Once the American Dream

Bernadette Hanlon is a research analyst at the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Her research interests include suburban growth and decline, urban policy and planning, and state and local government.

• List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgments 1. Once the American Dream 2. Decline Is a New Suburban Reality 3. Defining Inner-Ring Suburbs 4. Forces Shaping Inner-Ring Suburbs 5. Sidestepping Inner-Ring Suburbs 6. Declining Inner-Ring Suburbs 7. Suburbs in Crisis 8. Different Types of Inner-Ring Suburbs 9. Fixing Inner-Ring suburbs 10. Conclusion Appendix References Index

“An engaging contemporary study of twenty years of suburban change in the U.S., Once the American Dream is more comprehensive than earlier works on suburbs, focusing on differences among suburbs rather than the city/suburban differences. The breadth of stories told against the analysis helps provide good insights and makes the national picture more local to readers. Hanlon ably demonstrates how to apply useful methodologies to the study of contemporary metropolitan geography.”-David L. Phillips, Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, University of Virginia