I live in San Francisco, an amazing city that packs a million people into a seven square mile peninsula. This past weekend I traveled to Wisconsin for a family reunion and spent some time at the house where I grew up, where my mother and father still live, a house nestled in the classic Midwestern suburbs: a subdivided farm turned into rows of houses with yards, and about a mile away, a few strip malls and other kinds of developments. Just close enough to walk to if you really want to, but not an enjoyable walk because of all the traffic from people who don’t understand why they shouldn’t take a car (or pickup) everywhere.

This is not an article to slam the suburbs- they are a distinctly American creation grown out of the innovation of the automobile, the successful economic aggression of corporate America, and the spirit of the post WWII spirit that gave the baby boomers something to make bigger and better.
It seems like a strange way to construct anything- especially after being used to living in the city, with its corner stores, restaurants and shops all sprinkled within walking distance of homes and residential areas. The idea of driving to a store is often more of a hassle than walking there. And, more importantly, you just don’t have to because the store or school or restaurant is close by.

I was talking with my family about foreclosures and houses that were for sale and what they thought the future of the suburbs would be. Not in an apocalyptic, we’re running out of gas way, but more of a suburban design, how do we want to live in the future kind of way. My family isn’t changing how they do things anytime soon- nor are any of the families around them. But the suburbs and sprawl of big cities, especially those in the Midwest hurt badly by the recession, may change around them.

I asked my family what they thought of the community pitching in to buy one foreclosed home, say $1,000 or $2,000 per family, to have a garden or a produce store in the middle of their community, where it would get delivered everyday, even if that delivery came from the grocery store just 2 miles away- imagine how much time and driving that would save everyone in the neighborhood. High school kids could be the delivery people for some pocket money even.

They looked at me like I was crazy. The thought of having a produce store in the middle of the suburb was a little too much, and then I got an earful about how much it would cost to keep up a facility like that. Perhaps and maybe.

But it looks like Cleveland is considering doing something just like that- with a 10% population drop over the last decade and thousands of foreclosures and no rise in the housing market on the horizon, Cleveland is considering demolishing the buildings and planting orchards in the middle of the city- sounds pretty amazing to me, even kind of European- nice job, Cleveland.