People moved to the burbs because federal and state policy systematically subsidized and encouraged it.
William Whyte wrote about the genesis of suburbia. It was not really a mass movement of preference. Businesses and jobs moved, the infrastructure moved, and people followed.
Also, machine politics and race conflict was destroying the cities, as the article alludes. Suburbia is much more about racial apartheid than is commonly acknowledged. The most functional urban cities, such as Portland, just happen to be the most white.
> tax-sucking mass-transit projects.
What does he think suburbia is? It's a massive government subsidized experiment that started in the 40s. Without federal highways and the systematic subsidization of house construction and ownership suburbia wouldn't exist. The American development patterns of the preceding 50 years would probably have continued.
