The night-walkers of Uganda

347

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There goes the neighbourhood: 
mortgage crisis sees suburbs slump 
As the banks foreclose on loans across the US, 
worried householders watch their tree-lined 
streets change
Dan Glaister in Elk Grove 
April 28, 2008 
Susan McDonald drives a nice car, wears 
smart clothes and during office hours is the 
neighbourhood personal banker. But after 
work McDonald has another life. It is then 
that the mother of three children turns into a 
neighbourhood organizer, encouraging people in 
her community to fight for a way of life that many 
believe is in danger.
McDonald is president of the Franklin Reserve 
Neighbourhood Association in the city of Elk 
Grove, 15 miles south of the Californian capital, 
Sacramento. Franklin Reserve is a collection of 
large houses on cul-de-sacs with unusual names 
– Snow Leopard Circle, Fox Trotter Way. Here, 
McDonald and her neighbours are fighting for 
their suburban way of life.
The mortgage foreclosure crisis, along with rising 
fuel prices and other factors such as more people 
moving back to towns and cities, could mean the 
end for the suburbs. Newspapers have already 
started talking about ‘slumburbia’.
At Franklin Reserve, a walled community of 
15,000 people, there are signs that all is not well. 
Some front lawns are overgrown and untidy, 
and there are many ‘for sale’ signs and signs 
offering houses for rent. On Caprezzo Way 
a five-bedroom, three-bathroom house, with 
swimming pool, is on sale for $550,000, probably 
$100,000 less than a year ago. Across the street 
another sign is taped to the gate of a house on 
Cortino Way. It says ‘Notice to quit,’ and tells the 
occupants, who couldn’t pay their mortgage, that 
they have three days to leave.
Susan McDonald moved to Elk Grove four years 
ago. She wanted a new home in a new location, 
with good schools and a friendly, family-oriented 
community – she wanted the perfect suburban 
life. But when the mortgage crisis started, 
McDonald began to notice changes.
“I took my kids for a walk in the park and 
saw some graffiti,” she says. Soon after, 
McDonald and seven others decided to start a 
neighbourhood association. Today, the group has 
400 members, a lawn-mowing task force, and a 
lively online message board.
But long grass is only one of suburbia’s 
problems, according to Christopher Leinberger. 
He says that the end of suburbia is in sight.
“For 50 years we left the city and headed to the 
suburbs. Now people are moving back to the 
cities, helped by the high gas prices, currently $4 
per gallon gas.”
The move back to the towns and cities has also 
been helped by other changes, says Leinberger. 
People are having children later in life, so they 
don’t need a suburban house with five bedrooms 
and a huge garden. Many house buyers also 
prefer to be able to walk to where they want to 
go; in suburbia they have to drive everywhere. 
“19% of household costs go on transport. 
A hundred years ago it was only 3%,” says 
Leinberger. “At some point this country has to get 
serious about reducing carbon emissions.” 
But what worries urban theorists is what might 
happen to places like Franklin Reserve when 
people can no longer afford to live there. “These 
areas are custom-made for people to live in,” 
says Leinberger. “It’s not easy to turn them into 
shops or offices or hotels.”