Fulton to Kotkin: Those Aren't Suburbs

Joel Kotkin's recent LA Times Op-Ed is critiqued by Bill Fulton of the California Planning and Development Report. Fulton argues, the surburban areas Kotkin defends are actually urbanizing, whereas true surbubia show signs of becoming the new slums.

"The inescapable conclusion is that Kotkin is about 30 years out of date. His mind lives in a ring of older suburbs that circle downtown L.A. – Burbank, the San Gabriel Valley, the Westside, Irvine, all built between the 1920s and the 1960s as residential suburbs. Kotkin always casts the "urban v. suburban" battle as a battle between Downtown Los Angeles and these "suburbs".

But Burbank and Westwood are no more suburbs than is Downtown. And the Americana at Brand, Rick Caruso's new mixed-use project in downtown Glendale, may seem manufactured – but it's definitely not suburban. "

Thanks to Brian Holt