Chapter 2 is entitled ‘A suburban state of mind – suburbia and the private life’

Simon begins by reminding us that suburbia used to be the domain of the privileged few who could move out and escape the city, but more recently suburban living has become synonomous with “dull monotony, political conformity and cultural inferiority”. I must admit it is easy to speak disparagingly of suburbia with its blandness and often shallow approach to life. And yet, part of the reason I find myself so intrigued by this subject, is that this is where the vast majority of us live.

For better or worse we have chosen to live in the suburbs when we could make other choices… Which makes me wonder, do those who lament suburbia, really do so, or does it just make us sound cool if we complain?…

Having said that, there is ‘suburbia and suburbia’. The 3 different suburbs I have spent most of my life in are vastly different. Scarborough has almost an urban feel with the redevelopment that has taken place, the crowded unit developments along the beachfront and the diverse kinds of people living there. By contrast Lesmurdie is the last suburb before you hit bush and for that reason feels semi rural in places. Ironically it is much closer to the city than where we are now in Brighton, but the landscape says ‘country’. Lesmurdie has something of a village feel but it is extremely homogenous in population as well as having a vibe of superiority at times. That might be the wrong word (and I’m sure some Lesmurdieites reading this won’t like it described that way), but I think there is an air about the place that stands apart from the rest of the city. Then there’s Brighton (actual suburb name is Butler) that is a new estate and brings with it all the energy and dramas of that scenario. Each has its beauties and challenges.

Simon writes about how privacy has become a primary concern for suburbanites. He says ‘the critics argue that we’ve gradually moved from a collective privacy to an individual privacy or what’s been dubbed privatopia’. In our own estate we see some attempts to reverse this with much land given to common areas and community events being provided by the developer. Streets are zoned in older grid like fashion and footpaths are everywhere. This is by contrast with the older suburbs next door where a maze of convoluted cul de sacs mean that you are only ever going to see your immediate neighbours and any passing traffic is likely accidental or unwanted. These suburbs have been acknowledged as ‘design errors’ and it seems unlikely we will be going ack there again!

As mentioned before, the front porch has been replaced by the alfresco area and now entertaining is done out back. ‘Privatopia’ is a good word for how we live. Given you can get home from work open the remote garage door and enter the house by the garage entry door you really can avoid ever having to mix with neighbours.

On the issue of privatopia Simon writes: “Indeed there has been a definite shift from the house in community to the house as private territory. According to the critics, the result is a suburban culture that values the defining of personal boundaries over the nurturing of relationships.”

What’s also interesting is the size and type of houses being built. Clive Hamilton in Affluenza writes that the average Oz home has increased 30% in the last 20 years. It just seems foolish to build a home under 200sqm now! I mean if you go to sell it, who would but it?!! This was a real consideration for us as we built up here. We wanted to make sure we built something that someone would want at a later date. (This economic / resale issue makes the idea of ‘out front’ living areas problematic.)

The various covenants that accompany new estates have the effect of limiting people’s creativity and innovation. Houses all must look alike to some degree and part of that is driven by economic factors. But it does make for a rather drab streetscape. One of the suburbs near us is ‘Quinns Rock’ an area that used to be a holiday village but with development catching up it has been swallowed up into suburbia. There is now ‘old Quinns’ and ‘new Quinns’, with the ‘old’ being a wonderfully diverse collection of houses from the 60’s onwards usually on big blocks of land.

I noticed this house the other day and really liked its vibe, but there’s no way we could build it in Butler…

I wonder what it does to a community when people are compelled to live by certain covenants and required to conform to various standards? I wonder if it actually drains some of the creativity out of the people? Then again most are too busy to be creative anyway.

I’d like to move across to Old Quinns with its eclectic assortment of houses, winding streets and rural vibe, but then that’d mean leaving our own backyard…