The Edward J. Blakely Center for Sustainable Suburban Development at the University of California Riverside is a multidisciplinary institution dedicated to research and policy analysis on all of the issues that confront growing suburbs around the world.

Whether it is the spreading housing tracts of U.S. cities, the new ring roads around Beijing, the strip shopping centers appearing near Paris, or the makeshift dwellings at the edge of Mumbai, the suburbs are the locus of population growth around the world. Their growth provides opportunities even as their spread eats into farm land and open space. They require new political and social institutions, and they demand that culture adapt to them. They place pressure on such social systems as education, transportation and government, while also affecting air, land and water resources. The quality of life for citizens can be improved by suburban life, but it can also be degraded.  Wise management of these issues can only be based on solid data and thoughtful analysis.

The Center takes advantage of its location in the midst of one of the fastest growing suburban areas in the world, and on a university campus with diverse intellectual resources. Faculty members from various disciplines bring their differing methodologies and knowledge to bear on the complex problems of suburbs, and on ways to solve or ameliorate those problems.

Two overarching questions about suburbs will inform the Center’s work.

Can suburbs be sustainable, not merely in resources but as places where people will prosper and want to live?

What are the existing, and the possible, political, economic, institutional, social and cultural relationships among suburbs, and between suburbs and the center of their metropolitan areas?   

More specifically, the Center’s research agenda focuses on five main areas:

1)  Environmental and Resources Stewardship – Environmental and resource concerns affect not only suburbs at the edge of the metropolitan fringe, but older suburbs struggling to maintain and enhance the quality of life for their residents. Their size and growth means they have major effects on global environmental trends as well as on the natural environment immediately adjacent to the suburb. Air must be breathable and water drinkable, and there must be enough water for both jobs and consumers. Species must be protected. Energy must be made available and that energy used efficiently. Suburbs ability to handle natural disasters must be assessed. New paradigms must be created and tested for maintaining the health of the environment while meeting the needs of human beings for shelter, work, shopping and entertainment.

2)  The Built Environment and Infrastructure Systems – The suburbs are human artifacts and thus should be planned to meet all human needs. Research in this area involves questions of real estate development, planning, design, architecture, neighborhoods and land use. It involves such basic infrastructure concerns as transportation, water, sewers, public safety, utilities and parks, and covers their design, their financing and the political approval process. The research examines the financing of such projects, both in a fiscal sense and as a way of changing behavior. Research in this area also will examine the social and cultural systems of the suburbs, including education, and how these systems interact with the other spheres.

3)  Social and Cultural Environments — Increasingly, new immigrants and minorities are either starting out in suburbs or moving to suburbs. This change in the settlement pattern of minority groups is creating new social and political challenges for suburbs. In some cases, the suburban system is reflecting racial and income segregation mirroring urban socio-economic structures. But, in other cases, a remarkable amount of integration is occurring. In addition, a vast array of religions and cultural institutions are finding their way into the suburban landscape. Very little beyond demographic, descriptive work has been done on the dynamics of minority, immigrant and indigenous cultures, such as Native Americans, establishing themselves in the suburbs. The Center will undertake policy oriented research designed to assist in better understanding and managing the new suburban socio-political tapestry.

4)  Comparative Suburban Analysis – The research in this area seeks to develop empirical data on the performance of suburban areas, and then to compare that data. This involves basic data such as demographics and economic measures, but also seeks to find or create data on such social measures as health, education and crime. It will also seek to develop metrics which measure such issues as sustainability and quality of life. It seeks to create benchmarks and indices which can throw light on the future, provide guidance on progress and allow comparison across geographical areas. It is intended to join key data elements to the real world concerns of eating, drinking, breathing and raising a successful family.

5)  Regional connections and institutions – Suburbs exist in a complex political, economic and social environment. While collectively they dominate a region’s population and economy, their ability to influence policy is usually much less than the central city which dominates the region. Research in this area focuses on the politics, economics, social and cultural factors in regional planning. For example, what policy approaches lead to a vibrant public cultural environment?  How are jobs, income, housing and school quality distributed around a region, and how can that distribution be changed? There are also social and cultural issues to be studied. Suburbs have their own culture, an eclectic mix of local influences and the national, often negative, image of the suburbs. Research in this area focuses on these influences, their roots, their fungibility and how the image affects policy.