Help Hard to Get in 'Burbs

The NYT ran two contrasting articles on the NY suburbs this weekend, highlighting the preservation and development plans for Long Island and the difficulty in accessing social services suburbanites have during the recession.  They're worth reading together; L.I. public officials are promising to preserve the cherished single family homes and open spaces of the region, while hard-hit households struggle to find and get to the few shelters, soup kitchens and emergency service providers in the suburbs.  Is this just a discrepancy that improved public transportation could resolve?

One of the major development trends in recent years is transit-oriented development, in which housing and commercial clusters are built up around and with public transit centers, to lessen dependency on cars and create a more walkable, urban lifestyle.  That, along with creating new "downtowns" is in the works on Long Island.  But what do we do about the other 90% of the suburbs, by L.I. officials estimates, that will not benefit from these redevelopment plans, with scattered residents sequestered in private, sometimes overcrowded homes, trying to pay the utility bills, meet mortgage payments, and put food on the table?  Many of them have no idea where to turn, and social service agencies are working overtime to reach them and keep up with their newfound needs.

There will never be enough money to completely revamp our suburban nation, to lay track and rapid transit bus service through ever expanding suburban regions.  But we could certainly try to increase the political will to improve social service access in teetering middle-class and even affluent communities where poverty is especially hidden and likely particularly shameful in its isolated existence.  Funding for widespread advertising of emergency services, funding for special transportation services like are often offered for the elderly in many communities to bring households to and from soup kitchens or social service agencies, delivery services for food stuffs, on-line access to specialized job search programs that might normally only be offered in a community center - all of these suggestions are practical solutions that public and private funding could support for at least the short-term while possible longer-term fixes such as changes in bus service were considered.

I can't find a link, but studies have been done to show that buying every poor household a car would go a long way to alleviating poverty by providing people with access to far-flung jobs.  American fear of traffic and issues of climate change and the general shock value of handing out cars are several reasons will never see this come to pass.  But as a result, we've sentenced countless households to isolated hardship, tucked away on tidy cul-de-sacs with white picket fences and billowing American flags.

(Photo of Avondale, AZ, by kevindooley)