood friends that went to the same neighborhood school as me.

The main complaint I voice in sprawl is the lack of originality and flavor. I would like where I live to be unique in its own accord. I would like it to have its own unique geography--natural landmarks, diverse and appealing buildings, and inspiring constructs such as memorias, monuments, etc. The most important aspect of any location for me however, is the landscape. I remember best the shady spots underneath trees where you nap and read, the fallen logs that bridge over small creeks, the undulating hills that protuberate from an otherwise flat earth, the natural trails that meander through dense forests of red, green, and yellow...

Such a place that fits this description well is Georgia Tech--my current school. The buildings are all unique in their own fashion. There are many man-made structures like fountains, monuments, and statues that help guide the way as well. And although it may not be the greenest campus, it certainly has more trees than my suburban neighborhood does. Most important of all for a me as a student, however, is the availability of public transportation. The GT Stinger bus helps me get around without having to rely on a car--which can be both a joy as well as a burden. You do not need a car in a well-developed neighborhood like Georgia Tech. I can walk to most places I need to go--or take the bus if it's farther away. That makes life in a community so much more social and interesting.

I agree that traditional neighborhoods are better developed than suburban sprawl-produced neighborhoods. And by "better", I mean that the land replaced by human construction is utilized in a more efficient and aesthetically pleasing manner. Why would you want to live in a lackluster subdivision anyways? Especially when humans are most beautiful through their diversity!

Unity should not exist through uniformity.

- J O

(Jo Kim)

OSS and surrounding area:

(I spy with my eyes...something special? It's hard to play this game when everything is the same!)

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